Exemplary Europeans. Romain Rolland and Stefan Zweig

The friendship between Romain Rolland (1866-1944) and Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) offers a prime example of intellectual encounter in interwar Europe. The two writers maintained intensive contact between the World Wars and exchanged ideas on the future of Europe and the role of literature in the revitalisation of European values. A particularly interesting aspect of their dialogue is the discussion of literary and biographical methods of writing Europe. A close look at the personal and literary relations of Rolland and Zweig will illustrate that cross-border encounters played a crucial role in the development of new intellectual approaches to the recovery of Europe after the First World War.