View source

[[de:Stefan Zweig]][[eo:Stefan ZWEIG]][[fr:Stefan Zweig]][[pt:Stefan Zweig]]

'''Stefan Zweig''' ([[November 28]], [[1881]] - [[February 22]], [[1942]]) was an [[Austria]]n [[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 [[Biography|biographies]], of which his most famous is probably the one of [[Mary I of Scotland|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 [[Libretto|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 [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s own ''Verzeichn�ss'', 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:
*''[[Buchmendel]] ([[1929]])
*''[[Beware of Pity]]''
*''[[Confusion: The Private Papers of Privy Councillor R. Von D]]''
*''[[Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman]]''
*''[[Burning Secret]]''
*''[[The Royal Game]]'' (''Schachnovelle'') about a man's [[obsession]] with [[chess]], formed in the captivity of the German SS.
*''[[Letter From An Unknown Woman]]''
*''[[Amok]]'' ([[1922]])

Biographies include:
*''[[Joseph Fouch�]]'' ([[1929]])
*''[[Mental Healers]]'' ([[Franz Mesmer]], [[Mary Baker Eddy]], [[Sigmund Freud]]) ([[1932]]; [[German language|German]]: ''Heilung durch den Geist,'' [[1931]])
*''[[Conqueror of the seas : the story of Magellan]]'' ([[1938]])
*''[[Marie Antoinette]]'' ([[1932]])
*''[[Erasmus]]'' ([[1934]])
*''[[Romain Rolland: The Man and His Works]]'' ([[1921]])
*''[[Paul Verlaine]]''
*''[[Balzac]]''

Other:
*''[[Brazil: A Land of the Future]]''
*''[[World of Yesterday]]'' (autobiography; ''Die Welt von Gestern'')

==External links==
*[http://www.bl.uk British Library]
*[http://www.fredonia.edu/library/zweig.asp Zweig collection at the Daniel A Reed Library, Fredonia College, SUNY] 
*[http://www.stefanzweig.org/ StefanZweig.org]

<!--  NOTE TO EDITORS: 
Per the GNU Free Documentation License, please include the live link below to the adapted Wikipedia article:
//-->

====References====
* Adapted from the [[Wikipedia]] article, "Stefan_Zweig" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Zweig], used under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]]