Remarque first met Marlene Dietrich in Berlin in 1930, but only in 1937, during a visit to Venice together, did their intense love affair begin. It lasted until 1940, and their friendship continued thereafter until Remarqueʼs death in 1970. In those four years, Remarque wrote hundreds of love letters to Dietrich, applying to them all his creativity. Thus emerged a love story in letters. The letters are brimming with expressive images, surprising
turns of phrase, hymns of praise to beauty and mythological allusions, and they are marked by a profound sense of humor. Remarqueʼs letters to Marlene Dietrich are moving testimony to a chaotic relationship between two prominent figures of the twentieth century; but they can also be read as a gripping, ultimately tragic love story.
