Stefan Zweig as good as they say he is?

Stefan Zweig is one of the most famous and most debated authors around the world. He is best known for his novellas and biographies. However, because of his mostly short stories, his writing style, and the topics he chose, some people think that he is not as good as he is hyped up to be. But like his stories, his life was both tragic and amazing.

He was born on 28 November 1881 in Vienna. At that time, Vienna was the capital of the Austria-Hungary Empire. So Vienna was the cultural capital of Europe and very developed compared to the rest of the continent. During these years, many famous artists were living in Vienna, like Gustav Klimt and Freud. His father, Moritz Zweig, was a wealthy textile manufacturer. His mother, Ida Brettauer, came from a banking family. They were Jews who were assimilated into German culture. Even though they were Jews, they were not religious. Culture and art were more important in their house. From this information , we can understand that his childhood was not bad, but full of art and culture. These years were magical for him. They shaped his personality and cultural knowledge.

He studied philosophy at Vienna University. He finished his doctorate in 1904. At a young age, he had published many poems and essays. He was traveling a lot for his age. He traveled to many European cities like Paris, London, Brussels, and many other Italian cities. As I mentioned before, he had traveled a lot. So he built many friendships with artists who are still very important, like Sigmund Freud, Romain Rolland, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Especially Freud’s philosophy affected him so much that you can feel these effects in his books through his writing style.

Even in his early writing years, there is a specific theme in his books. An emotional explosion

that changes a person’s life completely and cannot be reversed. In his later books, you can still feel that effect.

World War I was a milestone in his life. When World War I started, he quickly noticed how disruptive, cruel, and meaningless war was. To top it all off, he worked in the war archives. So he could observe how the war was going on. After World War I, he completely moved away from nationalist ideas. He became a pacifist. After the war, Austria-Hungary was split. The lands where he had lived were now completely different.

The 1920's were his prime. He was living in Salzburg, and he was one of the most famous writers in Europe. His books were translated into many languages during these years. He wrote his most famous books in this era and made a lot of money because of them. Like Letter from an Unknown Woman, Amok, Fear, Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman and Marie Antoinette. If we analyze his books, we can clearly see that they almost all have the same background theme. People who spent their lives with nothing. However, if you examine them more carefully, despite the similar background, they all have different stories and different vibes. For example, he has books that handle love with tragedy and obsession, and

he has books that handle subjects like guilt, repressed desire, and jealousy.

He was married twice. First was in 1909 with Friderike von Winternitz. While he was in his most creative era, Friderike was with him. She helped him with everything. Friderike was Zweig’s editor, organizer, and his biggest supporter. They were very devoted to each other. But in the 1930s, their relationship became weaker. During his exile, their marriage began to fall apart. They divorced in 1938. His second marriage was with Lotte Altmann. When Zweig’s relationship with Friderike became weaker in the 1930s, he and Lotte became closer. Lotte was his secretary, and she was 27 years younger than him. They were married in 1939.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler came into power. As I mentioned, Stefan Zweig was of Jewish origin. At that time, the government had zero tolerance. They burned his books. After that, he lived the rest of his life in exile. In 1934, he left Austria. First London, then the USA, and lastly Brazil. These years until 1942 were torture for him and caused great damage to his psychology. He lost his cultural awareness and again lost his motherland. However, he thought that Europe would be destroyed and the culture that bewitched him would be completely gone. During his exile, Lotte always supported him. She traveled with him to three countries despite her illness. She was with him in his worst years.

That hopeless environment deeply affected both him and his wife Lotte. At the beginning of 1942, he finished his last book, “Chess.” A while later, he and his wife committed suicide. If you have read Chess, you can feel the despair and sadness that Zweig felt during exile.

For me, he is one of the best writers overall. He deserves all that hype. His books are easy to read, not heavy and short, but despite this, they have deep meanings and a story to tell. They are mostly sad, especially the ones that he wrote during exile. Personally, my favorite is “Burning Secret.” Not as popular as Letter from an Unknown Woman or Chess, but worth reading.