The Austrian author has received the National Order of the Southern Cross. A hillside house in Petropolis was Zweig's final home and workplace after he fled Austria — and where he eventually took his life.
Image: picture-alliance/akg-images
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The Casa Stefan Zweig announced on Monday that Austrian Ambassador Irene Giner-Reichl had accepted Brazil's highest award for foreign citizens, the National Order of the Southern Cross (ONCS), from Brazilian Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes on behalf of the deceased Austrian author.
Persecuted by the National Socialists, Stefan Zweig fled Austria in 1934 via Britain, the US, Argentina and Paraguay, before finally arriving in Brazil in 1940. There he settled with his wife Lotte in Petropolis some 68 kilometers (42 miles) north of Rio de Janeiro. In his hillside house he wrote his world famous novella "The Royal Game."
The Casa Zweig is now a museum dedicated to the Austrian authorImage: Manfred Grietens
The museum and small memorial site opened in 2012. According to the head of the Casa Stefan Zweig, Kristina Michahelles, the house's "main objective is to make younger generations aware of the Austrian author's humanist and pacifist thinking, his body of work and his life."
Zweig's gratitude towards Brazil
The house witnessed a tragic event: In the night of February 22-23,1942, Zweig and his wife Lotte committed suicide by overdosing on painkillers. In his suicide note, the author stated that he saw it as his duty "to give heartfelt thanks to this wonderful country Brazil that has been so hospitable to me and my work." The loss of Zweig's former life in Europe and desperation about the triumph of the Nazis are seen as the likely reason for his suicide.
He completed his monumental memoir "The World of Yesterday," about the twilight of the golden Habsburg era of culture at the start of the 20th century, the day before he took his life.
Zweig, born in 1881 in Vienna, became one of the most popular and acclaimed German-language authors in the 1920s after his breakthrough with the 1922 novella "Amok." His numerous thoroughly researched and meticulousl written portraits of historical figues such as writers Honore Balzac, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky and French Revolution queen Marie Antoinette, also earned him fame. These portraits also came to serve as important documents describing the eras during which these artists lived.
When anti-German sentiment was running high in the English-language world, his works were published in translation without his consent under the pseudonym "Stephen Branch" (a literal translation of his real name).
In 2016 a new biopic about Zweig's life in exile, entitled 'Farewell to Europe,' movie theaters. Above, Josef Hader plays Zweig in the film.Image: X Verleih
High-ranking laureates
The National Order of the Southern Cross was introduced in 1822 by Brazilian Emperor Pedro I under a previous title, the Imperial Order of the Cross. While the Imperial order could be bestowed on Brazilian civilians and foreigners alike, the National Order is reserved for non-nationals.
Over the course of time, kings, presidents and politicians have been honored by the ONCS, among them Queen Elizabeth II, former US president Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Che Guevara. A high-ranking jury consisting of Brazil's president, foreign minister and other political representatives decide on the laureates.
'Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe'
Persecuted by the Nazis, author Stefan Zweig fled to Brazil - where he ultimately took his own life. A new film by Maria Schrader explores his time in exile, and puts Europe's ongoing refugee crisis into perspective.
Image: X Verleih
Life in exile
Stefan Zweig, the most-translated German-language writer of his time alongside Thomas Mann, felt his life was threatened in Europe with the rise of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s. The Nazis banned Zweig's works early on. Born in Vienna in 1881, Zweig made the difficult decision to leave his homeland for London in 1934, and after a stopover in the US eventually settled in Brazil in 1940.
Image: X Verleih
Second directorial effort
German actress Maria Schrader has had a successful career on film and stage for years. In 2007, she tried her hand at directing with her first film, an impressive adaptation of the novel "Love Life" by Israeli author Zeruya Shalev. "Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe" is Schrader's second directorial effort.
Image: Imago/Future Image/T. Bartilla
Six cinematic episodes
Schrader's film isn't a strict narrative retelling of the author's biography. Instead, she has divided Zweig's life in exile into six cinematic episodes. In the prologue, the famous author (portrayed by Josef Hader, right) arrives at a reception in Buenos Aires, greeted like a state visitor with a lavish banquet.
Image: X Verleih
No political mouthpiece
Coinciding with his 1936 arrival in Buenos Aires is the 14th International Congress of PEN International, an internationally esteemed conference of writers who welcomed Zweig as guest of honor. Many expected Zweig to distance himself from Germany with harsh words and condemnation. But he remained skeptical. He didn't see himself as a political mouthpiece - and Germany remained his cultural home.
Image: X Verleih
Life in Bahia
The third episode in Schrader's film shows Zweig and his second wife Lotte (Aenne Schwarz) at home in Bahia, in northeastern Brazil. It was there that the author, so deeply rooted in European culture and history, wrote a book on South America: "Brazil: A Land of the Future."
Image: X Verleih
A meeting in New York
Zweig's exile in Brazil was interrupted in 1941 by a meeting with his first wife Friderike (Barbara Sukowa) in New York. The former couple still had a friendly relationship. She, too, had fled Europe and brought with her a stack of petitions, urging Zweig to commit himself to the cause of Europe's oppressed authors. But the writer himself was in a precarious situation.
Image: X Verleih
Solitude in Petropolis
After his visit to the US, Zweig once again headed back to Brazil, looking for peace and quiet. Along with his second wife, he moved to the town of Petropolis, a two-hour drive north of Rio de Janeiro. It was there that writer Ernst Feder (Matthias Brandt), the former head of the newspaper "Berliner Tageblatt," came looking for him. Feder became a close confidant of the exiled writer.
Image: X Verleih
Death in exile
But despite all the peace and seclusion, life wasn't easy for Stefan Zweig. The loss of his homeland was unbearable and the feeling of powerlessness to change the terrible course of events in Europe was too much to cope with. Zweig and his wife Lotte committed double suicide in February 1942.
