Editing Erich Maria Remarque (section)

==Early life==
Remarque was born on 22 June 1898, as Erich Paul Remark, to Peter Franz Remark and Anna Maria ({{nee|Stallknecht}}), a working-class [[Roman Catholic]] family in [[Osnabrück]].<ref name="Robertson, William">{{cite web|author=Robertson, William|title=Erich Remarque|url=http://remarque.org/about_remarque.html|access-date=25 June 2009}}</ref> He was never close with his father, a [[bookbinder]], but he was close with his mother and he began using the middle name Maria after World War&nbsp;I in her honor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Berlatsky|first=Noah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5IBmDwAAQBAJ|title=War in Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front|date=2013-02-15|publisher=Greenhaven Publishing LLC|isbn=978-0-7377-6808-4|pages=18|language=en}}</ref> Remarque was the third of four children. His siblings were his older sister Erna, older brother Theodor Arthur (who died at the age of five or six), and younger sister [[Elfriede Scholz|Elfriede]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Erich Maria Remarque Biography|url=https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/erich-maria-remarque-biography|access-date=7 August 2020|website=CliffsNotes}}</ref>

The spelling of his last name was changed to Remarque when he published ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'' in honor of his French ancestors and in order to disassociate himself from his earlier novel ''[[The Dream Room]]'' ({{lang|de|Die Traumbude}}).<ref name="Murdoch" /> His grandfather had changed the spelling from Remarque to Remark in the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Remarque |first=Erich Maria |date=1975 |title=All quiet on the western front |url=https://search.schlowlibrary.org/Record/286293/Description |access-date=2021-08-07 |website=Schlow Centre Region Library |language=English}}</ref> Research{{When|date=August 2021}} by Remarque's childhood and lifelong friend Hanns-Gerd Rabe proved that Remarque had French ancestors{{snd}} his great-grandfather Johann Adam Remarque, who was born in 1789, came from a French family in [[Aachen]].<ref>Landová, Jolana: ''Exil, Krieg und Flucht in Frankreich zwischen 1933 und 1941, dargestellt an ausgewählten Werken deutscher Schriftsteller'', Charles University in Prague, 2009, p.&nbsp;46.</ref> This is contrary to the falsehood{{snd}} perpetuated by Nazi propaganda{{snd}} that his real last name was [[Kramer (surname)|Kramer]] ("Remark" spelled backwards) and that he was Jewish.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Berlatsky|first=Noah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5IBmDwAAQBAJ&q=kramer|title=War in Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front|date=2013-02-15|publisher=Greenhaven Publishing LLC|isbn=978-0-7377-6808-4|pages=42|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Scally|first=Derek|title=An unquiet life – Erich Maria Remarque and 'All Quiet on the Western Front'|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-unquiet-life-erich-maria-remarque-and-all-quiet-on-the-western-front-1.3772230|access-date=2021-08-07|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}</ref>