Kraus was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Jičín, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) before the family moved to Vienna in 1877. Kraus enrolled as a law student at the University of Vienna in 1892. On April 1st 1899, Kraus founded his own satirical newspaper, Die Fackel (The Torch). Kraus’s all-time masterpiece is generally considered to be his satirical play about the First World War, Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind). In 1933 he wrote Die Dritte Walpurgisnacht (The Third Walpurgis Night), a satire on Nazi ideology. Kraus died of an embolism in Vienna on June 12th 1936, after a short illness.