Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future: The (His)story of an Uneasy Relationship

Author(s): Theo Harden

Source: Austrian Studies , Vol. 23, Translating Austria (2015), pp. 72-87
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/austrianstudies.23.2015.0072

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future:
The (His)story of an Uneasy Relationship
Theo Har den

Universidade de Brasília

Stefan Zweig and his work enjoy periodic revivals, the latest of which started a
number of years ago and is still on-going to some extent. A new biography by
George Prochnik was published in 2014, the same year in which Wes Anderson’s
The Grand Budapest Hotel was released, a film inspired by three of Zweig’s
novels.1 There have also been a number of articles debating Zweig’s literary
merits or else lack of them, for instance, the review of The World of Yesterday
by Michael Hofmann that Stuart Walton classified as a ‘red card tackle’. To
Walton’s mind Hofmann nevertheless ‘has a point’, as Zweig is, after all, only a
‘pedestrian stylist’.2 There are, of course, also those who rush to Zweig’s defence,
as the reactions to Hofmann’s attack demonstrate.3 More than seventy years
after his suicide, Zweig certainly still has the potential to elicit strong opinions,
both positive and negative. This can be seen as a kind of late satisfaction for an
author who, despite his commercial success and intimacy with many prominent
figures of his time, was never held in high esteem by his peers. Some of them,
such as Zweig’s friend Romain Rolland, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1915, are
now almost forgotten, whereas Zweig still commands attention.
However, one of Zweig’s most influential books, Brazil: Land of the Future, is
hardly ever mentioned in Europe, and when it is, then only in passing.4 This
1
George Prochnik, The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World (London,
2014). The Grand Budapest Hotel, directed by Wes Anderson (American Empirical Pictures
et al. 2014). The film was inspired by Ungeduld des Herzens, Die Welt von Gestern and
Vierundzwanzig Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau and won four Academy Awards in
2015.
2
Michael Hofmann, ‘Vermicular Dither’, London Review of Books, 32.2 (28 January 2010),
pp. 9–12; [Stuart Walton], ‘Stefan Zweig? Just a pedestrian stylist’, The Guardian, 26 March
2010, <http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/mar/26/stefan-zweig-michael-
hofmann> [accessed 15 March 2015].
3
See the blogs of the online-version of both articles <http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n02/
michael-hofmann/vermicular-dither>, e.g. Letters. Vol. 32 No. 3 (11 February 2010); Vol. 32
No. 4 (25 February 2010); Vol. 32 No. 5 (11 March 2010).
4
There are a number of studies on Zweig’s time in Brazil, most of them inspired by the
monumental biography by Alberto Dines, Morte no Paraíso. A Tragédia de Stefan Zweig,
4th ed. (Rio de Janeiro, 2012). To name only a few: Stefan and Lotte Zweig’s South American
Letters: New York, Argentina and Brazil, 1940–42, ed. by Darién J. Davis and Oliver Marshall
(London, 2010); Die letzte Partie, ed. by Ingrid Schwamborn (Bielefeld, 1999). See also
Austrian Studies 23 (2015), 72–87
© Modern Humanities Research Association 2015

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future 73
is strange in as much as it is not only a controversial and atypical work within
Zweig’s oeuvre, but also unusual as a case study of translation.
Zweig was Austria’s most internationally acclaimed author of the 1930s and
1940s; translations of his books were bestsellers worldwide. But even in the case
of popular authors such as Zweig, translations normally only follow success
at home. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, one of which was Brazil:
Land of the Future. In 1941, the original, Brasilien. Ein Land der Zukunft, was
published simultaneously with translations into English, French and Spanish,
as well as into peninsular and Brazilian Portuguese. The Brazilian version was
in many ways far more successful than the original and also had a far greater
and longer lasting impact. Its history and message are still a topic for polemical
discussion in Brazil, not least because its title — ‘país do futuro’, ‘land of the
future’ — has become an enduring epithet.

I
Stefan Zweig spent eight years in exile, in England, the USA and finally in
Brazil, a country which he loved and which impressed him so profoundly that
he wrote a book about it. The decision to seek exile in Brazil was based to a very
large extent on Zweig’s first encounter with the country in 1936 when he made
a stopover in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo on his way to the PEN congress in
Buenos Aires. His Brazilian editor, Abrahão Koogan, owner of the Guanabara
Publishing Company, had managed to arrange an official invitation through the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to promote Zweig’s already hugely popular
works further. Arriving in Rio de Janeiro by ship is by all accounts spectacular,
even today, and Zweig was suitably impressed. ‘Diese Stadt hat Magie’ [this city
possesses magic], he wrote in his diary.5 He was warmly received, wined and
dined, and taken to one of the most popular vantage points in the world: the top
of the Sugar Loaf. The view, magnificent indeed, inspired the following lines:
Sie [die Nacht] sinkt herab mit einer kaum vorstellbaren Schwärze,
das Meer wird starr wie schwarzes Metall. Und plötzlich erhellt sich,
grandioses Schauspiel, die Stadt. Wie eine gekrümmte Schlange läuft die
ununterbrochene Lichterkette alle die Buchten, die Urca, die Flamenga [...].
Gleichzeitig beginnt der Kern der Stadt, die amerikanischen Hochbauten,
zu strahlen, ein herrliches Fanal und all dies in einer Luft, die klar ist
und weich zugleich — man fühlt den Arom der nahen Wälder darin. [...]

Marion Sommerfeld, The World of Yesterday’s Humanist Today: A Critical Assessment of the
Current Situation (New York, 1981); Donald A. Prater, European of Yesterday: A Biography
of Stefan Zweig (Teaneck/NJ, 2003).
5
Stefan Zweig, Tagebücher, ed. by Knut Beck (Frankfurt a. M., 1988), p. 401. Claude Lévi-
Strauss, however, did not share this view: ‘I do not respond at all to the renowned “beauty”
of the bay of Rio de Janeiro. How shall I put it? Simply that the landscape of Rio is not built
to the scale of its own proportions.’ Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, trans. by John
Russel (London, 1961), p. 83.

