Cast and contributors
Who speaks in the film and who is on stage in the Serbenhalle.
In the film
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Markus Reisner
Officer, historian
“Wars are always information wars too. Wars over information and over who gets to interpret it.”
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Manfried Rauchensteiner
Historian
“The situation before the First World War probably cannot really be grasped with our patterns of thought.”
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Christian Ortner
Military historian, former director of the Museum of Military History, Vienna
“In Europe, every state lost. The real winners were the United States.”
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Emil Brix
Diplomat, former director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna
“Did diplomacy fail? No. What failed was political decision-making.”
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Werner Wintersteiner
Peace researcher
“My great fear is that we are once again following a logic of war.”
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Heribert Prantl
Journalist, author
“When I read The Last Days of Mankind now, one light after another goes on about the present.”
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Katharina Prager
Historian
On Kraus and his journal “Die Fackel” (The Torch): “In it, from the age of 25 until his death, he criticised journalism. For many things that still concern us today.”
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Maria Piok
Literary scholar
“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.”
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Alix Poeze d’Harambure-Fraye
Great-great-granddaughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
“A state funeral for my great-great-grandparents could have changed a great deal. The diplomats and heads of state would have had to come to Vienna. They would have had to talk.”
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Gregor Razumovski
Entrepreneur; his ancestors represented Russia at the Congress of Vienna
“If you lie to each other at that level, there is no way back once the war is running.”
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Elisabeth Halikiopoulos
as the influencer
“We talk so much about war that peace gets short shrift.”
Also in the film
- Gregor Gatscher-RiedlHistorian“It is a war of technology, and it is also a war of the media.”
- Gerald Krieghofer (1953–2025)Karl Kraus scholar and quotation researcher“A writer who takes himself seriously becomes guilty when he lies to people.”
- Ferdinand KuefsteinGuide
- ChatGPTas the AI
Cast
Karl Kraus wrote his First World War drama for a “theatre on Mars”: more than two hundred scenes and several hundred characters, from the emperor and the general staff to newspaper sellers, war profiteers and the dying in the field hospital. In the promenade performance in the Serbenhalle in Wiener Neustadt, some twenty actors each played many of these parts, and the audience moved with them from station to station. The film shows scenes from these performances.
- Anushka Grigalashwili
- Susanne Greiner
- Elisabeth HalikiopoulosWebsite · Instagram
- Elisabeth KoflerTypist and others · Website
- Claudia KohlmannHofrätin Schwarz-Gelber, Frau Kommerzialrat Wahnschaffe, Frau Riedl and others
- Iris SchmidWar correspondent Alice Schalek, Frau Rosenberg · Website
- Anú SifkovitsActress Elfriede Ritter, nurse
- Judita SuchyTheresia Pogatschnigg, housewife Funk-Feigl, nurse and others
- Henry ArnoldThe Grumbler (Nörgler), Count Dohna-Schlodien, Consistorial Councillor Rabe and others · Website
- Bernhard Bauer
- Benedikt HaefnerThe Madman, Pastor Geier, journalist Dr. Halberstam and others
- Gregor HellingerCafé owner Riedl, Kommerzialrat Wahnschaffe, court photographer Skolik and others · Instagram
- David Ignjatovic
- Jakob Leonhard
- Gunter MatzkaChief of the General Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf, Kaiser Wilhelm II, profiteer Chramosta and others
- Gottfried Neuner
- Thomas PohnWar correspondent and others
- René RebeizEditor-in-chief Moritz Benedikt and others
- Ralph SamlSoldier in the kitchen and others
- Raoul SimmlerLudwig Ganghofer, rickshaw driver, Anton Grüßer and others
- Adrian StowasserInstagram
- Gerhard Swoboda
Characters from the play
- Alice Schalek
- The first woman allowed to report from the front as a war correspondent in the First World War. Kraus has her describe the horror as an adventure and makes her the embodiment of an enthusiastic press. Played by Iris Schmid.
- The Grumbler
- Kraus’s own voice. Arguing with the Optimist, he contradicts every phrase used to prettify the war. Played by Henry Arnold.
- The Madman
- He denounces the warmongering and is declared insane for it. Benedikt Haefner, who plays him: “Everyone around him calls him a madman, but he is actually the only normal one.”
- Moritz Benedikt
- Publisher of the Neue Freie Presse, for Kraus the epitome of a newspaper that writes the war into being. Played by René Rebeiz.
- Conrad von Hötzendorf
- Chief of the General Staff, who pushed for war against Serbia long before 1914. Played by Gunter Matzka, who also plays Kaiser Wilhelm II among others.
- Elfriede Ritter
- An actress returning from Russia. Reporters twist her words until they fit the desired picture of the war. Played by Anú Sifkovits.
- Café owner Riedl
- Proprietor of the Café de l’Europe, proud of every medal and every title. Played by Gregor Hellinger.
- Hofrätin Schwarz-Gelber
- Out and about in wartime society with her husband, mainly to be seen. Played by Claudia Kohlmann.
Children
- Elias Gruber
- Fabio Pammer
- Pamina Pammer
- Alma Pirolt
- Natalie Platzer
- Magdalena Reitstätter
- Teresa Reitstätter
- Helena Roth
- Marlene Roth
- Eliza Weghofer
