Lecture by Jens Malte Fischer: World War I in the Theater of Mars. Karl Kraus and his tragedy "The Last Days of Mankind"

The Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz cordially invites you to a lecture entitled "The First World War in the Marstheater. Karl Kraus and his tragedy 'The Last Days of Mankind'" by Jens Malte Fischer in the plenary hall on November 6, 2025, at 7:00 p.m.

When there are "great" wars or a great war celebrates an "anniversary," theater managers, directors, and dramaturges remember that Karl Kraus wrote an incomparable drama called "The Last Days of Mankind," which was written largely during World War I and about that very war. It is incomparable because the printed version is around 800 pages long and would take around 30 hours to perform on stage. No wonder it has never been performed in its entirety on stage.

Kraus himself considered a complete performance impossible and dedicated the work to a "Mars theater." However, there have been many partial performances, with a boom in 2014 and again in 2025: at the Salzburg Festival, whose production was also taken over by the Vienna Burgtheater, and at the Cologne Opera with a musical theater based on Kraus' text.

Prof. Dr. phil. Jens Malte Fischer will introduce this drama in his lecture and illustrate this introduction with examples from performances. He is a member of the Mainz Academy and was professor of theater studies at the University of Munich until 2009. In 2020, his biography "Karl Kraus. Der Widersprecher" (Karl Kraus: The Contrarian) was published, for which he was awarded the Bavarian Book Prize.

Entry is free. Registration is kindly requested.: https://events.adwmainz.de/karlkraus/

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