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74 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future
Eine herrliche Urnatur, in die [die] Civilisation ihr Licht getan hat,– mit
Erschütterung genießt man diese unvorstellbare Schönheit und möchte
gar nicht fort: gewiß keine Stadt der Erde hat einen ähnlichen Anblick zu
verschenken.6
[The night descends with almost unimaginable blackness, the sea becomes
rigid like black metal. And suddenly, in a magnificent spectacle, the city
lights up. Like a coiled snake the uninterrupted chain of lights runs around
all the bays, the Urca, the Flamenga. At the same time the core of the city,
the American-style skyscrapers, begins to gleam, a resplendent beacon
and all this bathed by air that is both clear and mild — in which one can
sense the aroma of the nearby forests. Magnificent primeval nature, into
which civilization has shone its light — deeply moved, one delights in this
unimaginable beauty and wishes to stay forever: there can surely be no
other city in the world that offers a comparable sight.]
This experience set the stage for the relationship between Zweig and Brazil:
pure enchantment.7
But was this love for a country which he knew only superficially — the Zweigs
spent a total of about thirteen months in Brazil — the sole or main reason for
composing Brazil: Land of the Future? This question is still at the very heart of
the internal Brazilian discussion. Was it only enthusiasm, or were motives of a
different kind involved? In the light of Zweig’s suicide only a couple of months
after the publication of the commercially hugely successful book, it is indeed
difficult to believe that the author was driven by passion alone, at least from the
perspective of a Brazilian intellectual readership.8 Why would someone who
had no financial problems, was socially integrated and had apparently found
his paradise commit suicide?
From the very beginning in June 1941 when the book was published, there
were rumours that Brasil, País do Futuro was part of a deal between Zweig and
the Brazilian government. Grounds for suspicion also included the incredible
ease and speed with which Stefan and Lotte Zweig obtained their permanent
residence permit. At the time they arrived in Brazil with the obvious intention
of staying for good, official legislation did not allow for this. The immigration
of Jews was prohibited by laws which were enforced quite vigorously — Claude

6
Zweig, Tagebücher, p. 401.
7
This kind of enchantment coupled with visions of a wonderful future has a long tradition.
See the publications by N. R. de Leuw, Brazilië. Een land der toekomst (Amsterdam, 1909),
Heinrich Schuler, Brasilien, ein Land der Zukunft (Stuttgart, 1912); Francesco Bianco, Il
paese dell’avvenire (Rome, 1922); Isaiah Raffalovich, Brazilye: A tsukunftsland far idisher
emigratsye (Berlin, 1928). Even the famous letter written in 1500 by Pero Vaz de Camiha to
Manoel I, King of Portugal, describing the newly discovered Brazil, can be included in this
category.
8
For further details see Ingrid Schwamborn, ‘Stefan Zweigs ungeschriebenes Buch:
Getúlio Vargas’, in Stefan Zweig im Zeitgeschehen des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Thomas
Eicher (Oberhausen, 2003), pp. 129–58 (p. 137).

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future 75
Levi-Strauss was not granted a visa, for example.9 The Zweigs, however, obtained
their ‘permanência’ without any difficulties and without being required to fulfil
any particular conditions; under the circumstances, it comes as no surprise
that this gave rise to speculations. Alberto Dines, one of the eminent Brazilian
specialists on all matters concerning Zweig, is quite convinced that their special
treatment is only explicable in terms of a tacit agreement:
Mas é preciso que se diga e de forma inequívoca: existem provas de que
Stefan Zweig efetivamente fez um ‘negócio’ com o governo brasileiro —
escreveu o livro em troca dos vistos de residência para ele e para a mulher.
Não houve um contrato, mas um entendimento. A velocidade com que o
governo autorizou a concessão dos vistos dispensando o casal de qualquer
documentação atesta um privilégio que confronta de forma ostensiva
a má-vontade e a desumanidade com que o governo Vargas tratou os
refugiados do nazismo, sobretudo os judeus.10
[But it is necessary to state in no uncertain terms that there is proof that
Stefan Zweig definitely made a ‘deal’ with the Brazilian government — he
wrote the book in exchange for the permanent visa for himself and his wife.
There was no contract, but there was an understanding. The speed with
which the government authorised the issuing of the visas without requiring
any documentation demonstrates a kind of privileged treatment which is in
stark contrast to the ill will and the inhumane way with which the Vargas
government treated those fleeing from the Nazis, particularly when they
were of Jewish origin.]
Adelaide Maristela Stoos, however, in her thoroughly researched PhD thesis of
2009, is far more cautious and, with reference to Ingrid Schwamborn,11 suggests
that the mystery of the visa has not yet been solved and probably never will
be:
Contudo, a influência da família Vargas, seja na questão do visto permanente
ou da obra escrita sobre o Brasil, ainda não pode ser comprovada até
o momento. Resumidamente Ingrid Schwamborn conclui que o preço
e a origem do visto permanente são um segredo histórico e, completa
afirmando que, apesar de todas as discussões, há uma certeza: a de que o
autor escreveu Brasil, país do futuro por vontade e desejo próprios.12

9
For a more detailed analysis of Jewish immigration to Brazil see Jeff Lesser, Welcoming
the Undesirables: Brazil and the Jewish Question (Berkeley, 1995), pp. 92–183.
10
Alberto Dines, A invenção do paraíso no inferno do Estado Novo, Casa Stefan Zweig,
<http://www.casastefanzweig.org.br/sec_texto_view.php?id=18>, no year [accessed 15 March
2015].
11
Ingrid Schwamborn, ‘Fatale Attraktion — Stefan Zweig und Brasilien’, in Die letzte
Partie: Stefan Zweigs Leben und Werk in Brasilien (1932–1942) (Bielefeld, 1999), pp. 67–113 (p.
85).
12
Adelaide Maristela Stoos, O espaço brasileiro e as (im)possibilidades utópicas nas obras
de Stefan Zweig e de Hugo Loetscher, PhD thesis (Universidade Federal do Paraná, 2004),
p. 22 <http://dspace.c3sl.ufpr.br/dspace/bitstream/handle/1884/19428/ADELAIDE-TESE-
Definitiva-jun09.pdf?sequence=1> [accessed 15 March 2015].

