Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig (November 28, 1881 - February 22, 1942) was an Austrian writer.
Zweig was an extremely well-known writer in the 1930s and 1940s. Since his death in 1942 his work has become much less well-known.
Zweig wrote novels and short stories, but also many biographies, of which his most famous is probably the one of Maria Stuart. This was published in German as Maria Stuart and in English as (The) Queen of Scots or Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. At one time he was published in the English language under the pseudonym "Stephen Branch" (a translation of his real name), when feeling against all things German was running high.
Born in Vienna Zweig was the son of Moritz Zweig, a wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer, and Ida (Brettauer) Zweig, the daughter of an Italian banking family.
Zweig studied philosophy and the history of literature. Being a Jew, he fled Austria in 1934. He was famously defended by the composer Richard Strauss who refused to remove Zweig's name (as librettist) from the posters for the premiere, in Dresden, of his opera Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman). This led to Hitler refusing to come to the premiere as planned; the opera was banned after three performances.
Zweig then lived in England (in Bath and London), before moving to the USA then in 1941 Brazil, where he and his wife Lotte died in a joint suicide in Petropolis, despairing at the future of Europe and its culture. "I think it better to conclude in good time and in erect bearing a life in which intellectual labour meant the purest joy and personal freedom the highest good on earth."
There are significant Zweig collections at the British Library (BL) and at Fredonia College, State University of New York (SUNY). The BL Zweig collection, given to the library by its trustees in May 1986, includes a wide range of items of surprising variety and rarity, among them Mozart's own Verzeichnüss, that is, the composer's own handwritten thematic catalogue of his works.
Zweig and Zionism
Jewish Religion did not play a central role in his education.
"My mother and father were Jewish only through accident of birth," Zweig said later in an interview.
His early life Zweig was devoted to aesthetic matters. Although his essays were accepted by the Zionist leader Theodor Herzl, literary editor of the Neue Freie Presse, Zweig was not attracted to Herzl's Jewish nationalism.
Novels and short stories include:
Biographies include:
Other:
External links
Referenced By
28 November | 28th November | Adultery in literature | Amok | Amuck | Buchmendel | ChesS | Famous Austria people | Famous Austrian people | Famous Austrians | Famous People Who Have Commited Suicide | Famous People Who Have Committed Suicide | German poets | Grigol Robakidze | Letter From An Unknown Woman | List of Austrians | List of Famous Jews | List of German authors | List of German language authors | List of German language poets | List of German poets | List of Jews | List of books by title: C | List of books by title: E | List of books by title: J | List of books by title: M | List of books by title: P | List of books by title: R | List of dramatists | List of famous Austria people | List of famous Austrian people | List of famous Austrians | List of famous people who have committed suicide | List of famous suicides | List of notable poets | List of noted Jews | List of novelists | List of novelists by nationality | List of people by name: Zw | List of people who commited suicide | List of playwrights | List of poets | Listing of noted Jews | November 28 | November 28th | Richard Strauss | Running Amok | Running Amuck | Salzburg | Salzburg, Austria | Salzburg (city)
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