The Last Days of Mankind

The Last Days of Mankind (German: Die letzten Tage der Menschheit) is a grotesque drama by Karl Kraus. The play is a perceptive and bitter reckoning with the horrors of World War I. One third of the play is drawn from documentary sources.[6] Written between 1915 and 1922, the drama consists of more than 200 scenes. Kraus depicts the depths of war in all its grotesque and equally unbearable absurdity — from the cynical delusion of politicians to the disinformation of the press to indifference and dullness of the population.

The Last Days of Mankind is considered one of the most important of Kraus's works. It was written as a reading piece; the author could not imagine a performance onstage given the megalomania of the work.

Salzburg Festival 2014

Preface

It was written for a "Martian theater" because no earthly stage could ever fully recreate this pandemonium, according to the preface. The play wasn't released for the stage until 1928.


Most of the play is highly realistic, except the final scenes which are of expressionist genre.[6]

Performances

Notes and references

  1. ^ Nachrichten, Salzburger (2025-07-21). "Why is The Last Days of Mankind the 'Austrian national drama'?". Salzburger Nachrichten (in German). Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  2. ^ Kramer, Alan (July 9, 2024). "Atrocities / 1.1 / handbook". 1914-1918-Online (WW1) Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 3, 2025.
  3. ^ Wedrac, Stefan (January 13, 2025). "Centenary (Austria) / 1.0 / handbook". 1914-1918-Online (WW1) Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 3, 2025.
  4. ^ "ORF Topos". ORF Topos (in German). Retrieved 2025-10-12.
  5. ^ Wolf, Norbert (2020-11-19). ""After the executioner, the photographer had to come too." War and photography in Karl Kraus's monumental drama The Last Days of Mankind". Cahiers d’études germaniques. 1 volume (79). OpenEdition: 79–108. doi:10.4000/ceg.12415. ISSN 0751-4239. Retrieved 2025-10-12.
  6. ^ a b Knight, Charles A. (2004) Literature of Satire p.255
  7. ^ Salzburger Festspiele: „Vor dem Totenbett der Zeit stehe ich …“, retrieved on 9 August 2025

Further reading

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.