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76 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future
[Whether the Vargas family had any influence on either the question of
permanent residence or on the book on Brazil cannot be proved. Thus,
Ingrid Schwamborn concludes that the price and the origins of the
permanent visa will remain a historical mystery; she goes on to say that,
despite all the debates, there can only be one certainty: that the author of
Brazil, Land of the Future wrote the book of his own free will.]
Nevertheless, the matter of the visa remains somewhat mystifying, particularly
in the light of the quite open anti-Semitism within the top echelons of the
government. There is, however, another argument to support the suspicion
of a secret deal. It seems unlikely that an intellectual like Zweig, who had
travelled quite extensively, should become so besotted by a place like Brazil,
where, despite all its beauty, one did not have to probe too deeply to uncover the
troubling state of affairs in the 1930s and 40s, decades shaped by the towering
figure of Getúlio Vargas.
Getúlio Vargas is both an extremely controversial and an extremely imp­
ortant figure in recent Brazilian history. His programme Estado Novo [New
State] and the changes it brought about could be called revolutionary in that
political power shifted, at least partially, from the land owning upper class
to the urban middle classes. He managed to reduce illiteracy considerably,
he introduced legislation which protected the rights of workers, and he even
created a small economic miracle. He was popular and a populist, ‘Pai dos
Pobres’ [Father of the Poor] on the one hand and a stout anti-communist
on the other. He also ruled without proper democratic legitimization for
most of his time as president. The Estado Novo was in many ways a fully
developed dictatorship, with all the unsavoury collateral effects of such a form
of government: persecution of political adversaries, censorship, very limited
freedom of the press, and so on. Furthermore, Vargas flirted with the fascist
regimes in Italy and Germany, showing open admiration for both, although
more for Mussolini than for Hitler.13 Zweig might be excused for not paying any
attention to this on his first, short visit in 1936, as the Vargas system was still in
its infancy then. In 1941, however, there was no denying the true nature of the
government, and Zweig did not even try. In the introduction to Brazil: Land of
the Future we read: ‘And today, though considered to be a dictatorship, Brazil
knows more individual freedom and contentment than most of our European
countries’ (p. 13).14 For most contemporary Brazilian intellectuals, this was an
inexplicable and unnecessary kowtow coming from the great Stefan Zweig,
humanist, pacifist and, above all, fugitive from a dictatorship himself.
13
For comprehensive analysis of the Vargas government see Maria Celina Soares d’Araújo,
O Estado Novo: Descobrindo Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 2000); and Jens R. Hentschke, Estado
Novo: Genesis und Konsolidierung der brasilianischen Diktatur von 1937. Eine Fallstudie zu
den sozioökonomischen und politischen Transformationen in Lateinamerika im Umfeld der
Großen Depression (Saarbrücken, 1996).
14
All parenthetical page references in the text refer to Stefan Zweig, Brazil: Land of the
Future, trans. by Andrew St. James (New York, 1941). Other translations in the text are mine,
unless otherwise indicated.

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future 77
II
Even if we give Zweig the benefit of the doubt with regard to the suspicion that
the book was at least partially written in return for receiving a permanent visa,
we are still confronted with a rather puzzling text that is difficult to classify.
There is, for example, the omission in the Brazilian version of the indefinite
article of the German title, ‘ein Land der Zukunft’, which renders it distinctly
more propaganda-like than the German original.15 Another oddity is the
epigraph. It is taken from a letter that the Austrian diplomat Graf Prokesch
Osten sent to Arthur de Gobineau, whose Essai sur l’inégalité des races
humaines is considered to have contributed to the formulation of the kind of
European racism that had forced Zweig to leave Austria.16 It is also difficult
to determine the genre of Brazil: Land of the Future. There can be no doubt
that it includes elements of travelogue. However, what the narrator saw and
experienced while travelling and the intense way in which he tries to convey
this to his readers is more than a narrative of the travel literature genre would
require, as will be discussed later. And from the very beginning, discussions
arose as to why the book should be translated almost immediately into both
varieties of Portuguese.17 It might be supposed that a book on Brazil written
by a foreign author be of only marginal interest to a Brazilian readership. All
in all, it is no wonder that there was mistrust and doubt amongst the Brazilian
intellectual elite concerning the purity of Zweig’s motives.18
A look at the text itself may help to reveal the reasons for all the aggression,
the accusations and defamations which the translation provoked in Brazil.
More than half of the book is taken up by three extensive chapters on Brazilian
history, economy and culture, in which the author gives a detailed and well-
informed account of all three areas — without, however, mentioning any
sources, a fact that was used by his critics to help justify their harsh verdicts.
Providing information of this type has a long tradition in travel writing,
but Zweig’s excitement and universally positive attitude give these chapters
an almost propagandistic undertone. From his perspective, the history of
Brazil took its course without any major upheavals, smoothly and peacefully.
Rebellions like the ‘Inconfidência Mineira’ are treated as insignificant, marginal
and local, organised by ‘men who love discussion, who are inspired by books
and ideas, who love talking, and who in this particular case talk too much’
15
The German edition of 1941, published in Stockholm, does have the indefinite article,
Brasilien. Ein Land der Zukunft. The Brazilian, Portuguese and English editions do not:
Brasil, País do Futuro; Brazil: Land of the Future.
16
Arthur de Gobineau, Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines, 4 vols. (Paris, 1853–55). The
epigraph was omitted in subsequent editions.
17
For a detailed analysis of this question see Adelaide Stooss-Herbertz, ‘Os leitores e as
leituras da obra de Stefan Zweig no Brasil’, Fenix: Revista de história e estudos culturais, 4
(2007), 1–17.
18
Zweig defended himself rather lamely in an interview given to the weekly Vamos Ler!
[Let’s read] — an infelicitous choice in any case as it was a government publication. Vamos
Ler! 23 October 1941, pp. 18–19 and pp. 52–53.

