The Agony of Humanism in World War I : The Case of Stefan Zweig

Erwin Rieger , Stefan Zweig. Der Mann und das Werk (Berlin, 1948), 61; Stefan Zweig , The World of Yesterday (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1964), 221. The major unpublished source for a study of Zweig's war-time attitudes and intellectual development is his correspondence with Romain Rolland. It is in the possession of Rolland's heir and has been for some years in process of publication. For the present article, copies of the original letters were consulted in the archive maintained by the Stefan Zweig estate in London. This archive contains complete files of letters from correspondents still living as of 1938; those from correspondents then deceased were donated to Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Locations of other letters cited in this article are as follows: those to Anton Kippenberg and Paul Zech are in the Deutsches Literaturarchiv (Schiller-National museum) in Marbach; those to Julius Bab are in the Houghton Library at Harvard. and selections from them are reprinted in W.F. Oechler. "Reception of Emile Verhaeren in Germany. Some Unpublished Letters of Stefan Zweig", Modern Language Notes, lxii (1947 ), 226-34. Zweig's correspondence with Emile Verhaeren was destroyed together with the latter's house in the final days of World War I.

See Zweig's memorial tribute. "Erinnerungen an Emile Verhaeren ", written in 1917, and reprinted in Begegnungert mit Menschen, Biichern Städten (Vienna, 1937), which confirms and amplifies the earlier assessments in his "Autobiographische Skizze". Das literarische Echo, xvii. 4 (1914) and letters to Ellen Key (12 August, 1905) and Julius Bab (9 August, 1909).

Especially the collection entitled La Belgique sanglante. On the Verhaeren-Dehmel embrace see The World of Yesterday, 204.

For Zweig's own account see ibid., 228f. Freud felt himself for the first time in thirty years to be Austrian, and commented: "All my libido is given to Austria-Hungary". See Ernest Jones , Sigmund Freud : Life and Work (3 vols. London , 1953-57). ii. 192; on Tucholsky see Klaus-Peter Schulz , Kurt Tucholsky (Hamburg , 1959), 51.

Undated postcard to Anton Kippenberg ; letter to Kippenberg, 4 August, 1914.

He was met by his future wife, Friderike von Winternitz; see the account in her Spiegelungen des Lebens (Vienna, 1963), 44f.

"Ein Wort von Deutschland". Neue Freie Presse , 6 August, 1914. This article is not mentioned in Zweig's autobiography; nor does it appear in any of the bibliographies or collections of his writings.

Friderike von Winternitz. loc. cit. In his own account Zweig recalled neither his desire for front-line duty nor his influential friend. See The World of Yesterday, 229. C.E. Williams , The Broken Eagle: The Politics of Austrian Literature from Empire to Anschluss (London , 1974), 114, states that Zweig was passed fit for military duty on 12 November, 1914. For the most complete biographical account see D. A. Prater, European of Yesterday: A Biography of Stefan Zwieg ( Oxford, 1972), 71-75.

See his letters to Anton Kippenberg: (nos 7 and 8) September, 1914; (no. 11) early November, 1914 ; (no. 12) ca June. 1915.

Kurt Peball , "Literarische Publikationen des Kriegsarchivs im Weltkrieg 1914 bis 1918", Mitteilungen des Osterreichischert Staatsarchivs, 14. Band (1961), as cited in Williams , op. cit., 114; Frank Field , The Last Days of Mankind: Karl Kraus and His Vienna (London , 1967), 260, n. 85.

Zweig made this the title for Part One of his autobiography.

Wickham Steed was Vienna correspondent for The Times of London from 1902 to 1913. See his Through Thirty Years: A Personal Narrative (New York. 1924), i, 196. The analyses of Hermann Broch. Hofmannsthal und seine Zeit (Munich , 1964). 81ff, and Hannah Arendt , "Juden in der Welt von gestern", Sechs Essays (Heidelberg, 1948), 118 emphasize respectively the decorative and theatrical nature of late-19th centurv Viennese culture. On the political abstinence of Vienna's Jews see Felix Braun , Das Licht der Welt (Vienna, 1949), 213f.

