Even where he looks back, it is the present that he addresses. Wilhelm von Sternburg on Erich Maria Remarque. "Arc de Triomphe" was Remarque's second worldwide success after "All Quiet on the Western Front": With great passion, Remarque tells the story of the doctor Ravic, who emigrates to Paris and experiences the eve of World War II there. Out of love for two women and hatred for a Gestapo agent, the drama of an exile's fate unfolds, reflecting the uprising against the terror of an entire era in its reality. "A chronicle and love rhapsody, known to modern literature by very few." FAZ.