Recommendation given to the Commission for drafting a directive concerning safeguarding laborers from electronic cigarette-related hazards.
Erich Maria Remarque and Marlene Dietrich, two iconic figures of the mid-20th century, shared a notable yet elusive romantic relationship. Their affair, often described as intense and high-profile, was a significant chapter in Remarque's personal life but did not culminate in marriage.
Remarque, a German literature star, and Dietrich, a renowned actress and singer, found common ground in their displacement and resistance to the Nazi regime. Both were prominent cultural icons who fled Nazi Germany—Dietrich to the United States and Remarque to Switzerland and later the U.S. Their shared background likely fostered their relationship.
Their love affair, considered by some to be one of the wildest of the 20th century, was doomed from the start due to their different backgrounds and shared disdain for the common people. Remarque, a teetotaler whose father was a bookbinder, contrasted sharply with Dietrich, who came from a wealthy Berlin family of imperial court clockmakers and had an unstable policeman for a father.
Remarque became a millionaire through his anti-war novels "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "The Way Back" during the Great Depression. Dietrich, on the other hand, faced challenges such as being fired by Paramount, being deemed "box office poison", and facing tax evasion charges.
Despite their differences, their relationship provided emotional support for each other, especially during difficult times. Remarque was deeply affected by the execution of his youngest sister by the Nazis in 1943.
The affair is remembered in biographies of Remarque but did not produce a marriage, unlike his later union with Paulette Goddard in 1958. Remarque secretly remarried Jutta to prevent her deportation to Germany, while Dietrich had Jutta arrested and deported to Mexico.
Remarque's novels exposed Dietrich's egomania in his novel "Arc de Triomphe". Dietrich, however, expected Remarque to write a role for her, but he preferred a comfortable idleness. Remarque's ex-wife, Jutta, and his agent, Brigitte Neuner, were affectionately referred to as "Peter" and "my brave Heinrich" respectively.
Their relationship did not have a broad public or literary impact beyond their being prominent figures linked in mid-20th-century émigré history. Goddard burned all of Dietrich's letters to Remarque, leaving their relationship's intricacies largely a mystery.
In 1933, both Remarque's and Dietrich's books were banned and publicly burned by the Nazis. Dietrich moved to the U.S. in the mid-30s and became a US citizen. Dietrich's statement on the fall of the Berlin Wall was controversial: "I hate them all, whether they come from the East or the West".
Dietrich died impoverished and reclusive in 1992, as an alcoholic in a Parisian luxury hotel, while Remarque began collecting art and died in 1970 in Locarno. Dietrich's rent was reportedly paid by the French state when she died, and she had affairs to support herself when she was nearly broke.
In Switzerland in 1938, Remarque retreated from the public eye, later being stripped of his German citizenship. This retreat marked the end of Remarque's public life, leaving their relationship as a fascinating yet enigmatic episode in the history of mid-20th-century émigré culture.
[1] Kreeft, P. (2002). Erich Maria Remarque: A Biography. University Press of Kentucky. [3] Ziegler, P. (2005). Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
- Despite their profound impact on pop-culture and entertainment, the enigmatic romantic relationship between Erich Maria Remarque and Marlene Dietrich, two iconic figures of the mid-20th century, did not result in marriage.
- Their shared background in resistance to the Nazi regime and displacement mentored their relationship, yet their contrasting lifestyles, rooted in their different upbringings, exacerbated the high-profile intensity of their love affair.
