Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig, c. 1912
Born (1881-11-28)November 28, 1881
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died February 22, 1942(1942-02-22) (aged 60)
Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Occupation Novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer
Known for The Royal Game, Amok, Letter from an Unknown Woman, Confusion
Spouse(s) Friderike Maria von Winternitz (born Burger) (1920–1938; divorced)
Lotte Altmann (1939–1942; his death)
Parent(s) Moritz Zweig (1845–1926)
Ida Brettauer (1854–1938)
Relatives Alfred Zweig (1879–1977)
(brother)
Signature

Stefan Zweig (/zwaɪɡ, swaɪɡ/;[1] German: [tsvaɪk]; November 28, 1881 – February 22, 1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most popular writers in the world.[2]

Biography

Stefan Zweig (standing) in Vienna with his brother Alfred, circa 1900

Zweig was born in Vienna, the son of Moritz Zweig (1845–1926), a wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer, and Ida Brettauer (1854–1938), a daughter of a Jewish banking family.[3] He was related to the Czech writer Egon Hostovský, who described him as "a very distant relative";[4] some sources describe them as cousins.

Zweig studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and in 1904 earned a doctoral degree with a thesis on "The Philosophy of Hippolyte Taine". 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. Yet he did not renounce his Jewish faith and wrote repeatedly on Jews and Jewish themes, as in his story Buchmendel. Zweig had a warm relationship with Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, whom he met when Herzl was still literary editor of the Neue Freie Presse, then Vienna's main newspaper; Herzl accepted for publication some of Zweig's early essays.[5] Zweig believed in internationalism and in Europeanism, as The World of Yesterday, his autobiography, makes clear. According to Amos Elon, Zweig called Herzl's book Der Judenstaat an "obtuse text, [a] piece of nonsense".[6]

At the beginning of World War I, patriotic sentiment was widespread, and extended to many German and Austrian Jews: Zweig, as well as Martin Buber and Hermann Cohen, showed support.[7] Zweig served in the Archives of the Ministry of War and adopted a pacifist stand like his friend Romain Rolland, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1915. Zweig married Friderike Maria von Winternitz (born Burger) in 1920; they divorced in 1938. As Friderike Zweig she published a book on her former husband after his death.[8] She later also published a picture book on Zweig.[9] In the late summer of 1939, Zweig married his secretary Elisabet Charlotte "Lotte" Altmann at Bath, England.[10] Zweig's secretary in Salzburg from November 1919 to March 1938 was Anna Meingast (13 May 1881, Vienna – 17 November 1953, Salzburg).[11]

Street named after Zweig in Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro

In 1934, following Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Zweig left Austria for England, living first in London, then from 1939 in Bath. Because of the swift advance of Hitler's troops westwards, Zweig and his second wife crossed the Atlantic to the United States, settling in 1940 in New York City; they lived for two months as guests of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, then they rented a house in Ossining, New York.

On August 22, 1940, they moved again to Petrópolis, a German-colonized mountain town 68 kilometers north of Rio de Janeiro known for historical reasons as Brazil's Imperial City.[12] Zweig, feeling increasingly depressed about the situation in Europe and the future for humanity, wrote in a letter to author Jules Romains, "My inner crisis consists in that I am not able to identify myself with the me of passport, the self of exile".[13] On February 23, 1942, the Zweigs were found dead of a barbiturate overdose in their house in the city of Petrópolis, holding hands.[14][15] He had been 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," he wrote.[16]

The Zweigs' house in Brazil was later turned into a cultural centre and is now known as Casa Stefan Zweig.

Work

Zweig was a prominent writer in the 1920s and 1930s, befriending Arthur Schnitzler and Sigmund Freud.[17] He was extremely popular in the United States, South America and Europe, and remains so in continental Europe;[2] however, he was largely ignored by the British public.[18] His fame in America had diminished until the 1990s, when there began an effort on the part of several publishers (notably Pushkin Press, Hesperus Press, and The New York Review of Books) to get Zweig back into print in English.[19] Plunkett Lake Press has reissued electronic versions of his non-fiction works.[20] Since that time there has been a marked resurgence and a number of Zweig's books are back in print.[21]

Critical opinion of his oeuvre is strongly divided between those who despise his literary style as poor, lightweight and superficial,[18] and those who praise his humanism, simplicity and effective style.[19][22] Michael Hofmann is scathingly dismissive of Zweig's work, which he dubbed a "vermicular dither", adding that "Zweig just tastes fake. He's the Pepsi of Austrian writing." Even the author's suicide note left Hofmann gripped by "the irritable rise of boredom halfway through it, and the sense that he doesn't mean it, his heart isn't in it (not even in his suicide)".[23]

Zweig is best known for his novellas (notably The Royal Game, Amok, and Letter from an Unknown Woman – which was filmed in 1948 by Max Ophüls), novels (Beware of Pity, Confusion of Feelings, and the posthumously published The Post Office Girl) and biographies (notably of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Ferdinand Magellan, and Mary, Queen of Scots, and also the posthumously published one on Balzac). At one time his works were published without his consent in English under the pseudonym "Stephen Branch" (a translation of his real name) when anti-German sentiment was running high. His 1932 biography of Queen Marie Antoinette was adapted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a 1938 film starring Norma Shearer.

