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Freud's friendship with the novelist Arnold Zweig began in 1927 when Zweig approached Freud in a letter asking permission to dedicate a book to him. The ensuing correspondence continued until Freud's death in 1939. Zweig, who was Freud's junior by thirty years, admired him almost to the point of worship. He addressed him as ‘Father Freud’ and treasured Freud's gift of his picture as an ‘Old Jew’. Freud, in his turn, was somewhat reserved and reticent, but clearly had a great admiration for Zweig's work, and his warm affection towards Zweig slowly grew in the course of these letters.
As Jewish intellectuals rooted in German culture both men were, of course, deeply affected by the rise of Hitler, Freud in his old age more detached and resigned than Zweig, who was at first ardently pro-Zionist and went to live in Palestine in 1933. He was unhappy there, however, and felt himself to be alien. He became disillusioned with Zionism and eventually returned to Germany after the war.
By far the most interesting aspect of the correspondence is the interchange of creative