The World of Yesterday, 11. On Jewish participation in political, cultural, and economic life see Carl E. Schorske , "Politics and Psyche in fin-de-Siècle Vienna". American Historical Review, lxvi (1961). 934

; Robert Kann , "German-speaking Jewry during Austria-Hungary's Constitutional Era" . Jewish Social Studies, x (1948), 250; and A.J. Mav. The Habsburg Monarchy (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), 177.

On the confusion of fame with power, and the exclusion of ,Jews from political positions, see Hannah Arendt , The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York. 1958), 52; also her "Juden in der Welt von gestern". 120.

7weig. " Autobiographische Skizze", Das literarische Echo, xvii, 4 (1914), 200; The World of Yesterday, 170, 41, 165: on Zweig's Feuilletonismus see Robert Neumann. Ein leichtes Leben (Basel. 1963), 117.

Raoul Auernheimer. "Stefan Zweig". in Torch of Freedom , ed. Emil Ludwig ( New York. 1943). 417.

This is especially so of the poetry and aphorisms he published regularly around 1900 in Adolph Donath's Deutsche Dichtung and in Ludwig Jacobowski's Die Gesellschaft.

Braun , op. cit. 457ff; Hans Hellwig, Stefan Zweig. Ein Lebensbild, Lübeck, 1948), 21; cf. Rieger , op. cit. (ref. 1), 29f.

See Harry Zohn , Stefan Zweig as a Mediator in Modern European Literature (Diss., Harvard, 1951).

This is especially evident in his E.M. Lilien. Sein Werk (Berlin, 1903) and in his unpublished doctoral dissertation Die Philosophie des Hypolite Taine ( Vienna, 1904).

Emile Verhaeren (London, 1915), 218.

Many of Zweig's pre-1914 travel essays are reprinted in the collections entitled Fahrten (Vienna, 1919): Begegnungen mit Afenschen Büchern Städten ( Vienna. 1937); Europäisches Erbe ( Berlin, 1960); and Zeit und Welt ( Stockholm, 1943).

Introduction to Wunden und Wunder: Gedichte, ed. Paul Mayer (Heidelberg, 1913). Iff: Afterword to Alexandre Mercereau's Worte vor dem Leben (Leipzig, 1914). 152-4.

See his review of Rathenau's Reflexionen, in the Neue Freie Presse, 18 September, 1908. On Rathenau's anti-Semitism see Klemens von Klemperer, Germany's New Conservatism ( Princeton, 1957), 60, n. 66; on his imperialism see Fritz Fischer, Germany's Aims in the First World War (New York, 1967), 28f. 247f. For an example of Zweig's curiously ambivalent attitude towards anti-Semitism, see his discussion of the popular anti-Semitic mavor of Vienna. Karl Lueger , in The World of Yesterday, 62f.

"Autobiographische Skizze", Das literarische Echo, xvii, 4 (1914), 201.

Emile Verhaeren (London, 1915). 105f.

Ibid., 93f: letter to Friderike Zweig. July, 1925, in Stefan and Friderike Zweig, Briefwechsel 1912-1942 (Bern, 1951), 188; Romain Rolland , The Man and His Work (New York. 1921 ), 90ff; Emile Verhaeren, 131-6.

"Der Flieger", Silberne Saiten : Gedichte und Nachdirhtungen , ed. Richard Friedenthal ( Frankfurt, 1966), 143-8; for an example of a similar flight from the world, but one written more than ten years earlier, see " Stille Grösse", in ibid., 24.

"Ein Wort von Deutschland", Neue Freie Presse, 6 August, 1914.

According to A. Lazar , "Zwischen Konzilianz und Verzqeiflung", Neue deutsche Literatur, 3. Jg.. Hft. 3 (August 1955), 100.

"Die schlaflose Welt". Neue Freie Presse, 18 August. 1914.

"An die Freunde in Fremdland", Berliner Tageblatt , 19 September, 1914, reprinted in Rieger, op. cit. (ref. 1), 63-70.

