Die Sprache als Mittel der Enthüllung: Hypokrisie und Ideologie in Die letzten Tage der Menschheit von Karl Kraus

Abstract This article focuses on the relationship that the famous 20th century Viennese satirist Karl Kraus had with the major newspapers, particularly Die Neue Freie Presse. The aim is to argue that the language was the main means by which Karl Kraus unmasked the hypocrisy and ideology of Bourgeois Viennese society. In language he found both the problem and the solution to his social criticism, the central points of which represent the foreshadowing of his monumental World War I-drama, The Last Days of Mankind. The analysis of two characters in the play, Alice Schalek and Moritz Benedikt, shows us how Kraus used language to expose them as archetypes of their Zeitgeist.