Zweig's memoir,[24][25][26] The World of Yesterday, was completed in 1942 on the day before he committed suicide. It has been widely discussed as a record of "what it meant to be alive between 1881 and 1942" in central Europe; the book has attracted both critical praise[19] and hostile dismissal.[23]

Surviving copy of Zweig's novel Amok (1922) burned by National Socialists

Zweig acknowledged his debt to psychoanalysis. In a letter dated 8 September 1926 he wrote to Freud, "Psychology is the great business of my life ". He went on explaining that Freud had considerable influence on a number of writers such as Marcel Proust, D.H. Lawrence and James Joyce giving them a lesson of "courage" and helping them overcome their inhibitions, "Thanks to you, we see many things. – Thanks to you we say many things which otherwise we would not have seen nor said." Autobiography in particular had become "more clear-sighted and audacious.[27]"

Zweig enjoyed a close association with Richard Strauss, and provided the libretto for Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman). Strauss famously defied the Nazi regime by refusing to sanction the removal of Zweig's name from the programme [28] for the work's première on June 24, 1935 in Dresden. As a result, Goebbels refused to attend as planned, and the opera was banned after three performances. Zweig later collaborated with Joseph Gregor, to provide Strauss with the libretto for one other opera, Daphne, in 1937. At least[29] one other work by Zweig received a musical setting: the pianist and composer Henry Jolles, who like Zweig had fled to Brazil to escape the Nazis, composed a song, "Último poema de Stefan Zweig",[30] based on "Letztes Gedicht", which Zweig wrote on the occasion of his 60th birthday in November 1941.[31] During his stay in Brazil, Zweig wrote Brasilien, Ein Land der Zukunft (Brazil, Land of the Future) which was an accurate analysis of his newly adopted country; in this book he managed to demonstrate a fair understanding of the Brazilian culture that surrounded him.

Zweig was a passionate collector of manuscripts. There are important Zweig collections at the British Library, at the State University of New York at Fredonia and at the National Library of Israel. The British Library's Stefan Zweig Collection was donated to the library by his heirs in May 1986. It specialises in autograph music manuscripts, including works by Bach, Haydn, Wagner, and Mahler. It has been described as "one of the world's greatest collections of autograph manuscripts".[32] One particularly precious item is Mozart's "Verzeichnüß aller meiner Werke"[33] – that is, the composer's own handwritten thematic catalogue of his works.

The 1993–1994 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.

Bibliography

Amok (1922)

The dates mentioned below are the dates of first publication in German.

Fiction

Biographies and historical texts

Plays

Other

Letters

Adaptations

Artist Jeff Gabel created an English-language adaptation of Vierundzwanzig Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau in a large-scale comic book format in 2004, titled 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman.

Beware of Pity was adapted into a 1946 film with the same title, directed by Maurice Elvey.[36]

An adaptation by Stephen Wyatt of Beware of Pity was broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 2011.[37]

The 2013 French film A Promise (Une promesse) is based on Zweig's novella Journey into the Past (Reise in die Vergangenheit).

The 2013 Swiss film Mary Queen of Scots directed by Thomas Imbach is based on Zweig's Maria Stuart.[38]

The end-credits for Wes Anderson's 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel say that the film was inspired in part by Zweig's novels. Anderson said that he had "stolen" from Zweig's novels Beware of Pity and The Post-Office Girl in writing the film, and it features actors Tom Wilkinson as The Author, a character based loosely on Zweig, and Jude Law as his younger, idealised self seen in flashbacks. Anderson also said that the film's protagonist, the concierge Gustave H., played by Ralph Fiennes, was based on Zweig. In the film's opening sequence, a teenaged girl visits a shrine for The Author, which includes a bust of him wearing Zweig-like spectacles and celebrated as his country's "National Treasure".[39]

