Karl Kraus

Kraus, Karl 

Born Apr. 28, 1874, in Gitschin, now Jičín, Czechoslovakia; died June 12, 1936, in Vienna. Austrian writer, publicist, and philologist.

In 1897, Kraus wrote a satirical lampoon, “Destroyed Literature,” against the Viennese decadents. He published and edited the journal Die Fackel (1899–1936), in which he carried on polemics with bourgeois philosophical, political, and aesthetic ideas. He published many essays and articles on literature and language and collections of satirical feuilletons and aphorisms about international and Austrian life. His major work was the philosophical antiwar drama The Last Days of Mankind (1918–19). In his lampoon “The Invincible Ones” (1928), Kraus glorified the Viennese workers who, in the summer of 1927, stormed a reactionary law court. Kraus’ verse, written in the spirit of Goethe’s philosophical lyric poetry, often approached the impressionist poetry of C. Morgenstern and D. von Liliencron. His style is filled with metaphors and contrasts.

WORKS

Werke, vols. [1–9]. Munich, 1955–61.

REFERENCES

Iggers, W. A. Karl Kraus: A Viennese Critic of the Twentieth Century. The Hague, 1967. (Bibliography, pp. 230–45.)
Engelmann, P. Dem Andenken an Karl Kraus. Vienna [1967].
Kuhn, C. Karl Kraus als Lyriker. Paris, 1968.