3 - Stefan Zweig’s “Giant Wave of Uniformity”: Colonization, Class, and the Polemics of American Mass Culture

Summary

AFTER RETURNING TO NEW YORK from Austria, Ann Tizia Leitich did not go back to her job at the offices of Metro-Goldwyn, but tried to advance her career as a writer. Not satisfied with her success as a feuilletonist for the Neue Freie Presse, Leitich sought to broaden her readership. Following advice given to her by the Austrian author (and devoted reader of her articles) Stefan Zweig, she selected a series of her newspaper articles and had them published in 1926 by the Steyrermühl Verlag, a wellknown publishing house located on her very own Gumpendorferstrasse in Vienna. Leitich titled the book Amerika, du hast es besser, alluding to the first line of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem “Den Vereinigten Staaten” (To the United States), in which the poet praises America's lack of history and the country's enviable shortage of “verfallene Schlösser,” “unnützes Erinnern,” and “vergeblicher Streit” (crumbling castles, useless remembering, and futile strife). With the publication of Amerika, du hast es besser, Leitich established herself as one of Austria's most important contributors to discussions about America, not only as a theoretical contributor to these discussions but also, according to the editors of the Neue Freie Presse, as a writer who knows “amerikanisches Leben und Wesen aus unmittelbarer Anschauung auf das genauste” (American life and character, having observed it closely, down to the smallest detail).

In the years following the publication of Leitich's first book, she enjoyed a series of stunning successes that brought her into contact with some of the most interesting and influential people of her time, first in Austria and then in Germany. Her regular readers included not only Stefan Zweig, but also the chancellor of the Austrian Republic, Ignaz Seipel. In a 1926 letter to Leitich, Seipel congratulates her on the publication of Amerika, du hast es besser and admits that he is an avid follower of her essays about America. She regularly corresponded with Austrian authors such as Zweig, Franz Karl Ginzkey, and Rudolf Hans Bartsch. After Amerika, du hast es besser had been published, Leitich began to expand her impact as a journalist beyond the borders of her Austrian homeland and into the huge German market.