The World of Yesterday: An Autobiography

Although Zweig notes at multiple points in his memoir that he did not set out to create a historical account of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the cataclysmic events of that era played a profound role in his life, and a better understanding of the history surrounding the end of the Habsburg Empire and World War I and World War II is helpful background when reading this text.

At the time of Zweig’s birth, Austria was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, a vast alliance controlled by the Habsburg dynasty that contained not only Austria and Hungary but also the lands that would become Czechoslovakia, Poland, and parts of Romania, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia, and even portions of Italy. Russia, France, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire were also “great” powers in Europe during that era, and within the first few decades of Zweig’s lifetime, shifting alliances, economic competition, militarism, and the rise of nationalism in multiple European states created an unstable political atmosphere. The decline of the Ottoman Empire led to a power vacuum in the Balkans, which Austria-Hungary sought to exploit. Although the events leading up to World War I are complex and still debated (and were unclear even to Zweig as he penned his memoir), one event stands out both within the broader historical framework of the era and this narrative in particular: the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (presumptive heir to the Habsburg throne) and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo (Bosnia) on June 28, 1914.

The history behind this assassination, however, dates back to the Treaty of Berlin, signed in 1878, which gave Austria-Hungary the right to occupy Bosnia, formerly an Ottoman province, and granted neighboring Serbia sovereign status. The Serbian ruling family at the time, headed by King Milan I, was brutally assassinated in 1903, and the leader installed in his place, Peter I, was far more nationalistic than his predecessor, and was allied more closely with Russia than Austria-Hungary. Not content to rule over the Serbia that emerged from the Ottoman empire, Peter I wanted to reclaim lost territory and return Serbia to the glory of its own 14th-century empire. This led to The Bosnian Crisis of 1908-1909, the Balkan wars of 1912-1913, and intense anger in Serbia over Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia. The assassination of the archduke was a response to what the Serbian state viewed as unacceptable territorial encroachment and a threat to its sovereignty. Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were killed on June 28, 1914, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian-Serb nationalist associated with the Black Hand, a secret society dedicated to the creation of a “Greater Serbia” that would contain the Bosnian territory annexed by Austria-Hungary. The date of June 28 is of great importance to Serbia, and the archduke’s assassination on that day would have been a nationalist signal to people all over the Balkans. Celebrated as Vidovdan, or Saint Vitus Day, June 28 is a day of remembrance for Saint Prince Lazar, who was defeated by the Ottoman army at the battle of Kosovo on June 28, 1389. It was then that the Kingdom of Serbia fell to the Ottomans, a hostile empire that would occupy Serbia and its surrounding lands for centuries. It was, and remains, a day deeply tied to Serbian identity and Serbian nationalism, and the archduke represented yet another occupying force that imperiled Serbian sovereignty in the Balkans. Because the assassination seemed so steeped in Balkan history, Zweig notes that he and many others did not immediately grasp its significance. And yet, it led to an ultimatum, given to Serbia by Austria-Hungary, supported by Germany. Serbia was to investigate the assassination, accept the occupation of Bosnia, and cease anti-Austro-Hungarian propaganda and organization. Serbia, with the backing of Russia, acquiesced to only some of Austria-Hungary’s demands, leading to Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia. Because of the complex system of alliances in Europe at that time, Russia and France mobilized in support of Serbia, and Germany mobilized in support of Austria-Hungary. Europe was now at war.

As Zweig notes in his description of the immediate period following the end of the World War I, the defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary was disastrous for the socioeconomic conditions in each state. Food, fuel, and warm clothing were in short supply, and Zweig details the difficulties endured by populations in both Austria and Germany as the result of inflation and unstable currency. Zweig also notes the disdain that many in Europe held for Germans and Austrians after the war; in Germany there was a particularly strong resentment against the European states that had emerged victorious from the war, were not in economic crisis, and looked down upon German and Austrian citizens. It was against the backdrop of this period of difficulty that National Socialism, or Nazism as it is commonly referred to in the United States, took root. Nazism is a form a fascism, a far-right political ideology that eschews democracy and equality in favor of nationalism, militarism, autocracy, the suppression of dissent and opposition, and the fiction of a “natural” social hierarchy. In the case of Nazism, this “natural” social hierarchy was based on race, and the Nazi Party was markedly antisemitic and anti-Slavic.

Hitler, the head of the National Socialist party, curried favor among a variety of political factions through his opposition to far-left ideologies that were sweeping Europe and had led to the revolution in Russia and the creation of the Soviet State. However, his ultimate goal was the creation of a racially homogenous “Greater Germany” that would not only reclaim historically German territory but also add to the territory. He revealed this plan, as well as some of his more nefarious, genocidal intentions, only incrementally, and that was also part of his appeal: Although he spoke to antisemitic prejudices already present within German society and did use Germany’s Jewish population as a scapegoat for the economic downturn, he did so using rhetoric that was meant to appeal to rather than alienate the bulk of the population. A major focal point in Zweig’s reflections is the way that extremism takes root within society, and how easy it was for Europeans to ignore extremism during the lead up to both World War I and World War II. Zweig points readers toward the way that Hitler, rather than unleashing his evil all at once, asked Europeans to swallow his various ideas, policy changes, and rollbacks of rights “one pill at a time” (290).