Karl Kraus: The Last Days of Mankind

SCHEER, Reinhard (1863–1928), German vice-admiral, in command of German High Seas Fleet at →Jutland: 247.

SCHEFFEL, Joseph Viktor von (1826–1886), poet (→ Trumpeter of Säckingen ; →“When the Romans Had the Nerve”): 327.

SCHEIDL, Café/tearoom in house “Zum Fenstergucker”, Kärntnerstrasse, corner of Walfischgasse (Plan C4); spicy pancakes a specialty: 102.

SCHENK, Martin (1860–1919), comic (from 1899), later director →Gartenbau: 534.

SCHILLER, Friedrich (1759–1805). Kraus’s play abounds in allusions to his poems and plays: 1, 107f, 158, 247, 296, 299.

SCHILLERIAN TRAGEDY:

Preface: “I have portrayed the deeds they merely performed”—an inversion of “Ich habe getan, was du — nur maltest”, Fiesco , Act II, scene 17; a reprise of “An artist with any sense of conviction would have declared to Fiesco: “What you merely performed, I have portrayed!” (F 259–60, July 1908, p. 45): 1;

I, 1: “let us rise up as one, with banners fleeing, and unite with the Fatherland in its hour of destiny!”—drunkenly garbled version of Attinghausen’s plea to Rudenz to defend his Swiss heritage against Austrian oppression ( Wilhelm Tell , Act II, scene 1): 49;

I, 17: “Here I stand, a lifeless trunk”—where Wallenstein acknowledges he has been deserted by all, like a tree stripped of its leaves: “Da steh’ ich, ein entlaubter Stamm” ( Wallensteins Tod , Act III, scene 13); Riedl’s misquotation—“entleibt” for “entlaubt”—suggests he would be committing professional suicide by returning his decorations: 105;

I, 23: “as Emperor and Poet walk side by side, for the heights of mankind they both bestride”—Karl [Charles VII] in Die Jungfrau von Orleans (Act I, scene 2): 126;

I, 29: “the word, propagating itself, brings forth yet more evil”—cf. Oktavio in Die Piccolomini (Act V, scene 1): “Das eben ist der Fluch der bösen Tat,/Dass sie, fortzeugend, immer Böses muss gebären”: 156;

III, 3: “I tell you … it’s a wonderful life!”—cf. Marquis Posa to Queen in Don Carlos (Act IV, scene 21): “O Gott! Das Leben ist doch schön”: 247;

III, 8 and IV, 26: “Schiller’s Tell says, every man is intent on his own business — and mine is murder”— Wilhelm Tell (Act IV, scene 3): 251, 363f, 510;

III, 40: “Hold fast your Fatherland in firm embrace, your dear Fatherland!”— Wilhelm Tell (Act II, scene 1): 306;

III, 41: “One face before the deed is done, but after — a very different one”—Chorus in The Bride of Messina (Act II, lines 2005–6): 307;

IV, 26: “Tell says: Quiet and harmless was the life I led. … The milk of human kindness thou hast turned to rankling poison in my breast” ( Wilhelm Tell , Act IV, scene 3): 364;

IV, 26: “So England is Tell? On the contrary, surely England is the tyrant Gessler and Germany is the idealistic William Tell!”—anticipates a similar confusion in the Second World War, when Goebbels belatedly banned Wilhelm Tell from the school curriculum in 1941: 364;

IV, 29: “each ‘villainous Franz’”—like Schiller’s Franz Moor, or the jailer of →Spielberg fortress’—the antihero of Die Räuber (“Franz heisst die Kanaille?”, Act I, scene 2) — here Emperor Franz I, and by extension the Habsburg dynasty as a whole: 380;

V, 16: “Such is the gratitude the House of Habsburg”—Schalek’s “Dank vom Haus Österreich!” echoes Colonel Buttler’s bitter “Dank vom Haus Österreich!” at his thwarted ambition ( Wallensteins Tod , Act II, scene 6): 445;

V, 54: “ Wallenstein’s Camp ”—first part of Wallenstein trilogy depicting his turbulent mercenary army: 511; with Europe’s future again at stake in 1798, Schiller’s Prologue idealistically proclaims, “Man grows to match his higher goals”, a sentiment the enlisted dwarf (in I, 12) can safely endorse without ducking out of the line of fire: 94. The Prologue’s famous conclusion, “Ernst ist das Leben, heiter ist die Kunst”, is echoed by →Crown Prince Wilhelm, the Death’s Head Hussar, in the Epilogue: “in German a bard can make anything rhyme, for if duty is harsh, art is sublime”: 563.

