Karl Kraus Austrian writer, critic, brilliant essayist. Date of Birth: 28.04.1874 Country: Austria

1. Biography of Karl Kraus
2. Early Life and Career
3. The Last Days of Mankind
4. Satire and Language

Biography of Karl Kraus

Karl Kraus was an Austrian writer, critic, and brilliant essayist. He was born on April 28, 1874 in Jicin, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He spent most of his life in Vienna.

Early Life and Career

Kraus quickly came to the conclusion that the phenomena of Viennese cultural life that annoyed him, initially only providing an opportunity to demonstrate his polemical talent, were actually symptoms of a deeply corrupt society. In 1899, he began publishing his own journal, "Die Fackel" ("The Torch"), from which he released volumes of selected publications: "Morality and Criminality" (1908), "The Chinese Wall" (1910), "The Last Judgment" (1919), "The World's Downfall through Black Magic" (1922), "Literature and Lies" (1929), and "Language" (1937).

The Last Days of Mankind

Kraus's most significant work as a playwright, "The Last Days of Mankind" (Die letzten Tage der Menschheit), was written during World War I and published in 1919. Among his other plays are "Literature" (1921), "Dream Theater" (1922), and "Cloud Cuckoo Land" (Wolkenkuckucksheim). In 1952, "The Third Walpurgis Night" (Die Dritte Walpurgisnacht) was published for the first time, which was a special edition of "Die Fackel" created in the early months after Hitler came to power in Germany.

Satire and Language

Kraus's satire was fueled by the contradiction between the inherent purity of language and its stylistic and semantic distortion in the hands of writers. He pointed out the corruption of language among bureaucrats, politicians, writers, and journalists, believing that the evils of the world inevitably arise from the eternal mismatch between the purity of words and the impure intentions of public speech. In his eyes, Nazi Germany was the embodiment of such danger. Many critics view Kraus as a proponent of timeless virtues and his criticism of individual vices as a defense of abstract spiritual infallibility.