Heine and the Consequences

Born in Jićín, Austro-Hungarian Empire (today in Czech Republic), Karl Kraus moved with his wealthy family to Vienna as a young child. Though he attended the University of Vienna for a time, he did not complete his studies, instead dedicating himself to acting and even more to writing. By the late 1890s, he had begun to emerge as a unique and influential critical voice in German-language cultural life and, starting in 1899 through his journal Die Fackel, he would become famous and infamous particularly for his aphorisms, satirical commentary, and polemics against moral, political, and sexual hypocrisies he perceived in Austrian society and in modern life more generally. Through Die Fackel, Kraus published many of the leading journalists, feuilletonists, and critics in the German culture of the day, and after 1911 he became its sole contributor. He was the most quoted and revered voice of German liberals in the first four decades of the twentieth century. Identifying media dishonesty and manipulation, imperialist and nationalist ideologies, and consumerism as chief targets of his ire, Kraus also won a reputation as an important if flawed German-language playwright and creative writer and above all a master stylist. Deeply committed to Jews’ assimilation, Krauss renounced Judaism at the turn of the century and was baptized in 1911, though he later renounced Catholicism as well.