The son of a Jewish fabric manufacturer, Fritz Mauthner (1849-1923) was one of the most versatile and controversial personalities in a city (Vienna) and a time (early twentieth century) in which the characters were not wanting multifaceted and controversial. Journalist by profession, he abandoned law studies in 1874 to devote himself to his passion for philosophy and literature. Published novels (a police), stories, essays, plays, articles and a monumental dictionary, but his greatest effort devoted to a major project: the "critique of language" (Sprachkritik). The first version of this work (now lost) was written in 1874, and we know that this year drafted another Mauthner (also unknown) on the same lines: Der Spraschschreck (The fear of the tongue). One of his latest work, Three images of the world is also doomed to "criticism of language."