After attending a science-oriented gymnasium in Kattowitz (Katowice), between 1907 and 1914 he studied several branches of the humanities, history, philosophy and literature, at several universities – Breslau (Wrocław), Munich, Berlin, Göttingen, Rostock and Tübingen.

Shaken by the experience, he wrote in his letter dated 15 February 1917, to Martin Buber: "The Judenzählung was a reflection of unheard sadness for Germany's sin and our agony.

In 1917, Zweig was assigned to the Press department of the German Army Headquarters in Kaunas, Lithuania where he was introduced to the East European Jewish organizations.

In a quite literal effort to put a face to the hated 'Ostjude' (Eastern European Jew), due to their Orthodox, economically depressed, "unenlightened", "un-German" ways, Zweig published with the artist Hermann Struck Das ostjüdische Antlitz (The Face of East European Jewry) in 1920.

Freud replied with a warm letter, and their correspondence continued for a dozen years, a momentous period in Germany's history.

[3] In 1927 Zweig published the anti-war novel The Case of Sergeant Grischa, which made him an international literary figure, with the English version selected in the USA as a Book of the Month title.

Some, like Kaiser Wilhelm II, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, and commander on the Eastern Front during the last two years of the war Prince Leopold of Bavaria, are named.

After spending some time with Thomas Mann, Lion Feuchtwanger, Anna Seghers and Bertolt Brecht in France, he set out for Mandatory Palestine, then under British rule.

[7] In Palestine, Zweig became close to a group of German-speaking immigrants who felt distant from Zionism and viewed themselves as refugees or exiles from Europe, where they planned to return.

[9] His novels De Vriendt Goes Home and A Costly Dream are partly set in Mandatory Palestine and describe, among other things, the encounter between Zionism, socialism and psychoanalysis.

[11] In 1935, Education Before Verdun, the third novel of Zweig's cycle The Great War of the White Men came out and, like its predecessor The Case of Sergeant Grischa it was translated into many languages, and, once more, the US edition became a Book of the Month selection for 1936.

He was a member of parliament, delegate to the World Peace Council Congresses and the cultural advisory board of the communist party.