The 2016 Austrian-German Film Vor der Morgenröte (Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe) chronicles Stefan Zweig's travels in the North and South Americas, trying to come to terms with his exile from home.[40]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Zweig". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  2. 1 2 "Stefan Zweig: The Secret Superstar" by Julie Kavanagh, Intelligent Life, (northern) spring 2009
  3. ↑ Prof.Dr. Klaus Lohrmann "Jüdisches Wien. Kultur-Karte" (2003), Mosse-Berlin Mitte gGmbH (Verlag Jüdische Presse)
  4. ↑ Egon Hostovský: Vzpomínky, studie a dokumenty o jeho díle a osudu, Sixty-Eight Publishers, 1974
  5. ↑ Gabe Friedman (17 January 2015). "Meet the Austrian-Jewish novelist who inspired Wes Anderson's 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'". Haaretz.com.
  6. ↑ Elon, Amos (2002). The Pity of it All. New York: Metropolitan Books. p. 287.
  7. ↑ Elon, 320
  8. ↑ Zweig, Friderike (1948). Stefan Zweig – Wie ich ihn erlebte. Berlin: F.A. Herbig Verlag.
  9. ↑ Zweig, Friderike (1961). Stefan Zweig : Eine Bildbiographie. München: Kindler.
  10. ↑ "Index entry for marriage of Altmann, Elisabet C., Spouse:Zweig, Registration district: Bath Register volume & page nbr: 5c, 1914". Transcription of England and Wales national marriage registrations index 1837-1983. ONS. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  11. ↑ Werner Thuswaldner (December 14, 2000). "Wichtiges zu Stefan Zweig: Das Salzburger Literaturarchiv erhielt eine bedeutende Schenkung von Wilhelm Meingast". Salzburger Nachrichten. Retrieved March 15, 2014.
  12. ↑ Júlia Dias Carneiro (April 30, 2009). "Revivendo o país do futuro de Stefan Zweig". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved February 23, 2012.
  13. ↑ "When It’s Too Late to Stop Fascism, According to Stefan Zweig". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  14. ↑ "Stefan Zweig, Wife End Lives In Brazil". The United Press in The New York Times. February 23, 1942. Retrieved February 23, 2012. Stefan Zweig, Wife End Lives In Brazil; Austrian-Born Author Left a Note Saying He Lacked the Strength to Go on – Author and Wife Die in Compact: Zweig and Wife Commit Suicide
  15. ↑ "Died". Time. March 2, 1942. Retrieved 2010-06-30. Died. Stefan Zweig, 60, Austrian-born novelist, biographer, essayist (Amok, Adepts in Self-Portraiture, Marie Antoinette), and his wife, Elizabeth; by poison; in Petropolis, Brazil. Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Vienna, Zweig turned from casual globe-trotting to literature after World War I, wrote prolifically, smoothly, successfully in many forms. His books banned by the Nazis, he fled to Britain in 1938 with the arrival of German troops, became a British subject in 1940, moved to the U.S. the same year, to Brazil the next. He was never outspoken against Nazism, believed artists and writers should be independent of politics. Friends in Brazil said he left a suicide note explaining that he was old, a man without a country, too weary to begin a new life. His last book: Brazil: Land of the Future.
  16. ↑ Banville, John (2009-02-27). "Ruined souls". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  17. ↑ Fowles, John (1981). Introduction to "The Royal Game". New York: Obelisk. pp. ix.
  18. 1 2 Walton, Stuart (March 26, 2010). "Stefan Zweig? Just a pedestrian stylist". The Guardian. London.
  19. 1 2 3 Lezard, Nicholas (December 5, 2009). "The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September 2010.
  20. ↑ "Plunkett Lake Press". Stefan Zweig.
  21. ↑ Rohter, Larry. "Stefan Zweig, Austrian Novelist, Rises Again". The New York Times. 28 May 2014
  22. ↑ Liukkonen, Petri. "Stefan Zweig". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 10 February 2015.
  23. 1 2 Hofmann, Michael (2010). "Vermicular Dither". London Review of Books. 32 (2): 9–12. Retrieved 8 June 2014.
  24. ↑ Jones, Lewis (11 January 2010), "The World of Yesterday", The Telegraph, retrieved 2015-11-02
  25. ↑ Lezard, Nicholas (4 December 2009), "The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig", The Guardian, retrieved 2015-11-02
  26. ↑ Brody, Richard (14 March 2014), "Stefan Zweig, Wes Anderson, and a Longing for the Past", The New Yorker, retrieved 2015-11-02
  27. ↑ Sigmund Freud, Stefan Zweig, Correspondance, Editions Rivages, Paris, 1995, ISBN 978-2869309654
  28. ↑ Richard Strauss/Stefan Zweig: BriefWechsel, 1957, translated as A Confidential Matter, 1977
  29. ↑ "Stefan Zweig". REC Music Foundation. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
  30. ↑ Musica Reanimata of Berlin, Henry Jolles accessed January 25, 2009
  31. ↑ Biographical sketch of Stefan Zweig at Casa Stefan Zweig accessed September 28, 2008
  32. ↑ "The Zweig Music Collection". bl.uk.
  33. ↑ Mozart's "Verzeichnüß aller meiner Werke" at the British Library Online Gallery accessed October 14, 2009
  34. ↑ "Die unsichtbare sammlung". Open Library. Retrieved 2014-04-28.
  35. ↑ "Stefan Zweig." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 21 November 2010.
  36. ↑ "Beware of Pity (1946)". BFI.
  37. ↑ "'Classic Serial: Stefan Zweig – Beware of Pity'". Retrieved July 8, 2014.
  38. ↑ Mary Queen of Scots (2013) on IMDb
  39. ↑ "'I stole from Stefan Zweig': Wes Anderson on the author who inspired his latest movie". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2014-03-08.
  40. ↑ "Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe (2016)".

Further reading

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