Thomas Mann , "Gedanken im Kriege", Die Neue Rundschau, Jg. 25, 2 (1914), 1471-84. Zweig thought enough of Mann's article to have a copv of it sent to Romain Rolland, who found it "bien le plus terrible que j'aie encore lu d'un intellectuel allemand". Romain Rolland , Journal des années de guerre 1914-1919 (Paris, 1952), 133.

Mann, op. cit., 1473.

Zweig to Rolland, 23 June. 1915; letter written the same month, quoted in Rolland, op. cit., 402; and letter of 28 November, 1915.

Letters to Rolland : 3 November, 1914; 11 November, 1914; 24 April, 1915; 13 November, 1915; 24 April, 1915.

Affectionate expressions of dependence such as the following are not uncommon in Zweig's letters to Rolland : "Ich spreche zu Ihnen wie zum Gel6bnis, ich fühle immer. wihrend die Feder sich rührt, schon die zarte fast zärtliche Resonanz Ihres Gefühis, das die kleinst lindeste Regung eines erlebten Empfindens in sich aufnimut. Ich weiss. dass Sie alles verstehen und aus Güte allem gewachsen sind." Undated letter, ca. 1916.

Robert Dumont, Stefan Zweig et la France (Paris, 1967), and Dragan Nedeljkovic, Romain Rolland et ,Stefan Zweig. Affinités et Influences Littéraires et Spirituelles 1910-1942 (Paris. 1970), both rich in analysis and in quotation of unpublished correspondence, are indispensible to any study of Zweig, particularly of his international ties and cosmopolitan and pacific ideals.

Zweig to Rolland. 10 October, 1914.

See Rathenau to Zweig, 24 October. 1914, in Margarete von Eynern, Walther Rathenau: Briefe (Berlin, 1955). 130; cf. Walther Rathenau Tagebuch, ed. Hartmut Pogge (Düsseldorf. 1967). 189.

Zweig to Rolland. 21 November. 1914. He envisioned a bilingual journal. bearing the titles "Réconciliation" and "Versohnung", to foster the work of the intellectual reconciliation.

Zweig to Rolland. 10 October. 1914.

"Der Kampf um den Suezkanal". Neue Freie Presse, 18 November, 1914.

Zweig to Rolland, 17 January. 1915; 28 November. 1915; 10 October, 1914; 19 October. 1914; to Anton Kippenberg (no. 8) September, 1914; to Rolland, 19 October, 1914; 11 November. 1914; "Lowen", Neue Freie Presse, 30 August. 1914: Zweig to Rolland, undated, ca. early April. 1915: to Anton Kippenberg (no. 11). undated, ca. mid-1915.

"Ein Wort von Deutschland", Neue Freie Presse, 6 August, 1914.

Zweig to Rolland, 23 June. 1915; 17 May, 1915 (Zweig's ellipses).

Zweig to Rolland, 6 January. 1918: 27 March. 1918; 23 June. 1915; 10 May, 1915; 23 August, 1915.

The World of Yesterday, 248. 250ff.

"Galiziens Genesung". Neue Freie Presse, 31 August. 1915.

The World of Yesterday, 250.

Williams , op. cit. (ref. 8), 118.

Zweig to Rolland, 4 October. 1915.

Zweig to Rolland, 12 October, 1915; Friderike Zweig. Stefan Zweig. Wie ich ihn erlebte (Stockholm, 1947 ), 117.

Dehmel to Zweig, 7 September, 1917, in Paul Schindler (ed.), Dehmel: Dichtungen, Briefe, Dokumente (Hamburg, 1963), 218.

Cf. The World of Yesterday, 256, and "A mes frères français", Demain, 2e a., no. 20 (December. 1917), 126.

7weig to Friderike von Winternitz, ca. August. 1918. in their Briefwechsel, 93; Friderike Zweig , Stefan Zweig: Wie ich ihn erlebte, 117 and cf. The World of Yesterday, 254; Lazaar, op. cit., 101. For Friderike Zweig's account of the negotiations to secure Stefan's military release see Stefan Zweig, 142-6.

