The World of Yesterday but hated politics and shunned political engagement. His autobiography shows some reluctance to analyse Nazism as a political ideology; he tended simply to regard it as the rule of one particularly evil man, Hitler. Zweig was struck that the "Berghof", Hitler's mountain residence in Berchtesgaden, was just across the valley from his own house outside Salzburg. Berchtesgaden was an area of early Nazi activity. Zweig believed strongly in Europeanism against nationalism. Zweig also describes his passion for collecting manuscripts, mostly literary and musical. Zweig collaborated in the early 1930s with composer Richard Strauss on the opera "Die schweigsame Frau", which
Berchtesgaden Hauptbahnhof Berchtesgaden Hauptbahnhof Berchtesgaden Hauptbahnhof (German for "Berchtesgaden main station"; sometimes translated as "Central Station") is a railway station in the Bavarian market town of Berchtesgaden, the smallest town in Germany with a Hauptbahnhof. It has five platform tracks and is classified by Deutsche Bahn as a category 5 station. It is the terminus of the Freilassing–Berchtesgaden railway. Previously the Berchtesgaden–Hangender Stein railway, also called the "Grüne Elektrische" (“Green Electric”) started from the station. Within walking distance of the station (Triftplatz) was the former station (Königsseer Bf) of Königssee Railway (), which served the lake of Königssee. The station is served