麻豆约拍

The Austrian satirist Karl Kraus made it his mission to hold a mirror to the shortcomings of Viennese society for four decades in the early 20th century. He was desperately trying to warn, educate and enlighten his fellow citizens but often expressed his alarm through biting satire: he would find a piece of poor reporting, sloppy language use or human folly in the periodicals of the time and then took it apart through acerbic comments. Forum presenter Rajan Datar introduces Kraus鈥檚 work.

Photo: Detail from a 1914 poster for a lecture by Karl Kraus. (Imagno/Getty Images)