Wikipedia

Arnold Zweig

Arnold Zweig(10 November 1887 – 26 November 1968) was aGerman Jewishwriter, pacifist and socialist. He is best known for his six-part cycle onWorld War I.In 1916 he marriedBeatrice Zweig[de],a distant relative. They had two sons, Michael, who was born in 1920, andAdam,who was born in 1924.

Arnold Zweig
Arnold Zweig (left) withOtto Nagel
Born
Arnold Zweig

10 November 1887
Glogau,Silesia,Prussia,Germany
Died26 November 1968(1968-11-27)(aged 81)
East Berlin,East Germany
NationalityGerman
Occupationwriter
Signature

Early life and education

edit

Zweig was born in Glogau,Prussian Silesia(nowGłogów,Poland), the son of Adolf Zweig, a Jewish shipping agent and harness maker, and his wife Bianca.[1](He is not related toStefan Zweig.) After attending a science-orientedgymnasiumin Kattowitz (Katowice), between 1907 and 1914 he studied several branches of the humanities, history, philosophy and literature, at several universities – Breslau (Wrocław),Munich,Berlin,Göttingen,RostockandTübingen.He was especially influenced byFriedrich Nietzsche's philosophy. His first literary works,Novellen um Claudia(1913) andRitualmord in Ungarn,gained him wider recognition.

World War One

edit

Zweig volunteered for the German army in World War I and served as a private in France, Hungary and Serbia. He was stationed in theWestern Frontat the time whenJudenzählung(the Jewish census) was administered in the German army. Shaken by the experience, he wrote in his letter dated 15 February 1917, toMartin Buber:"The Judenzählung was a reflection of unheard sadness for Germany's sin and our agony.... If there was no antisemitism in the army, the unbearable call to duty would be almost easy." He began to revise his views on the war and came to view the war as one that pitted Jews against Jews.[2]Later he described his experiences in the short storyJudenzählung vor Verdun.The war changed Zweig from a Prussian patriot to an eager pacifist.

In 1917, Zweig was assigned to the Press department of the German Army Headquarters inKaunas,Lithuaniawhere he was introduced to the East European Jewish organizations.

In a quite literal effort to put a face to the hated 'Ostjude' (Eastern European Jew), due to theirOrthodox,economically depressed, "unenlightened", "un-German" ways, Zweig published with the artistHermann StruckDas ostjüdische Antlitz(The Face of East European Jewry) in 1920. This was a blatant effort to at least gain sympathy among German-speaking Jews for the plight of their eastern European compatriots. With the help of many simple sketches of faces, Zweig supplied interpretations and meaning behind them.

After World War I Zweig was an active socialistZionistin Germany. AfterHitler's attempted coup in 1923 he went to Berlin and worked as an editor of a newspaper, theJüdische Rundschau.

1920 - 1933

edit

In the 1920s, Zweig became attracted to the psychoanalytical theories ofSigmund Freudand underwent Freudian therapy. In March 1927 he wrote to Freud asking permission to dedicate his new book to him. In his letter Zweig told Freud: "I personally owe to your psychological therapy the restoration of my whole personality, the discovery that I was suffering from a neurosis and finally the curing of this neurosis by your method of treatment." Freud replied with a warm letter, and their correspondence continued for a dozen years, a momentous period in Germany's history. Their correspondence was published in book form.[3]

In 1927 Zweig published the anti-war novelThe Case of Sergeant Grischa,which made him an international literary figure, with the English version selected in the USA as aBook of the Monthtitle.[4]The theme of his sequence of World War I fiction is that Germany was perverted by brutal men who shifted the purpose of the war from defense to conquest. Major contestants in this struggle are characters in his books. Some, likeKaiser Wilhelm II,Field Marshal von Hindenburg,and commander on the Eastern Front during the last two years of the warPrince Leopold of Bavaria,are named. Others are masked, but would have been easily identified by many readers at the time: for example, GeneralLudendorffis "Schieffenzahn", the politicianMatthias Erzbergeris "Deputy Hemmerle", GeneralMax Hoffmannis "Clauss", and Field Marshalvon Eichhornis "von Lychow".

From 1929 he was a contributing journalist of socialist newspaperDie Weltbühne(World Stage). That year, Zweig would attend one ofHitler's speeches. He told his wife that the man was aCharlie Chaplinwithout the talent.[5]In 1933, Zweig witnessed the destruction of his books in theNazi book burning.He remarked that the crowds "would have stared as happily into the flames if live humans were burning."[6]He decided to leave Germany that night.

Exile in Palestine

edit

When theNazi Partytook power in Germany in 1933, Zweig was one of many Jews who immediately went into exile. Zweig went first toCzechoslovakia,then Switzerland and France. After spending some time withThomas Mann,Lion Feuchtwanger,Anna SeghersandBertolt Brechtin France, he set out forMandatory Palestine,then under British rule.

InHaifa,Palestine, he published a German-language newspaper, theOrient.[7]In Palestine, Zweig became close to a group of German-speaking immigrants who felt distant from Zionism and viewed themselves as refugees or exiles from Europe, where they planned to return. This group includedMax Brod,Else Lasker-SchülerandWolfgang Hildesheimer.[8]During his years in Palestine, Zweig became disillusioned with Zionism and turned tosocialism.