"A mes frères français". Demain 2e a., no. 20 (December. 1917), 126.

Jeremias. Eine dramatische Dichtung in neun Bildern (Leipzig, 1917) (zweites Bild), in Stefan Zweig , Die Dramen. ed. Richard Friedenthal (Frankfurt, 1964), 389.

"Was Ihr Jeremias vom geistigen Jerusalem sagt, das ist das Gegenteil davon, was der biblische für meine Auge und meine Einsicht hat", Martin Buber to Zweig, 17 May, 1917. (Jeremias was published at Easter of that year.) See also Williams, op. cit. (ref. 8). 121ff.

Zweig stated this intention explicitly in undated letters to Paul Zech and Romain Rolland, both written when Jeremias was in the planning stages.

Zweig to Rolland. 9 December. 1917; The World of Yesterday, 253ff.

It was precisely because he wanted to describe his own "tragic" situation— "a minority of one amidst the confused shouting of victory"—that Zweig had chosen the dramatic form. Ibid., 252.

Jeremias, in Die Dramen (ed. Friedenthal ), 70ff. This dialogue is the only part of the play in which Zweig attempted an explicit discussion of the dilemmas presented by war.

Jeremias, 39; 137.

Bekenntnis zum Defaitismus". Die Friedens-Warte, Jg. 20 (July-August, 1918), 215-16.

Ibid., 215f; Zweig to Rolland, 10 July, 1918.

Alfred H. Fried , "Suche nach dem Vernunftmeridian", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 28 July, 1918.

"Die Entwertung der Ideen". Neue Zürcher Zeitung , 4 August, 1918.

Zweig was unjust in attributing this idea to Fried. "Ich glaube fest daran", Fried had written in the article to which Zweig was replying, "dass das Werk der Befreiung vom Krieg nicht im Krieg, sondern erst nach dessen Einstellung zur Geltung kommen kann". Fried, loc. cit. (ref. 67).

"Die Entwertung der Ideen", loc. cit. (ref. 68).

Zweig's own correspondence and the secondary literature refer to one public reading (Zweig to Rolland, 9 December, 1917), one lecture (ibid., 7 April, 1918), and one proposed lecture (ibid., 21 December, 1917). Cf. The World of Yesterday, 268; Rieger , op. cit. (ref. 1). 99: and Robert Faesi , Erlebnisse-Ergebnisse. Erinnerungen (Zurich. 1963). 215f.

This lecture appeared as a feuilleton in the Nezie Freie Presse on 21 June, 1918, and a revised version. incorrectly dated 1917, was reprinted under the title "Die Waffen nieder" in Begegnungen. See also Zweig to Rolland, 20 April, 1918.

Rolland, Journal, 1358, and Zweig to Rolland. 9 December, 1917. The Socialist in question was Wolfgang Heine.

Zweig to Rolland, 16 December, 1917; The World of Yesterday , 278f; Faesi, op. cit. (ref. 71), 213; Robert Dumont , Stefan Zweig et la France (Paris, 1968 ), 323; Rolland, Journal, 1489.

Zweig to Rolland, 9 December, 1917; 16 December, 1917; 6 January, 1918.

For example, though Zweig had only the highest regard for Heinrich Lammasch and was considered a "faithful adherent" of the latter's ideas for a separate peace, to which he was made privy before reaching Switzerland, there is no evidence that he was in any way involved with the efforts of the Lammasch group once in Switzerland. Indirect evidence, and Zweig's character, support the conclusion that he held himself aloof. See Heinrich Benedikt , Die Freidensaktion der Meinlgruppe (Cologne, 1962), 216; The World of Yesterday, 259; Zweig to Rolland, 30 january, 1918 ; 23 March, 1918.

Zweig to Rolland, 27 April, 1918; 21 June, 1918; see also Rolland, Journal. 1447f, and 1504f.

Zweig to Rolland, 16 December, 1917.