Karl Kraus (April 28, 1874 - June 12, 1936) was an eminent Austrian writer and journalist.
Kraus was born in to a Jewish family in Jičín, Bohemia, his father was a papermaker. The family moved to Vienna, Austria in 1877. His first articles were published in 1892, the year in which he began to study law at university. He broke off his studies in 1896 to devote himself wholly to writing, and the next year he was named Vienna correspondent for the newspaper Breslauer Zeitung . On April 1, 1899, he founded his own newspaper, Die Fackel ("The Torch"), and continued to direct it, publish it, and write most of it until his death. That same year he renounced Judaism.
In 1911 he was baptized as a Catholic. In 1923 he left the Catholic Church.
He irritated Sigmund Freud, who in 1910 wrote to a friend 'he is a mad half-wit'.
In the meantime, please see the German wikipedia entry for more information.
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