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78 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future
(p. 64). Slavery, a prominent feature of the Brazilian economy until its late
abolishment in 1888, is portrayed as perhaps not very humane, but necessary:
‘In spite of the high prices, the acquisition of Negroes remains for the owner of
a fazenda as indispensable as that of hoe and plough. A strong Negro if properly
whipped from time to time will work twelve hours a day without wages [...]’
(p. 92). The ‘bandeirantes’, mercenaries and adventurers notorious for their
brutality, are made to sound harmless as ‘those daring rascals from São Paulo’
(p. 233), and independence is presented as a mere formality (p. 69). Compared to
the bloodshed in the Spanish colonies, Brazilian independence was a relatively
painless process, but it was by no means as easy as Zweig tries to make his
readers believe. Thus, the overall message is: in contrast to bloody European
history, Brazil developed peacefully with only a small number of minor hiccups.
Considering these unnecessary inaccuracies (Zweig was conversant with most
of the relevant literature) the question as to his motivations for this approach
surfaces once again. For influential parts of the Brazilian readership the only
explanation could be that his motive was to advertise Brazil: not any Brazil, but
Getúlio Vargas’s Estado Novo, because the extraordinarily serene past which
Zweig depicts is cast as a natural basis for the equally peaceable present. He
denies, for example, any racial tensions: ‘But to one’s great surprise one soon
realizes that all these different races visibly distinct by their colour alone live
in fullest harmony with one another’ (p. 7). The exaggeration is blatant and it
further fuelled the doubts about Zweig’s agenda.
The epitome of this perceived wonderland was the capital, Rio de Janeiro.
For Zweig, as indicated above, it was love at first sight which lasted until the
very end:
The beauty of this town, this scenery, is not easy to describe. It defies
words; it defies photography; for it is too varied, too overwhelming, too
inexhaustible. Even an artist wanting to reveal Rio in its entirety, with all
its thousand colours and its landscape, could not complete such a work
in a lifetime; because Nature in an exceptional mood of extravagance has
concentrated here into a small space all the elements of scenic beauty which
elsewhere are distributed over whole countries (p. 166).
‘Everything here is harmonious: the city and the sea and the green and the
mountains, all of these flow into each other like music’ (p. 173).
But it is not only the spectacular scenery, even poverty and neglect acquire
a unique quality which has the power to enchant the aimlessly strolling Stefan
Zweig, who, indeed, shows a remarkable resemblance to the Benjaminian
‘flaneur’, inasmuch as ‘[e]mpathy is the nature of the intoxication to which the
flâneur abandons himself in the crowd. He enjoys the incomparable privilege
of being himself and someone else as he sees fit. Like a roving soul in search of
a body, he enters another person whenever he wishes’.19
19
Walter Benjamin, Charles Baudelaire: a Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism (London,
1983) p. 55.

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future 79
[A]nd actually I prefer the narrow, neglected, nameless streets, which allow
one to wander about without knowing where one is going, whose natural
southern charm is a constant joy, and whose general effect is all the more
romantic the poorer, the more original, the less pretentious they are (p. 189).
Instead of ‘favelas’ with their international reputation for being some of the
most dangerous places in the world, Zweig encountered rather idyllic areas,
inhabited by gentle people:
Wherever one goes in its deserted streets and poorest quarters, one is
confronted with the same politeness; even where houses give way to huts
and where the streets end up between rocks and trees, one has a feeling that
these people are content with the minimum from life, thanks to their innate
thrift and moderation (p. 191).
The problems which could not be ignored even from Zweig’s perspective, for
example, the difficulty of transporting goods and people in such a vast country,
will be solved in the future, he assures his readers:
The mastery of its own gigantic space, this crux of Brazilian economic
problems, is already theoretically solved. Who knows whether the present
transport difficulties may not be overcome in no time at all by the invention
of some new kind of aeroship or by some other discovery of which our
imagination does not yet dare to dream (p. 131).
The chapters on history and economy did not provide any new insights for
Zweig’s Brazilian contemporaries. The interesting part for them began with
the description of Brazilian culture and everyday life, in which the Brazilian
reader encounters a number of flattering descriptions of him or herself,20
such as: ‘The Brazilian is a quiet person, dreamy and sentimental, sometimes
with a touch of melancholy’ (p. 139); ‘Even in their personal behaviour their
manners are subdued. One seldom hears anyone talk loudly, and less often
lose his temper. And particularly when crowds gather one notices more clearly
this, to us, very striking quietness’ (p. 139); ‘To make a noise, to shout, to dance
wildly, is entirely contrary to their habits’ (p. 140). This gentle disposition has,
of course, an impact on social interaction in general: ‘The various classes meet
with courtesy and affection astounding to anyone coming from Europe, that
continent which has grown so uncivilized in recent years’ (ibid.); ‘Here courtesy
is the basis of human relationship, accepting forms which we in Europe have
long forgotten’ (ibid.). Even the inmates of a large prison in São Paulo are
‘thoroughly gentle people with calm soft eyes, who in a heated moment must
have done something wrong without knowing it themselves’ (p. 141). In Zweig’s
20
When writing this article in 2014 I confronted postgraduate students at the University of
Brasília, who did not know Zweig’s book, with some passages, amongst others the ones cited
above. Their unanimous verdict was that those passages were taken straight out of a satirical
text. Some of them, inspired by the incredibly positive picture painted by Zweig, read the
book and were utterly convinced that such a text could have only be written in exchange for
governmental favours.

