»Ist Judentum Tragödie, so wollen wir sie leben«. Stefan Zweigs kulturpolitische Stellung zur Judenfrage

This article takes up the discussion on Stefan Zweig’s reflection on Judaism in order to analyze his cultural-political position on the Jewish question with a view to some essays from the 1930s and on the basis of some newly published letters, which provide an insight behind the scenes of his public engagement. I argue that Zweig did try to take on a political role with regard to the Jewish question in the 1930s, whereby I understand politics as an action determined by the question of the right order of society. The reconstruction is inspired by Hannah Arendt’s reflections on the Jewish question, which are set out in the essay on Stefan Zweig (1943), in the biography of Rahel Varnhagen and in the essay We Refugees (1943).