Zweig was born in Vienna, the son of Ida Brettauer (1854–1938), a daughter of a
Jewish banking family, and Moritz Zweig (1845–1926), a wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer. He was related to the Czech writer
Egon Hostovský, who described him as "a very distant relative". 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 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. Zweig, a committed cosmopolitan, believed in
internationalism and in
Europeanism, as
The World of Yesterday, his autobiography, makes clear: "I was sure in my heart from the first of my identity as a citizen of the world." Zweig served in the Archives of the Ministry of War and supported Austria's war efforts through his writings in the
Neue Freie Presse and frequently celebrated in his
Diaries the capture and massacre of opposing soldiers (for instance, writing about the innumerable citizens killed at gunpoint under the suspicion of espionage that "what filth has made ooze must be cauterized with scalding iron".) Zweig viewed Serbian soldiers as "hordes" and stated that "one feels proud to talk German" when thousands of French soldiers were captured in Metz. Conversely, in his memoirs,
The World of Yesterday, Zweig portrays himself in the role of pacifist at the time of the
First World War, states that he refused "to participate in those rabid calumnies against the enemy" (although, through his work in the official
Neue Freie Presse, Zweig promoted the war propaganda issued from the Austrian crown) and affirms that among his intellectual friends he was "alone" in his stance against the war. 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. She later also published a picture book on Zweig. In the late summer of 1939, Zweig married his secretary Elisabet Charlotte "Lotte" Altmann in
Bath,
England. Zweig's secretary in Salzburg from November 1919 to March 1938 was Anna Meingast (13 May 1881, Vienna – 17 November 1953, Salzburg).
Leaving Europe after the rise of Hitler '
(Sonderfahndungsliste G.B.'', page 231
Z) listing Zweig along with his full London address. Zweig's high profile did not shield him from the threat of
persecution as a Jew. In 1934, after
Hitler's rise to power in Germany, and following the establishment of the
Austrofascist political regime known as the
Ständestaat, Zweig left Austria for England, living first in London, and later in Bath. But England was not far enough away from the Nazi threat for Zweig; in 1940 he and his second wife crossed the Atlantic to the United States, settling in
New York City. It turned out that Zweig was correct to fear being targeted by the Nazis, even in England: as part of the preparations for their invasion of England – known as
Operation Sealion – the SS had prepared a list of persons in the UK who were to be detained immediately. This so-called
Black Book came to light after the war; Zweig was listed on page 231, including his London address. ,
Rio de Janeiro The Zweigs lived only briefly in the US: for two months as guests of
Yale University in
New Haven, Connecticut, then renting a house in
Ossining,
New York. On 22 August 1941, they moved again to
Petrópolis, 68 kilometres north of
Rio de Janeiro. There, he wrote the book
Brazil, Land of the Future and developed a close friendship with Chilean poet
Gabriela Mistral. 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". He had been despairing at the future of Europe and its culture. He wrote: "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". On 23 February 1942, the Zweigs were found dead of a
barbiturate overdose in their house in the city of Petrópolis, having taken their own lives. Their bodies were found holding hands. in glass tubes with cork caps - 10 tablets probably produced around 1940The Zweigs' house in Brazil was later turned into a cultural centre and is now known as
Casa Stefan Zweig. == Work ==