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80 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future
view, all this constitutes the perfect basis for a multiracial society in which
tensions or frictions are absent:
Amongst these dozens of races one never discovers any tendency for one
of them to isolate themselves from others, either among grown-ups or the
children. The black child plays with the white, the brown walks with the
Negro, all as a matter of course. Never is there any restriction, or even
private boycott (p. 142).
This is only a selection of comments that highlight the general tone of the chapter
on Brazilian culture; however, it already shows very clearly how overwhelming
the impression must have been on Zweig’s contemporary Brazilian readers that
the author was engaged in some kind of marketing exercise.
One might argue in Zweig’s defence that his writing is not so much unabashed
propaganda as a striking instance of exoticism, which, in the words of Jean-
François Staszak, ‘constitutes the most directly geographical form of otherness,
in that it opposes the abnormality of elsewhere with the normality of here’21
— ‘here’ being war-torn, racist and violent Europe, ‘there’ serene Brazil. And
we do, indeed, find in Brazil: Land of the Future most of the elements which
characterize exoticism. Everything, even blatant poverty, is beautiful; innocent
‘noble savages’ populate the scene and it is altogether a most desirable place to
be. Overly enthusiastic depictions of the ‘other’, the ‘foreign’, where otherness
in itself is already viewed as positive, have a long tradition. Idealised concepts
of the ‘noble savage’, the harmony between man and nature still undisturbed
by technology and the peaceful societies that allegedly can be found in faraway
places have often served as critical mirrors for Europe. From the very early
ages of discovery and colonisation, writers have created alternative models for
societal development by resorting to ‘exotic’ settings, and Zweig’s book follows
this tradition, one might argue.
There is, however, a problem with this argument: Travel writing of this kind
can only serve as a blueprint for alternative developments for a European target
audience that is unfamiliar with the real conditions in the place being described.
Zweig’s book might indeed have been partially motivated by such intentions,
but his depictions of Brazil were lost on Brazilian readers because exoticism ‘is
the result of a discursive process that consists of superimposing symbolic and
material distance, mixing the foreign and the foreigner, and it only makes sense
from one, exterior, point of view’.22 Thus, as Marlen Eckl puts it:
The mental state of émigrés and refugees from Nazism that influenced the
conception of Zweig’s book was largely incomprehensible to his Brazilian
critics. Indeed, they were unable to realize that he had to write his hymn of
praise to Brazil in the manner he did, since he urgently required hope that
21
Jean-François Staszak, ‘Other, Otherness’, International Encyclopedia of Human Geography
(Elsevier, 2008), p. 6 <http://www.unige.ch/ses/geo/collaborateurs/publicationsJFS/Other
Otherness.pdf> [accessed 20 March 2015].
22
Ibid.

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future 81
a better, still undamaged world existed. Zweig did not leave the readers in
the dark about this. Already in the introduction he made clear that Brazil
represented a new version of his beloved homeland, which was destroying
itself with war and hate.23
Nevertheless, for a substantial and influential part of the Brazilian audience,
there seemed hardly any doubt that the book must have been commissioned
by the government to bolster its internal and external reputation. And, feeling
betrayed by Zweig, these readers lashed out in a very particular way.24

III
The Brazilian Portuguese translation was launched in the then capital, Rio de
Janeiro, in July 1941. On 6 August 1941, Pedro Costa Rego, the Editor-in-Chief
of the Correio da Manhã [Morning Post], one of the capital’s most influential,
most audacious and quite anti-Vargas daily newspapers, published a scathing
review entitled ‘Os milhões de Zweig’ [Zweig’s millions]. The author makes it
clear from the beginning that his criticism is not concerned with the literary
quality of the book but rather with its content. He focuses on Zweig’s naïve and
exaggerated perception of Brazil as the perfect melting pot where nobody is ever
discriminated against because of their colour or race, and laments the fact that
Zweig never consulted Casa Grande e Senzala, Gilberto Freyre’s seminal work
on Brazilian class and race structure.25 ‘Bastaria a Stefan Zweig consultara as
[...] fontes e grandes perspectivas se abririam a seu conhecimento — eu diria
melhor a seu entendimento — da nossa formação [Had Stefan Zweig consulted
these sources, they might have opened up great new perspectives in his
knowledge — or rather, in his understanding — of our development].26 Costa
Rego continues by pointing out a number of (minor) factual errors which Zweig
committed and comes to the conclusion: ‘Só deveremos agradecer-lhe tanta
amizade soprando-lhe ao ouvido as falhas e imperfeições do seu livro’ [We can
only thank him for his friendship by whispering the faults and imperfections
of his book into his ear].27
The next day and again prominently placed on page two, Costa Rego
continued his attack with another blistering article: ‘Voltando a Zweig’ [Back
to Zweig] with reference to pages 145–48, where Zweig in his usual hyperbolic
23
Maren Eckl, ‘Zweig’s Concept of Brazil in the Context of Jewish-German Emigration’,
in Stefan Zweig and World Literature. Twenty-First-Century Perspectives, ed. by Birger
Vanwesenbeek and Mark H. Gelber (Rochester/NY, 2015), pp. 191–212 (p. 207).
24
The sense of betrayal is particularly evident in both Alberto Dines, Morte no paraíso (p.
446) and Adelaide Maristela, O espaço brasileiro (p. 27).
25
This work is one of the most important studies of Brazilian social and cultural history.
English: Gilberto Freyre, The Masters and the Slaves, transl. by Samual Putnam (New York,
1964).
26
Pedro Costa Rego, ‘Os milhoes de Zweig’, Correio da Manha, 6 August 1941, p. 2.
27
Ibid.

