Abstract:
This article critically investigates correspondence between Leipzig publisher, Anton
Kippenberg and Austrian author and literary adviser Stefan Zweig. None of the letters,
which date from WWI, have been published before. It has been generally accepted that
the years 1915-16 marked a turning point between Zweig’s involvement in the war and
his later pacificist stance resulting in his emigration to Switzerland. His letters to
Katharina and Anton Kippenberg, however, provide evidence that such a turning point
cannot be verified given his overall ambivalent attitude during the war. Zweig’s motivation
in opposing the publication of Polish literature by Insel-Verlag, his nationalist
and patriotic vocabulary as well as his advances towards a post in occupied Belgium
show that after 1915 Zweig rather displayed a conformist stance. Moreover, as an important
member in the literary scene at the time, Zweig was able to skillfully manipulate
the circumstances of the war and the rhetoric it entailed.
