Karl Kraus
born Gitschin, Bohemia, April 28, 1874; died Vienna, June 12, 1936
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Austrian-Jewish writer and journalist, known particularly for his satires of fin-de-siècle Vienna through books, plays, and his journal Die Fackel [The Torch] (1899-1936).
Career Summary
Kraus began his journalistic career with the Wiener Literaturzeitung in 1892, becoming the Vienna correspondent for the Breslauer Zeitung in 1897, by which time he had briefly been a member of the Jung Wien (Young Vienna) group, which included among others Peter Altenberg, Hermann Bahr, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal.
Up to 1911, while editor of Die Fackel, Kraus accepted contributions from many writers, including Oskar Kokoschka, Adolf Loos, Heinrich Mann, and Arnold Schoenberg. From 1911 on, Kraus was the sole contributor. He strongly opposed World War I in Die Fackel, in his play Die letzten Tage der Menschheit: Tragödie in fünf Akten mit Vorspiel und Epilog [The Last Days of Mankind: Tragedy in Five Acts with Preamble and Epilogue] (1922), and in the book Weltgericht [World Court] (1919).
Other publications included: Sittlichkeit und Kriminalität [Morality and Criminal Justice] (1908), Sprüche und Widersprüche [Sayings and Contradictions] (1909), and Die Unüberwindlichen [The Insurmountables] (1928).
Kraus and Schenker
Schenker evidently read Die Fackel, for he commented on it and on Kraus himself in his diaries (the earliest occasion being December 23, 1906) and in correspondence.
Source:
- Wikipedia