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82 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future
fashion talks about what he perceived as more or less the only national vice,
the lottery. Costa Rego openly accuses the author of gross exaggeration and
total incomprehension, pointing out that the remarks Zweig makes about the
relaxed attitude towards disciplined work are in stark contrast to observations
made earlier, i.e. his assertion that the Brazilian worker is by no means the lazy
fellow everybody thinks he is. Targeting the superficial attitude throughout
the book, Costa Rego concludes: ‘Se a generalização de aspectos isolados é um
erro imperdoavel [...], as ilações de Stefan Zweig [...] constituém uma aberração
do senso comum’ [The generalisation of isolated facts is already inexcusable,
but the conclusions drawn by Stefan Zweig constitute a violation of common
sense].28 The fervour and rhetoric of these articles are by no means justified
by what exactly they choose criticise — minor inaccuracies and the failure to
consult certain sources — which raises the suspicion that Rego had a hidden
agenda. This suspicion is fuelled by the fact that the attack continued. On 8
August 1941, a colleague of Costa Rego, Carlos Maúl, resumes the assault under
the revealing title: ‘Um livro mau’ [A bad (or mean) book]. The reasons for this
harsh judgement are presented in quite some detail. In particular, he singles
out the unnecessarily inflated chapter on Brazil’s history, which does not offer
anything that was not already known and is also full of inaccuracies. Maúl takes
issue with Zweig’s treatment of two of the most important events in Brazilian
history: the ‘Inconfidência Mineira’ and the ‘Independência’, as mentioned
above.29 Another point which infuriated Maúl were Zweig’s observations on
the colonization of the country. Brazil, as was common practice in early col­
on­ialism, was frequently used by Portugal as a destination for unwanted elem­
ents in domestic society: criminals were given the choice of either prison or
colony. But Zweig’s well-intentioned comment on this fact — ‘As usual, it is
not altogether clean manure which is the earth’s best preparation for future
harvests’ (p. 23) — did not go down well. The campaign against Zweig’s book
continued for another couple of days and the tropes of the criticism remained
consistent: uninformed, exaggerated, naïve.30
The surprising element in this barrage of negative reviews is that they focus
on minor details which, under normal circumstances, might not have incited
so much anger. But, according to Dines, there was a strategy behind this. As the
book was suspected of being under the protection of the government, it would
have been too dangerous to express direct criticism of its political slant.31 But
the anger and the misgivings had to find an outlet, hence the focus on rather
marginal facets. Instead of confronting Zweig head on, accusing him of blatant
misrepresentation, the critics resorted to nit-picking. But the message was,
nevertheless, quite clear: by criticising Zweig, in whatever circumlocutory way,

28
Pedro Costa Rego, ‘Voltado a Zweig’, Correio da Manha, 7 August 1941, p. 2.
29
Carlos Maúl, ‘Um livro mau’, Correio da Manha, 7 August 1941, p. 4.
30
For more detail see Dines, Morte no paraiso, pp. 446–54.
31
Dines, Morte no paraíso, p. 446.

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future 83
the review writers expressed their opposition to the regime and its attempts to
manipulate public opinion.
Notwithstanding this fierce campaign, the book was a roaring commercial
success. According to Abrahão Koogan, it sold like the proverbial hot cakes.32
And not all reviews were negative. Antonio Calado called the book a ‘linda
biografia do Brasil’ [a beautiful biography of Brazil],33 and for Cláudio de
Souza it was ‘o maior hino que se compôs à Terra de Vera Cruz’ [the greatest
hymn composed for the Terra de Vera Cruz].34 Afrânio Peixoto qualified it as
a ‘declaração de amor a nossa pátria’ [declaration of love for our country],35
and for Osório Borba ‘o carinho de Zweig pelo Brasil era tão grande que, caso
se demorasse no Brasil, teria que abrasileirar o seu nome para Estevão Ramos
[his love and tenderness for this country is so great that, should he stay here, he
should change his name to Estevão Ramos].36
The most important impact of Zweig’s book is that the epithet ‘Land of the
future’ stuck in such a way that it became part of national folklore. Even people
who have never heard of Stefan Zweig, let alone read the book, know Brazil as
the land of the future. It is so commonplace that many articles dealing with —
for example — the present precarious economic, political and social situation
refer to the title in a way which suggests that the average reader is familiar with
the concept. Some examples: ‘Is Brazil still the country of the future?’37 ‘Brazil’s
future: Has Brazil blown it?’38 ‘Brazil: country of the future, or has its time
come?’39 When President Obama visited Brazil in 2011, he said in one of his
speeches: ‘This is a country of the future no more. The people of Brazil should
know that the future has arrived’.40 In a way, Zweig’s vision has become, if not
a curse, then a burden with which the country has to cope, a yardstick against
32
Júlia Dias Carneiro, ‘Revivendo o país do futuro de Stefan Zweig’, p. 2 <http://www.
dw.de/revivendo-o-pa%C3%ADs-do-futuro-de-stefan-zweig/a-4210755> [accessed 28 March
2015].
33
Antonio Calado, ‘Stefan Zweig’, Correio da Manhã, São Paulo, 12 August 1942, no page
numbers.
34
Cláudio de Souza, ‘Stefan Zweig’, Jornal do Comércio, São Paulo, 4 April 1942, no page
numbers. See also Cláudio de Souza, Os últimos dias de Stefan Zweig (Rio de Janeiro, 1942).
35
Afrânio Peixoto, Prefácio de Brasil, Páis do Futuro (Rio de Janeiro, 1941) p. 5.
36
Osório Borba, ‘Dekobra e Zweig’, Diário de Notícias, Rio de Janeiro, 11 January 1942, p.
1.
37
Aaron M. Renn, ‘Is Brazil Still the Country of the Future?’, newgeography, 06 June 2014,
<http://www.newgeography.com/content/004378-is-brazil-still-country-future> [accessed
27 March 2015].
38
Michael Friedel et al., ‘Has Brazil blown it?’, The Economist, 28 September 2013, <http://
www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586833> [accessed 27 March 2015].
39
Inês Filipa, ‘Brazil: country of the future, or has its time come?’ Worldfinance, 22
September 2011, <http://www.worldfinance.com/inward-investment/americas> [accessed
28 March 2015].
40
Remarks by the President to the People of Brazil, 20 March 2011 <https://www.whitehouse.
gov/the-press-office/2011/03/20/remarks-president-people-brazil-rio-de-janeiro-brazil>
[accessed 7 October 2015].

