Karl Kraus was a famous literary and cultural critic and a cult figure in Vienna's intellectual scene around 1900. He was the editor of the journal Die Fackel [The Torch] (1899–1936). From 1911 onwards he filled this journal's pages all by himself. He was originally affiliated with key writers and art critics in Vienna and Berlin (Hermann Bahr, Maximilian Harden, Alfred Kerr), but fell out with most of them. His public persona as a polemicist, an intellectual pit bull and an outsider was carefully crafted.