"Incipit Hitler" : Stefan Zweig und der Nationalsozialismus

Stefan Zweig, like many other German writers, was long time not able to assess what the German "Nationalsozialismus" or Adolf Hitler really means. In September 1930 - after the triumphant success in the elections - he wrote in an article that this has been only kind of understandable and respectable protest of the youth against old politics and politicians. Klaus Mann, eldest son of Thomas Mann, criticized this position and tried to warn Stefan Zweig and with him all intellectuals who underestimate the real danger of Nationalsozialismus. Not until his emigration from Austria Zweig became aware of what Hitler really means and tried to widerstand the phenomena as historical. Through books like "Triumph und Tragik des Erasmus von Rotterdam" he took part in the opposition against Hitler. But Stefan Zweig has always been a "nonpolitical writer" and so he failed and never came to terms with political radicalism and its roots.