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84 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future
which any kind of development is measured; it is evident that the impact of the
now almost petrified slogan goes much deeper than journalists’ wordplay.
But it is not only the media that return time and again to the concept of
‘land of the future’. In 2006, sixty-five years after the first publication of
Zweig’s book, João Paulo dos Reis Velloso, a leading Brazilian economist and
former government minister, organized a symposium with the title ‘Projeto
de Brasil, opções para o país e opções de desenvolvimento’ [Project Brazil,
options for the country and options for the development] at which the first
round table discussion was dedicated to Brazil: Land of the Future.41 Choosing
the programmatic title as the opening theme for an otherwise sober meeting
of economists reveals the continuing power of the message received from
(although not necessarily sent by) Zweig. And two dystopian novels, Contra o
Brasil [Against Brazil] by Diogo Mainardi and Admirável Brasil novo [Brave
new Brazil], by Ruy Tapioca can only be understood properly within the context
of his visions as they make explicit references to Zweig’s book, contrasting a
very undesirable fictional present with the Brazil he depicted and projected.42
The prophetic aspect of Zweig’s book is still very much alive, it would seem,
serving as a background against which ‘broken promises’ are evaluated, or,
as Stooss puts it: ‘Sob a perspectiva do público brasileiro a obra permanece
como um ponto de referência, possibilidades de um Brasil nunca realizado,
imaginário, que provoca respostas, tanto da ficção quanto da crítica.’ [From the
perspective of the Brazilian audience, the work remains a point of reference,
evoking possibilities of a Brazil which never became reality, an imaginary
Brazil that provokes responses, both fictional and critical.]43
How can this continuing influence of Zweig’s work be explained? If the book
had really been nothing but the product of an exchange of favours, it surely
would have been forgotten by now: deeply embedded in a bygone era and
seriously out-dated as a travelogue after more than seventy years — of historical
interest only, like so many other accounts. But if we take a different perspective,
or rather, read Brazil: Land of the Future not only as travel literature and
propaganda, but as the author’s attempt at creating a utopian vision of Brazil, a
number of the inconsistencies discussed above appear quite consistent.
What the author describes is too good to be true, and it never was true nor is
it going to become true. There is a mostly covert, but frequently also an explicit
didactic impetus which is characteristic of utopian literature and which would
also explain the breathlessness with which the author deals with his topic. It
seems that it was never Zweig’s intention to write a book about Brazil, the real
Brazil. To show the country in the harsh light of reality would have reduced

41
João Paolo dos Reis Velloso and Roberto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque (ed.), Projeto de
Brasil, opções para o país e opções de desenvolvimento (Rio de Janeiro, 2006).
42
Diogo Mainardi, Contra o Brasil (São Paulo, 1998); Ruy Tapioca, Admirável Brasil Novo
(Rio de Janeiro, 2001). See Stooss, O espaço brasileiro, p. 30.
43
Ibid.

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future 85
Brazil’s chances to become the wonderful place it might become in the future,
but by ignoring the obvious facts — extreme poverty, even hunger, a rural work-
force still living in a state of semi-slavery, an educational system that left half
of the population illiterate, a health system that was virtually inexistent, and a
political system that was downright corrupt at all levels — Stefan Zweig created,
at least discursively, a present which could indeed form the foundations for a
promising future.44 One can fairly assume that he did not overestimate his own
importance in influencing his adopted country and its direction, but there is
the prominent element of self-persuasion, the desire to convince himself that
there was an alternative to what he had had to leave behind, that he did not
have to abandon all his ideals, an approach which links Zweig to a pervasive
discourse in emigrant, travel and colonial literature. But such an understanding
again betrays an external, exoticist perspective.
When looking at Brazil, Land of the Future from this angle, the inaccuracies
and the widespread disregard for facts become functional in as much as they
prepare the ground for a grand vision, a utopia. The positive image created by
Stefan Zweig has its counterpart in the negative reality of Europe at the time the
book was composed, according to Adelaide Maristela Stooss, who asserts:
Na criação do mundo ideal, Stefan Zweig precisou identificar, na realidade
empírica, elementos que concretizassem a imagem perseguida e projetá-los
ao futuro próximo. Esteticamente apresentados, o espaço e a sociedade
brasileira são mais belos e possibilitam a identificação do sujeito [...].45
[When creating the ideal world, Stefan Zweig had to identify those
elements in empirical reality which would serve to concretise the intended
image and project them into the future. Through aesthetic presentation,
Brazilian space and Brazilian society become truly beautiful and make an
identification for the subject possible].
This was quite emphatically not the way Zweig’s Brazilian critics read the book.
For Rio de Janeiro’s intellectual elite it represented a betrayal on at least two
levels. Firstly and most obviously, there is the disrespect for facts which was
interpreted as a eurocentric, even neo-imperialist trait.46 Secondly, there was
the overriding impression that Zweig was attempting to ingratiate himself
with Vargas’ Estado Novo in the most cowardly and despicable fashion, an
act that was certainly not expected from an author of Zweig’s reputation.47
44
For a critical evaluation of Zweig’s attitude with regard to Brazilian reality see also Klaus
Hart, ‘Er hat die Augen vor vielem verschlossen. Stefan Zweig und Brasiliens Auslands­
propaganda’, Klaus Hart Brasilientexte <http://www.ila-web.de/brasilientexte/2006/zweig.
htm> [accessed 17 March 2015].
45
Stoos, O espaço brasileiro, p. 96 (see also p. 80).
46
Stooss, O espaço brasileiro, p. 146.
47
The title of one of Alberto Dines’ articles on the genesis of Brazil: land of the future might
suffice to illustrate the kind of system Zweig was so reluctant to comment on: ‘A invenção
do paraíso no inferno do Estado Novo’ [The invention of paradise in the hell of the Estado
Novo]. <http://www.casastefanzweig.org.br/sec_texto_view.php> [accessed 18 March 2015].

