Talk:Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig

PhD University of Berlin, not Vienna. Cf The World of Yesterday end of chapter “Universitas Vitae” 2600:1012:B04F:B1FC:7965:3521:EA16:49A5 (talk) 02:30, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Writing 340 - Advanced Writing for Arts and Humanities - 3

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 12 January 2026 and 1 May 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Etoneseda (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by 101Penguin (talk) 01:11, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

Reference about Zweig in Reiner Stach's book

I could not find the quote by Zweig, allegedly 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".

I only find in Reiner Stach's book, "Kafka: Die Jahre der Entscheidungen", about Stefan Zweig:

He thought with satisfaction of the thousands of civilians who had been executed near the front under the mere suspicion of espionage: “drastic situations require drastic measures.”

Perhaps the quote could refer to a passage in another book, given as a footnote in Reiner Stach's book "Kafka: Die Jahre der Erkenntnis":

On Zweig's chauvinism and his opportunistic, politically disin­genuous behavior, even to his friend Romain Rolland, see Hans-Albert Wal­ter, Deutsche Exilliteratur 1933-1950, vol. I.I (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 2003), pp. 520ff.

One should check that source, and if the quote is present there, better refer directly to that source.

Perhaps also Zweig's stance on the war is more ambiguous than this Wikipedia section suggests, see e.g. https://forward.com/culture/367666/read-stefan-zweigs-heartbreaking-letter-on-the-outbreak-of-world-war-i/