From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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-	'''''The World of Yesterday''''' (German title '''''Die Welt von Gestern''''') is the [[autobiography]] of [[Austria]]n [[writer]] [[Stefan Zweig]]. It is considered the most famous book on the [[Habsburg Empire]]. He started writing it in 1934 when, anticipating [[Anschluss]] and [[Nazi]] persecution, he uprooted himself from [[Austria]] to England and later to [[Brazil]]. He posted the manuscript, typed by his second wife Lotte Altmann, to the publisher the day before they both committed [[suicide]] in February 1942. The book was first published in [[Stockholm]] (1942), as ''Die Welt von Gestern''. It was first published in English in April 1943 by [[Viking Press]].	+
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-	The book describes life in [[Vienna]] at the start of the 20th century with detailed anecdotes. It depicts the dying days of [[Austria-Hungary]] under Emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria]], including the system of education and the sexual ethics prevalent at the time, the same that provided the backdrop to the emergence of [[psychoanalysis]].	+
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-	According to Zweig, earlier European societies, where religion (i.e. [[Christianity]]) had a central role, condemned sexual impulses as work of the [[devil]]. The late 19th century had abandoned the devil as an explanation of sexuality; hence it lacked a language able to describe and condemn sexual impulses. Sexuality was left unmentioned and unmentionable, though it continued to exist in a parallel world that could not be described, mostly [[prostitution]]. The [[fashion]] at the time contributed to this peculiar oppression by denying the female body and constraining it within corsets.	+
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-	''The World of Yesterday'' details Zweig's career before, during and after [[World War I]]. Of particular interest are Zweig's description of various intellectual personalities, including [[Theodor Herzl]], the founder of [[Zionism]], the composer [[Ferruccio Busoni]], the philosopher and antifascist [[Benedetto Croce]], [[Maxim Gorky]], [[Hugo von Hofmannsthal]], the German industrialist and politician [[Walther Rathenau]] and the pacifist and friend [[Romain Rolland]]. Zweig also met [[Karl Haushofer]] during a trip to India. The two became friends. Haushofer was the founder of [[geopolitics]] and became later an influence on [[Adolf Hitler]]. Always aloof from politics, Zweig did not notice the dark potential of Haushofer's thought; he was surprised when later told of links between Hitler and Haushofer.	+
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-	Notable episodes include the departure from Austria by train of the last Emperor [[Charles I of Austria]] in 1918, the beginning of the [[Salzburg festival]] and the Austrian [[hyperinflation]] of 1921-22. Zweig admitted that as a young man he had not recognized the coming danger of the [[Nazism|Nazis]], who started organizing and agitating in Austria in the 1920s. Zweig was a committed pacifist but hated politics and shunned political engagement. His autobiography shows some reluctance to analyse Nazism as a political ideology; he tended simply to regard it as the rule of one particularly evil man, [[Hitler]]. Zweig was struck that the ''[[Berghof (residence)|Berghof]]'', Hitler's mountain residence in [[Berchtesgaden]], was just across the valley from his own house outside [[Salzburg]]. Berchtesgaden was an area of early Nazi activity. Zweig believed strongly in [[Europeanism]] against [[nationalism]].	+
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-	Zweig also describes his passion for collecting manuscripts, mostly literary and musical.	+
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-	Zweig collaborated in the early 1930s with composer [[Richard Strauss]] on the opera ''[[Die schweigsame Frau]]'', which is based on a [[libretto]] by Zweig. Strauss was then admired by the Nazis, who were not happy that the new opera of their favourite composer had a libretto by a [[Jews|Jewish]] author. Zweig recounts that Strauss refused to withdraw the opera and even insisted that Zweig's authorship of the libretto be credited; the first performance in [[Dresden]] was said to have been authorized by Hitler himself. Zweig thought it prudent not to be present. The run was interrupted after the second performance, as the [[Gestapo]] had intercepted a private letter from Strauss to Zweig in which the elderly composer invited Zweig to write the libretto for another opera. This led, according to Zweig, to Strauss' resignation as president of the [[Reichsmusikkammer]], the Nazi state institute for music.	+
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-	Nothing is said of Zweig's first wife; his second marriage is briefly touched upon. The tragic effects of contemporary [[antisemitism]] are discussed but Zweig does not analyse in detail his Jewish identity.	+
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-	Zweig's friendship with [[Sigmund Freud]] is described towards the end, particularly while both of them lived in London during the last year of Freud's life. The book finishes with the news of the start of [[World War II]].	+
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-	"When I attempt to find a simple formula for the period in which I grew up, prior to the [[First World War]], I hope that I convey its fullness by calling it the Golden Age of Security."	+
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1. REDIRECT Habsburg Monarchy Template:R from alternative nameTemplate:R printworthy