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86 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future
Understanding and accepting Brazil: Land of the Future as an utopian vision
born out of Zweig’s desire to imagine a better world was beyond the capacity of
his Brazilian readers. They had difficulties empathising with the fragile mental
state of persecuted Europeans such as Zweig, who, in their view, embodied
European civilization of the highest moral and aesthetic standards. It was
impossible for this section of the audience to appreciate the fact that ‘in Brazil
the Zweigs occupied a complex liminal space’ and that they ‘seemed to be on
an incessant pilgrimage for solace’,48 which they probably hoped to find in the
‘land of the future’.
The problem, however, is that utopian places, lands of the future, are, by
definition, non-places, like Thomas More’s Utopia or the Remote Nations
to which Swift’s Gulliver travels. Brazil, on the other hand, is a place. Zweig
justifies his choice of an existing nation as a projective foil of his vision in the
introduction: Brazil, for him, is the country which has solved a fundamental
problem in the most admirable fashion:
This central problem that forces itself on each generation, and more
than ever on ours, is the answer to the simplest and still most important
question, namely: what can we do to make it possible for human beings
to live peacefully together, despite all the differences of race, class, colour,
religion, and creed? [...] Because of specially complicated circumstances,
this problem confronts no country more dangerously than Brazil; and none
— and it is to prove this that I am writing this book — has solved it in such
a happy and enviable way; in a way which in my opinion demands not only
the attention but the admiration of the whole world. (p. 6–7)
This premise is, of course, false and one could argue that Zweig’s conclusions
based on this false premise are equally false, an argument that by and large is
at the bottom of most criticism of Land of the Future, criticism that would be
valid if Zweig’s intention had been to give an objective account of Brazilian
reality. But that was not his aim and in the light of Adelaide Maristela Stooss’s
interpretation cited above, it is sufficiently clear that the reader is being urged
to share Zweig’s perspective, i.e. to see war-torn, racist Europe in contrast with
the peaceful, multi-racial Brazil that Zweig created. When we look at Brazil:
Land of the Future from this angle, lots of things fall into place. Volker Michels
argues along the same lines:
Stefan Zweig sehe nicht, was ist, schreibt Alberto Dines, sondern was er
wünsche. Das stimmt, glaube ich, nur teilweise. Zweig sah nur zu genau, was
war. Aber gerade weil seine Bücher nicht stehen bleiben bei der Abbildung

It should be noted, however, that the system did not unleash the kind of terror that was the
trademark of Germany and the Soviet Union at the time. Brazilians called it a ‘ditabranda’,
playing with the adjectives for ‘hard’ = duro, and ‘soft’ = brando.
48
Darién J. Davis, ‘Exile and Liminality in “A Land of the Future”: Charlotte and Stefan
Zweig in Brazil, August 1941-March 1942’, in Stefan Zweig and World Literature. Twenty-
First-Century Perspectives, ed. by Birger Vanwesenbeek and Mark H. Gelber (Rochester/NY,
2015), pp. 173–90 (p. 174).

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 Stefan Zweig and the Land of the Future 87
dessen, was ist, bei der aktuellen Misere, sondern Energien entwickeln zu
ihrer Beseitigung, nötigen sie zur Überwindung der Trägheit des Herzens,
zu einer Erweiterung des Blickfeldes.49
[Stefan Zweig does not see what is, but what he wishes to see, writes Alberto
Dines. In my opinion, this is only partially true. Zweig saw the reality only
too clearly. However, because his books are not limited to depicting present
misery, but also develop energies to overcome it, they galvanise those of
faint heart and broaden horizons].
European literary criticism has not paid much attention to Brazil: Land of the
Future and, indeed, why should it. Its lasting power is not due to its literary
quality, but rather to the utopian concept proclaimed in the title. The translation
of Brazil: Land of the Future had an impact that the original could never have
achieved, provoking an on-going search for identity against the background of
an utopian vision which held the promise of at least partial realization. This
search is experienced as a frustrating exercise because of the considerable
distance that remains between the construct and the reality. In spite of Obama’s
accolade, and indeed with some resignation, most Brazilians accept that their
country will probably always be the ‘Land of the Future’.

49
Volker Michels, ‘ “Im Unrecht nicht selber ungerecht werden!” Stefan Zweig, ein Autor
für morgen in der Welt von heute und gestern’, in Stefan Zweig: Exil und Suche nach dem
Weltfrieden, ed. by Mark H. Gelber and Klaus Zelewitz (Riverside/CA, 1995), pp. 11–32
(p. 15).

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