During his years as a student, Zweig wrote poetry as well as short texts and stories. Some of these were published in the leading Viennese newspaper, the Neue Freie Presse. The literary editor of this paper was none other than Theodor Herzl, the leading figure in the Jewish National Movement. Herzl mentored the young Zweig, for whom publication in this prestigious newspaper was conceived as literary knighthood, especially for a young writer.