The Third Walpurgis Night

“[A] savage dissection of the Nazi media . . . Kraus’s drop-dead analysis of the rhetorical barbarities of the Hitler cult stands as an inspiring model for what’s needed (steely courage, a strong stomach, prophetic verve) to excoriate the language of autocracy, early and often.”—Bill Marx, Arts Fuse

“No one saw the rise of the demonic Adolf Hitler and Nazism with the clarity Austrian satirist Karl Kraus did . . . Now Bridgham and Timms provide a brilliant translation . . . Essential.”—S. Gittleman, Choice

“The final testament of old-world European humanism in its fading luminescence . . . [by] Vienna’s keenest satirist, Karl Kraus, whose literary energies were devoted largely to the process of unmasking the pretensions of the Austrian bourgeoisie, but later, to the papered-over brutalities of National Socialism, as well.”—Ari Linden, Public Books

CHOICE 2021 Outstanding Academic Title
 

“[A] critical bombshell. . . . In the Age of Trump, Kraus’s book could hardly be more timely. . . . In its brilliant and cruel dissection of the Nazi media of 1933, The Third Walpurgisnacht is . . . a truly prophetic work.”—Marjorie Perloff, from the foreword

"When I was a student of German Literature in Berlin in the 1960s, Karl Kraus was seen as a Viennese crank—a curmudgeon with a serious if all too local ax to grind. Too limited, too far away to be interesting. Suddenly, The Third Walpurgis Night reads as if ripped from the front pages of tomorrow’s newspapers. Too real, too frightening, too prescient. The brilliant translation by Fred Bridgham and Edward Timms brings the collapse of Weimar democracy into focus in a way that demands attention. 'Never again' really is the proper response to reading this work."—Sander L. Gilman, co-editor, The Third Reich Sourcebook