A film essay by Wolfgang Ritzberger
The Last Days ofMankind
or does anyone know how peace works?
Karl Kraus wrote his First World War drama for a “theatre on Mars”, too vast and too cruel for any stage. A good hundred years later, there is war in Europe again.
The film essay uncovers the patterns that led to catastrophe back then and are recognisable again today: nationalism, propaganda, political hubris and the manipulation of public opinion, once through newspapers, now through algorithms. And it asks the question missing from most analyses: What does peace take?
Trailer
History does not repeat itself.Its patterns do.
Markus Reisner
Colonel of the General Staff, military historian
Six patterns
What led to catastrophe in 1914 can be recognised again today.
The narrative
Every war needs a story.
Propaganda
Then the newspaper, now the feed.
Failed diplomacy
Crises taken out of the diplomats’ hands.
Hubris
Decisions whose consequences no one could foresee.
The new world order
Winners and losers.
Peace
What it takes to make it work.
Documentary, Austria 2026
approx. 90 minutes, German
Written and directed by Wolfgang Ritzberger
From the interviews
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“You have to be prepared to lose face, to take a step back. But who actually does that?”
Alix Poeze d’Harambure-FrayeGreat-great-granddaughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
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“You could say that we are in a world war right now.”
Emil BrixDiplomat
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“You can read as many history books on the First World War as you like. Only with The Last Days of Mankind do you really understand what happened.”
Maria PiokLiterary scholar
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“We need people who say today, against every mainstream: No, we stand up for peace. We also talk to the enemy.”
Werner WintersteinerPeace researcher
Translated from German.
In the film
An officer, historians, a diplomat, the great-great-granddaughter of Franz Ferdinand, a journalist, a literary scholar, a peace researcher. And an influencer who comments on it all.
Markus Reisner · Manfried Rauchensteiner · Christian Ortner · Emil Brix · Werner Wintersteiner · Heribert Prantl · Katharina Prager · Maria Piok · Alix Poeze d’Harambure-Fraye · Gregor Razumovski · Elisabeth Halikiopoulos
Images
For schools
Propaganda then and now, source criticism, AI-generated images: a film for upper secondary students.
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