Die Welt von Gestern. The World of Yesterday. Bibliothek Bayerische Rück Versicherung in der Literatur, 25. Broschiert – 1. Januar 1997 - von Stefan Zweig (Autor) The World of Yesterday, mailed to his publisher a few days before Stefan Zweig took his life in 1942, has become a classic of the memoir genre. Originally titled “Three Lives,” the memoir describes Vienna of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire, the world between the two world wars and the Hitler years.