Note on Arnold Zweig from The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Arnold Zweig

Arnold Zweig was born in 1887 at Glogau, Silesia, the son of a saddler. Gifted with an exceptional mind, he studied history, philosophy, and literature at various German universities. In 1913 he made his first mark in literature, with the novel Novellen um Claudia (translated into English as Claudia).

When World War I broke out, Zweig, like so many of his contemporaries, volunteered for army service and fought as a private in France, Hungary, and Serbia. He left the army a confirmed pacifist. The novel that established his international fame, The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1927), is based on his own combat experiences. It was the first of a cycle of war novels, among them Education Before Verdun (1935).

In 1933 Zweig emigrated via France to Palestine. He returned to his native East Germany in 1948, following an invitation of the East German government. There he was made president of the East German Academy of Arts and awarded the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union for his series of anti-war novels. He died in East Berlin, almost totally blind, in 1968.