Three Comrades

Remarque worked on the novel “Three Comrades” for almost four years. In 1933 the book “All Quiet on the Western Front”? (Actually: “The Road Back”?—the description says “Pat”—translated as “Pat”) was published— the first step toward the monumental novel. At the time, in Germany Remarque’s books were already on blacklists; they were burned publicly in squares. The writer was crushed by everything happening in Germany in particular and in the world in general. He lived on his villa in Switzerland, drank, was ill, and met with German emigrants. When work on the novel was nearing completion, Remarque received an offer from the German government to return to his homeland. Erich Maria Remarque refused to make peace with the Nazis and went to Paris—for a writers’ congress in exile. The novel was published in 1936 in Denmark, in Danish, and then later appeared in the United States in English (in magazine form). And only in 1938, in Amsterdam, the book “Three Comrades” was released in German.