ZWEIG, STEFAN. - Austrian writer, born in Vienna to a restless Jewish family on 28 February 1881, died by suicide together with his wife in Petrópolis on 23 February 1942.
The Viennese environment offered him, in his early youth, all that his anxious spirit needed to embrace the most vital aspirations of humanity in its various tendencies and manifestations. The travels he undertook after earning his doctorate in philosophy broadened his experiences and his innate exceptional gift for understanding and feeling. His studies on Baudelaire (1902), Verlaine (1907), E. Verhaeren (1910), and R. Rolland (1920), as well as his biographies—Marie Antoinette (1932), Triumph und Tragik des Erasmus von Rotterdam (1934), Maria Stuard (1935)—bear witness to his stays in various countries and his relationships with writers from other nations. His essay triptychs—Drei Meister (Balzac, Dickens, Dostoevsky; 1919), Der Kampf mit dem Dämon (Hölderlin, Kleist, Nietzsche; 1925), Drei Dichter ihres Lebens (Casanova, Stendhal, Tolstoi; 1928), Die Heilung durch den Geist (Mesmer, Mary Baker-Eddy, Freud; 1931)—reveal his acumen as a psychologist, not devoid of a lofty ideal of humanity, and his narrative art, which often reaches undeniable poetic heights. He also attempted lyric poetry (Silberne Saiten, 1900; Die früheren Kränze, 1907), but drama (Tersites, 1907; Das Haus am Meer, 1912; Jeremias, 1917; Das Lamm des Armen, 1930) and especially narrative prose prevailed. Die Kette, a three-volume collection of stories (Erstes Erlebnis, 1911; Legende eines Lebens, 1919; Amok, 1921; Die Augen des ewigen Bruders, 1925; Verwirrung der Gefühle, 1926, etc.), strikes us with its profound understanding of the human spirit, as well as Zweig’s extraordinary sensitivity. His ideal was the spiritual unity of Europe, transcending all barriers and divisions. The drama Jeremias, perhaps his finest theatrical work, expresses his inner revolt against war, the instrument of destruction of the hoped-for European brotherhood. Political circumstances, however, forced him to leave Vienna definitively in 1938, seeking refuge in the United States, Argentina, and finally Brazil. But when neutrality ceased even there, he could not find the strength to continue his life as a wanderer. The moral and material destruction of Europe, which frustrated the purpose of his entire existence—dedicated to achieving a spiritual understanding among peoples—was the principal cause of his suicide.