‘Wo Ungesetz gesetzlich überwaltet’: Karl Kraus’s Reading of National Socialism

Abstract

This article argues that Karl Kraus's last major work, the posthumously published essay Dritte Walpurgisnacht (1952), constitutes a significant political engagement with National Socialism, despite the satirist's explicit retreat from the sphere of politics and his decision to support the authoritarian Engelbert Dollfuss, whom he viewed as the last bulwark against Austrian annexation. Kraus's bifurcated reading of the Nazi regime — the almost paradoxical stance that it emerged from a politically bankrupt modernity and signified a historical caesura at once — is, furthermore, best articulated through his use of Goethe's Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil (1832), with which Dritte Walpurgnisnacht maintains a continuous dialogue. Goethe's final drama provides a language for Kraus to articulate this tension at a moment when traditional satire fails. Kraus's text is thus a testament to the limits and potential of satire under the conditions of dehumanization.