Der Amokläufer

The Amok Runner is a novella by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. It was first published in 1922 in the newspaper Neue Freie Presse and shortly thereafter appeared in the novella collection Amok: Novellen einer Leidenschaft as a book. Like several other works by Zweig, who was fascinated by the influence of Sigmund Freud at the time, The Amok Runner has a strong psychological background: the story revolves around an extreme obsession that leads the protagonist to sacrifice his professional and personal life for this passion, ultimately driving him to suicide. The novella is named after the then still little-known term "amok," which originally comes from Indonesian culture and describes a state of frenzy in which the affected person attacks an enemy in seemingly blind rage, indiscriminately and without regard for danger.