Karl Kraus (Kraus Karl)

(1874-1936)
Born April 28, 1874 in Gichin (Czech Republic, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Blshuyu part of his life in Vienna.
Kraus early to come to the conclusion that its irritating effects of the Viennese cultural life, at first only gave rise to a demonstration of his polemical talent, in fact, symptoms of a deeply flawed society. In 1899 he began publishing its own magazine 'Torch' ( 'Die Fackel'), . Materials which will produce volumes of selected publications: Morality and crime (Sittlichkeit und Kriminalitt, . 1908), . Wall (Die chinesische Mauer, . 1910), . Judgment (Weltgericht, . 1919), . The collapse of the world of black magic (Untergang der Welt durch schwarze Magie, . 1922), . Literature and lie (Literatur und Lge, . 1929), . Language (Die Sprache, . 1937),
.

The largest piece Kraus-playwright, The Last Days of Mankind (Die letzten Tage der Menschheit), written during the First World War and published in 1919. Among his other plays - Literature (Literature, 1921), Dream Theater, (Traumtheater, 1922), Kukulandiya in the clouds (Wolkenkuckucksheim). In 1952, first published in The Third Walpurgis Night (Die Dritte Walpurgischnacht) - edition of 'The Torch', was created back in the early months after Hitler came to power in Germany.

Satire is Kraus fed the contradiction between the original purity of language and its stylistic and semantic distortion under the pen writing. He pointed to the deterioration of language among officials, politicians, writers and journalists, believing that the evil of the world inevitably follows from the eternal gap between pure speech and impure intentions public speech. The embodiment of such a danger was in his eyes, Hitler's Germany. Many critics perceive as adept Kraus timeless virtues, and his criticism of private vices - as a defense of abstract spiritual infallibility.