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Stefan Zweig (;〔("Zweig" ). ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.〕 ; November 28, 1881 – February 22, 1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most popular writers in the world.〔("Stefan Zweig: The Secret Superstar" ) by Julie Kavanagh, ''Intelligent Life'', (northern) spring 2009〕 == Biography == Zweig was born in Vienna, the son of Moritz Zweig (1845–1926), a wealthy Jewish textile manufacturer, and Ida Brettauer (1854–1938), a daughter of a Jewish banking family.〔Prof.Dr. Klaus Lohrmann ''"Jüdisches Wien. Kultur-Karte"'' (2003), Mosse-Berlin Mitte gGmbH (Verlag Jüdische Presse)〕 He was related to the Czech writer Egon Hostovský, who described him as "a very distant relative";〔''Egon Hostovský: Vzpomínky, studie a dokumenty o jeho díle a osudu'', Sixty-Eight Publishers, 1974〕 some sources describe them as cousins. 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 later 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 believed in internationalism and in Europeanism, as ''The World of Yesterday'', his autobiography, makes clear. According to Amos Elon, Zweig called Herzl's book ''Der Judenstaat'' an "obtuse text, () piece of nonsense". At the beginning of World War I, patriotic sentiment was widespread, and extended to many German and Austrian Jews: Zweig, as well as Martin Buber and Hermann Cohen, showed support.〔Elon, 320〕 Zweig served in the Archives of the Ministry of War and adopted a pacifist stand like his friend Romain Rolland, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1915. 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 1939, Zweig married his secretary Lotte Altmann. Zweig's secretary in Salzburg from November 1919 to March 1938 was Anna Meingast (13 May 1881, Vienna – 17 November 1953, Salzburg). In 1934, following Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Zweig left Austria for England, living first in London, then from 1939 in Bath. Because of the swift advance of Hitler's troops westwards, Zweig and his second wife crossed the Atlantic to the United States, settling in 1940 in New York City. On August 22, 1940, they moved again to Petrópolis, a German-colonized mountain town 68 kilometers north of Rio de Janeiro known for historical reasons as Brazil's ''Imperial city''. Feeling more and more depressed by the growth of intolerance, authoritarianism, and Nazism, and feeling hopeless for the future for humanity, Zweig wrote a note about his feelings of desperation. Then, in February 23, 1942, the Zweigs were found dead of a barbiturate overdose in their house in the city of Petrópolis, holding hands. He had been 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," he wrote. The Zweigs' house in Brazil was later turned into a cultural centre and is now known as Casa Stefan Zweig. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stefan Zweig」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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