Stefan Zweig’s literary biography Erasmus of Rotterdam (Triumph und Tragik des Erasmus von Rotterdam) was published in 1934 as the first of his books with Herbert Reichner’s publishing house in Vienna. In the preceding months the author had been torn about what position to take publicly concerning Nazi Germany. After he had first agreed to collaborate with Klaus Mann on his exile magazine Die Sammlung, he withdrew his consent after finding out about the political nature of the publication and after being pressurised by his longstanding German publisher Anton Kippenberg. The community of German authors in exile accused Zweig of opportunism and his reaction was to write a veiled self-portrayal in the form of a book. The biography of famous polymath Erasmus of Rotterdam was an attempt to present his own position as an artist and intellectual.

On 9 September 1933 Zweig wrote the following to Hermann Hesse: “In my hour of need, I chose Erasmus of Rotterdam to help me – a man of the centre and a man of reason who was also caught between the millstones of Protestantism and Catholicism, just as we are caught between the great opposing movements of our day. I found consolation in realising...that one is not alone, when one is troubled out of a sense of decency by having to make difficult decisions and resolutions, instead of just taking the easy way out by jumping onto the back of some party.”