In Haifa, Zweig underwent psychoanalysis withIlja Shalit.[9]His novelsDe Vriendt Goes HomeandA Costly Dreamare partly set in Mandatory Palestine and describe, among other things, the encounter between Zionism, socialism and psychoanalysis. InDe Vriendt Goes Home,a young Zionist, recently immigrated to Palestine from Eastern Europe, kills the Dutch Jew De Vriendt who, on the basis of a more orthodox religious sentiment, was seeking an understanding with the local Arab population.[10]During his stay in Palestine, Zweig may have been the main link between Freud and the local psychoanalytic community.[11]In 1935,Education Before Verdun,the third novel of Zweig's cycleThe Great War of the White Mencame out and, like its predecessorThe Case of Sergeant Grischait was translated into many languages, and, once more, the US edition became aBook of the Monthselection for 1936.[12]

Zweig's 1947 novelThe axe of Wandsbekis based upon theAltona Bloody Sunday(in German:Altonaer Blutsonntag) riot which resulted from the march by theSturmabteilung,the originalparamilitarywing of theNazi Party,inAltonaon 17 July 1932. The march turned violent and resulted in 18 people being shot dead,[13]including four Communists includingBruno Teschwho were beheaded for their alleged involvement in the riot. An East German film,The Axe of Wandsbek,was later made about the riot and was adapted from Zweig's novel. The authorised version of the film, which was 20 minutes shorter than the original, was screened in 1962, in honour of Zweig's 75th birthday.

East Germany

edit

In 1948, after a formal invitation from the East German authorities, Zweig decided to return to theSoviet occupation zonein Germany (which becameEast Germanyin 1949). In East Germany he was in many ways involved in the communist system. He was a member of parliament, delegate to theWorld Peace CouncilCongresses and the cultural advisory board of the communist party. He was President of the DDRAcademy of Arts, Berlinfrom 1950 to 1953.

He was rewarded with many prizes and medals by the regime. TheUSSRawarded him theLenin Peace Prize(1958) for his anti-war novels. He was nominated for theNobel Prize in Literatureseven times.[14]

After 1962, due to poor health, Zweig virtually withdrew from the political and artistic fields. Arnold Zweig died inEast Berlinon 26 November 1968, aged 81.

Bibliography

edit
  • Claudia.Translated by Sutton, Eric. London: M. Secker. 1930.
  • Die Bestie.Munich: Albert Langen. 1914.Retrieved1 June2024.
  • Ritualmord in Ungarn jüdische Tragödie in fünf Aufzügen.Berlin: Hyperionverlag. 1914.Retrieved1 June2024.
  • The face of East European Jewry.Translated by Isenberg, Noah (2nd ed.). Berkeley, California: University of California Press. 2004 [originally 1922].ISBN0-520-21512-5.Retrieved31 May2024.
  • Playthings of time.Translated by Ashton, Emma D. London: Martin Secker. 1935.Retrieved1 June2024.
  • Der große Krieg der weißen Männer[The Great War of the White Men] - a cycle in six parts
  • De Vriendt goes home.Translated by Sutton, Eric. New York: The Viking Press. 1933.Retrieved1 June2024.
  • The living thoughts of Spinoza.Translated by Katz, Eric; Barrows Mussey, June; Elwes, R.H.M. London: Cassell and Company. 1939.Retrieved1 June2024.
  • The axe of Wandsbek.Translated by Sutton, Eric. New York: The Viking Press. 1947 [originally 1943].Retrieved1 June2024.
  • Freud, Ernst L., ed. (1970).The letters of Sigmund Freud & Arnold Zweig.Retrieved1 June2024.
  • Traum ist Teuer[A Costly Dream], Aufbau Verlag, 1962.

Film adaptations

edit

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^Döblin, A.; Feuchtwanger, L.; Seghers, A.; Zweig, A. (2003). Stephan, Alexander (ed.).Early 20th Century German Fiction.New York: Continuum. p. 259.ISBN0-8264-1454-0.Retrieved2 June2024.
  2. ^Isenberg, Noah William (1999),Between Redemption and Doom. The Strains of German-Jewish Modernism,U of Nebraska Press, pp. 59–60,ISBN0803225024.
  3. ^Freud, Ernst L., ed. (1970).The letters of Sigmund Freud & Arnold Zweig;.London: Hogarth Press [for] the Institute of Psychoanalysis.ISBN0701203285.
  4. ^List of the Book of the Month selections for the 1920s
  5. ^Elon 2002,p. 380.
  6. ^Elon 2002,p. 397.
  7. ^Liptzin, Sol (2007). "Zweig, Arnold". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.).Encyclopaedia Judaica(2nd ed.). Detroit, US: Macmillan Reference. p.696.
  8. ^Rolnik, Eran J. (2012) [2007 in Hebrew].Freud in Zion.London: Karnak. p. 107.
  9. ^Rolnik 2012, p. 112.
  10. ^See Jonathan Skolnik, “’Hier wuchsen die historischen Romane wild...’: Arnold Zweig’s De Vriendt kehrt heim,” inArnold Zweig. Sein Werk im Kontext der deutschsprachigen Exilliteratur. Akten des IV. Internationalen Arnold-Zweig-Symposiums Durham, N.C. 1996,edited by Arthur Tilo Alt und Julia Bernhard (Bern: Peter Lang, 1998): 103-10.
  11. ^Rolnik 2012, p. 185.
  12. ^List of the Book of the Month selections for the 1930s
  13. ^Altonaer Stiftung für philosophische Grundlagenforschung,DE:ASFPG.
  14. ^"Nomination Database".www.nobelprize.org.Retrieved2017-04-19.
  15. ^(A previous editor claimed that the translated title 'Education before Verdun' is incorrect and that the correct translation isEducation in Front of Verdun.They did not make any comment about the translation of the contents of the book. The entry below is a modern translation of the book, which has yet another title.

Sources

edit
  • Elon, Amos(2002),The Pity of it All: A History of Jews in Germany 1743-1933,New York: Metropolitan Books

Further reading

edit
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arnold_Zweig&oldid=1231513192"