"Ich habe manchmal eine Art physischer Sehnsucht nach Ihnen": Stefan Zweig und Max Brod

Abstract: At the beginning of the 1900s, Stefan Zweig met with representatives of Prague's German literature for the first time, and he participated in occasional literary projects. It was likely in this context that Zweig encountered the writer Max Brod. So far, this connection has received little attention from literary scholars, although the two authors engaged in a friendly relationship that stretched back to the early 1900s. Brod, known particularly as a member and namesake of the "Prague Circle," served as a catalyst not only in a literary sense: Through his commitment to the idea of Zionism, he contributed to the sharpening of Jewish self-understanding, among other things. In their correspondence, which lasted until the end of the 1930s, Zweig and Brod explored their agreements and disagreements regarding their literary work, political-ideological convictions, and Jewish heritage.