Karl Kraus

Karl Kraus, born in Jičín (Northern Bohemia) in 1874, was an Austrian author and cultural critic. In 1899, he founded the journal Die Fackel, which from 1911 only published satirical and social critical texts by Kraus himself. As an opponent of the war and a biting critic of the press and of smear campaign journalism, Karl Kraus became extremely popular. Die Fackel was repeatedly confiscated during the war. The polemics against the “Great War” that were published in it formed the basis for his anti-war drama The last days of mankind, written between 1915 and 1922 and comprising more than 200 scenes. The last issue of Die Fackel appeared in February 1936, four months before Karl Kraus died in Vienna on 12 June 1936.