He posted the manuscript, typed by his second wife Lotte Altmann, to the publisher the day before they both committed suicide in February The book was first published in the original German-language by an anti-Nazi Exilliteratur publishing firm based in Stockholm , as Die Welt von Gestern.
The book describes life in Vienna at the start of the 20th century with detailed anecdotes. Zweig also describes the stability of Viennese society after centuries of Habsburg rule. Zweig sets out to write his autobiography following the terrible events and upheavals experienced by his generation.
He feels the need to bear witness to the next generation of what his age has gone through. He realizes that his past is "out of reach. Zweig looks back on pre-war Austrian and especially Viennese society. Many inventions revolutionized lives: the telephone, electricity, and the car. Originally from Moravia , his father made his fortune by running a small weaving factory. The author's mother comes from a wealthy Italian banking family, born in Ancona.
His family represents the cosmopolitan "good Jewish bourgeoisie. The ultimate goal is to elevate oneself morally and spiritually. Also, it is the Jewish bourgeoisie that has primarily become a patron of Viennese culture. Vienna had become the city of culture, where culture was the primary concern.
All Viennese had desirable tastes and were capable of making judgments of qualities. The artists, especially the theater actors, were Austria's only significant famous figures. Their concerns were trivialities given the events that followed, which were unthinkable.
