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| Die Fackel (magazine) | |
|---|---|
| Title | Die Fackel |
| Editor | Karl Kraus |
| Category | Literary magazine |
| Frequency | Irregular |
| Firstdate | 1899 |
| Finaldate | 1936 |
| Country | Austria-Hungary; Austria |
| Based | Vienna |
| Language | German language |
Die Fackel (magazine) was a Viennese periodical founded and edited by Karl Kraus that appeared irregularly from 1899 to 1936. The magazine functioned as a crucible for polemic, satire, and drama, attracting attention across Europe and influencing figures and debates in Berlin, Paris, London, Prague, and Budapest. It operated within the cultural milieus of the Belle Époque, the Fin de siècle, and the interwar years, intersecting with currents represented by Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Adolf Loos, Hermann Bahr, and Hugo von Hofmannsthal.
Founded at the turn of the century in Vienna by Karl Kraus following disputes with editors at Die Zeit, the magazine first appeared in 1899 and continued until Kraus's death in 1936, with publication pauses during the First World War and the postwar instability of the First Austrian Republic. The periodical's imprint shifted with events such as the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918 and the rise of political polarization in the 1920s, touching on controversies tied to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 legacy, debates in Czechoslovakia, and the cultural aftermath of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). Printing was handled in Viennese workshops with occasional supplements linked to productions at the Burgtheater, readings at the Cafe Central, and polemics circulated through networks that included Max Brod, Rainer Maria Rilke, Theodor Herzl, and Alfred Polgar.
Under Kraus's editorship the magazine maintained an uncompromising stance toward perceived corruption in Wilhelm II's era, critiques of Adolf Hitler's early agitators, and censure of press practices exemplified by Alfred H. Monteverde-style yellow journalism elsewhere in Europe. Contributors and interlocutors ranged from dramatists and poets such as Arthur Schnitzler, Franz Werfel, Stefan Zweig, and Paul Valéry to critics and composers like Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, and Gustav Mahler. Correspondence and polemics involved public figures including Theodore Roosevelt, Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Luxemburg, Vladimir Lenin, Friedrich Nietzsche (posthumously referenced), and legal disputes invoking advocates from the Austrian Bar Association and commentators from Der Sturm and Simplicissimus. Kraus himself functioned not only as editor but as sole arbiter of text, layout, and typographic choices, engaging printers and typographers in debates paralleling those involving Peter Behrens, Adolf Loos, and Wassily Kandinsky.
The content blended satirical essays, aphorisms, stage plays, and feuilletons, combining literary techniques associated with Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Heinrich Heine with modernist experiments akin to James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Frank Wedekind. Design and typographic economy referenced practitioners from the Arts and Crafts Movement and contacts with figures like Hermann Bahr and Egon Schiele influenced visual choices. Kraus's style was polemical, employing rhetorical devices familiar from debates involving Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel while engaging contemporary journalistic practices traced to Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. Dramatic works published in the magazine entered repertoires at venues such as the Deutsches Theater (Berlin), the Vienna Volksoper, and the Burgtheater, intersecting with productions by directors including Max Reinhardt and designers linked to Adolphe Appia.
The magazine's sustained attacks on press malpractice, warmongering, and antisemitism placed it at the center of cultural conflicts involving the Christian Social Party (Austria), the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, and nationalist movements in Hungary and Italy during the rise of Fascism and National Socialism. Debates in its pages resonated with policymaking and public opinion shaped around the Treaty of Versailles and the crises that produced events such as the Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic and the political violence leading up to the July Revolt of 1927. Intellectual exchanges linked the periodical to networks around Sigmund Freud's circle, the Vienna Secession, and the Austrian School (economics)'s critics, thereby affecting literary criticism practiced by journals like Die Aktion and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Contemporaries ranged from ardent admirers such as Hermann Broch and Bertolt Brecht to fierce opponents within Austrian politics and rival publications like Die Zeit and Frankfurter Zeitung. The magazine's legacy is evident in scholarship by historians of Modernism, archival holdings in institutions such as the Austrian National Library, and citations in retrospective anthologies alongside names like Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Georg Lukács, and Ernst Bloch. Its influence persisted through theatrical revivals, academic curricula at universities such as University of Vienna and University of Cambridge, and inspiration for later satirical outlets in Germany, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia. The corpus remains a subject of critical editions, exhibitions at the Belvedere Museum, and bibliographical studies catalogued by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
Category:Austrian magazines Category:Defunct literary magazines Category:Publications established in 1899 Category:Publications disestablished in 1936