SCHILLER’S VERSE:

II, 10: “After the war they’ll toll no more”—with church bells melted down for armaments, a negation of “ Friede sei ihr erst Geläute”, the last line of “Das Lied von der Glocke” (1799), when the newly cast bell shall toll for peace: 190;

III, 41: “This photograph … is taken from the rogues’ gallery of world history and at the Final Judgment …”—cf. “Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht” in “Resignation” (1786); in his versified autobiography (IV, 31) →Franz Joseph is also granted the insight that the history of the world is the Final Judgment on his reign: 308;

IV, 27: “Why are the people running … [The Kaiser is coming]”—“Der Kampf mit dem Drachen” (1798): 370;

IV, 27: “Hot from his brow, the sweat is running now”—cf. first stanza of “Das Lied von der Glocke”: 371;

IV, 36: “Noble friend!”—“Der Antritt des neuen Jahrhunderts” (1801) — laments lost “liberty” after Napoleon’s victory over Austrians at Marengo and Britain’s maritime expansion: 402f;

V, 16: “That’s where women become hyenas!”—“Da werden Weiber zu Hyänen!” in “Das Lied von der Glocke”—Schiller, erstwhile enthusiast and honorary French “citoyen”, probably had the “tricoteuses” at the guillotine in mind, Kraus’s Grumbler targets suffragettes and female war correspondents; only the master forger of the bell in Schiller’s ballad knows when to break the mould, otherwise the molten flow causes havoc: 444;

Epilogue: “For Death is a master that hails from Berlin … the proof of our weapons will be in the pudding!”—Dr. Abendrot’s conversion of church bells into weapons of mass destruction again perverts the expertise of the “Meister” craftsman in “Das Lied von der Glocke” and prefigures (in our version) a haunting line from Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge”: 565.

SCHLEIERMACHER, Friedrich (1768–1834), German theologian: 356.

SCHLEYER, Baron Leopold di Pontemalghera (1858–1920), general, deputy minister of war (1915): 225.

SCHNEIDER-CREUSOT, largest French armaments factory, situated at Le Creusot in Burgundy: 511.

SCHNEIDER-DUNCKER, Paul (1883–1956), founder (with composer Rudolf Nelson) of the cabaret Roland von Berlin (1904), and Bonbonniere nightclub on Kurfürstendamm (1915–24): 437.

SCHÖNBORN, probably Karl (1869–1932), chamberlain, member of Upper House: 121.

SCHÖNBRUNN, imperial palace and park in →Hietzing, south-west of city centre, associated in the popular imagination with →Franz Joseph: 289, 313, 376, 390ff.

SCHÖNEBERG, district of Berlin with lively nightlife: 174.

SCHÖNPFLUG, Fritz (1873–1951), celebrated caricaturist, founder of → Muskete ; his facetiously militaristic cartoons featuring army officers form a leitmotif in the play that can be traced back to Die Fackel of December 1912, where the “Let’s go along to →Hopfner’s” dialogue originates (F 363–65, 72). During the war Schönpflug saw active service on the →Serbian and Italian fronts as a territorial army officer in the Tiroler Landsturm Nr. 1, being decorated for bravery and promoted to the rank of captain. In 1918 he was transferred to the →War Press Bureau in Vienna, where his duties included designing modern uniforms and creating posters to warn people about air raids. Military service prevented him from contributing to the Muskete during the war, but his popular cartoons continued to circulate as picture postcards: xii, xiv, xvii, 30, 48, 110, 171, 185, 240, 318, 374f, 418, 485.