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Karl Kraus, an Austrian writer, was [[born ]] April 28, 1874, in Bohemia and died in [[Vienna ]] on July 12, 1936.

He was the ninth [[child ]] of the businessman and manufacturer Jakob Krauss and his wife Ernestine. The [[family ]] moved to Vienna in 1877. Kraus became interested in the theater while still quite young. He studied law, [[philosophy]], and [[German]], and worked as a critic for several magazines; he published an essay in 1897 in which he denounced the excesses of fin-de-siècle decadence (Gustav Klimt) and attacked his friend [[Hugo ]] von Hofmannsthal. In 1910 the first [[reading ]] of Kraus's [[work ]] was held in Berlin. This was followed by approximately seven hundred [[other ]] readings in different European cities, where the work of other authors was read—William [[Shakespeare]], Johann Nestroy, Frank Wedekind, Jacques Offenbach—some of which had been translated and adapted by Kraus.

Kraus converted to [[Catholicism ]] in 1911 but abandoned the [[religion ]] in 1923. In 1913 he had an affair with Sidonie Nadherny von Borutin, which was cut short by her [[marriage ]] in 1920. She [[left ]] the marriage six months later to join Kraus. In 1933 he wrote a [[text ]] critical of [[Hitler ]] that was published only after his [[death]], but a [[poem ]] of his clearly indicated his [[position]]. In 1936 he was struck by a cyclist and died on July 12.

His [[writing ]] first appeared in Die Fackel (The Torch), which he founded and managed by himself from 1899 to 1936. Kraus examined the "small things" of everyday [[life]], which he elevated into a general criticism of corruption and [[social ]] conformity, especially that of the press, whose influence was growing. Kraus, in his criticism, was ambiguous [[about ]] the question of [[Judaism]], and in it he expressed what Otto [[Weininger ]] referred to as [[hatred ]] of the [[Jewish ]] [[self]]. His pacifism, before and during the First [[World ]] War, resulted in various forms of [[censorship]]. His "[[faith ]] in [[language]]," a language he tried to [[master]], was a constant factor: "Language is the [[mother ]] of [[thought]], not its servant."

[[Freud ]] was one of the readers of Die Fackel around 1903, and mentioned it for the first [[time ]] in 1905 in relation to his [[Three ]] Essays on the [[Theory ]] of [[Sexuality]]. In 1906 Kraus took part in the accusation of plagiarism launched by Wilhelm [[Fliess]]. Freud, who thought he saw an ally in Kraus, tried to meet him. The tone changed in 1910, however, after Fritz Wittels, who had been a prolific collaborator at Die Fackel but had left the magazine, gave a presentation before the Vienna [[Psychoanalytic ]] [[Society ]] entitled the "[[Neurosis ]] of Die Fackel." In his paper he caricatured Kraus's aversion to the Neue Freie Presse as the expression of a death [[wish ]] against the [[father]]. When Kraus learned of Wittel's talk, he let loose the slings of his barbed wit against [[psychoanalysis ]] itself.

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