The Last Days of Mankind: The Complete Text

672 Pages·2015·4.43 MB·English

by  Karl Kraus

The Last Days of Mankind

The Last Days
of Mankind
KARL KRAUS
THE COMPLETE TEXT
TRANSLATED BY FRED BRIDGHAM AND EDWARD TIMMS
WITH A GLOSSARY AND INDEX
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN & LONDON
The Margellos World Republic of Letters is dedicated to making literary works from around the
globe available in English through translation. It brings to the English- speaking world the work
of leading poets, novelists, essayists, philosophers, and playwrights from Europe, Latin America,
Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to stimulate international discourse and creative exchange.
The translation of this book was supported by the Austrian Federal Chancellery—Division for
the Arts.
Originally published as Die letzten Tage der Menschheit. Translated 2015 by Fred Bridgham
and Edward Timms. English translation, introduction, and afterword copyright © 2015 by Yale
University. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
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Frontispiece: The execution of Cesare Battisti, 12 July 1916
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015939015
ISBN 978- 0- 300- 20767- 5 (cloth : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper).
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CONTENTS
Plan of Vienna City Centre, 1905 vi
Introduction: Falsehood in Wartime, by
Edward Timms and Fred Bridgham ix
Preface, by Karl Kraus 1
Dramatis Personae 3
Prologue 29
Act I 47
Act II 168
Act III 240
Act IV 318
Act V 418
Epilogue: The Final Night 553
Translators’ Afterword and Acknowledgments 591
Glossary and Index 601
Map of European Battle Zones of the First World War 646
Plan of Vienna City Centre, 1905

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INTRODUCTION: FALSEHOOD IN WARTIME
Edward Timms and Fred Bridgham
The early twentieth century was the great age of the newspaper press, as
mass literacy endowed the printed word with unprecedented power. Newspaper
production was revolutionized by rotary presses and linotype compositing ma-
chines, while modern roads and railways, together with the telephone, tele-
graph, and teleprinter, were transforming communications. In Western Europe
and North America democratic institutions, social reforms, and scientific dis-
coveries seemed to be laying the foundations for a new era in the history of
mankind. But it was also a period of intense imperial rivalries, backed by highly
trained forces and sophisticated armaments industries. Given the precarious
international situation, it was possible at moments of crisis for journalists to
tip the balance between peace and war. Liberal papers such as the Manchester
Guardian (edited by C. P. Scott) and the New York Times (under Adolph Ochs)
may have been committed to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, but wars were
good for newspaper sales. Moreover, wealthy proprietors like Hearst and North-
cliffe, Hugenberg and Benedikt, were imperialists capable of pressurizing gov-
ernments into declarations of war.
Almost alone in the period before the First World War, the Viennese satir-
ist Karl Kraus saw the press as an apocalyptic threat. In his magazine Die Fackel
(The Torch), founded in April 1899, he would reprint prize examples of news-
paper propaganda and expose their falsification of reality.1 His witty diatribes at-
tracted a large readership, and with a print run of over 10,000 copies the maga-
zine proved viable without having to rely on commercial advertising. To protect
his independence Kraus created his own imprint, Verlag Die Fackel, which pub-
lished book editions of his writings.
Where the editorials of the leading Austrian daily, the Neue Freie Presse,
were celebrating the advances of German culture and the triumphs of Euro-
pean civilization, Kraus would expose the realities of conflict and suffering. He
had a gift for dissecting the cliché-r idden language of his contemporaries. Sono-
rous metaphors like “standing shoulder to shoulder” evolved into satirical leit-
motifs, culminating in his indictment of the anachronistic ideals that sustained
ix