German Language

Franz Kafka (1883-1924)

Authors in German Literature

Kafka and Prague

Bohemia - Böhmen

The surrealist author Franz Kafka was born in Prague, Bohemia (Böhmen, then in Austria-Hungary, now the Czech Republic) on July 3, 1883. Franz was named for the Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph. Kafka's father, the Czech-Jewish merchant Hermann Kafka (1852-1931), had come to Prague in 1881 from the village of Osek (Wossek) in southern Bohemia. After arriving in Prague, Hermann Kafka married the German-Jewish Julie Löwy in 1882. Over the years the family lived in middle class comfort at several locations in Prague. The house in which Franz was born, located in Prague's Josefov Jewish quarter, was destroyed by fire in 1897. Today only the entrance portal remains from the original building. In 1966 a metal memorial relief on the corner of the new building was dedicated on July 3, Kafka's birthday (see photo below). All of the Kafka children attended German schools in Prague. Although Franz was fluent in both Czech and German, his later literary works were all in German.

Kafka relief at Franz Kafka Square (Náměstí Franze Kafky) in Prague.
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Foto © Hyde Flippo

Kafka studied German and law at Prague's German University (Deutsche Universität, 1901-1906). He began writing as early as 1904, but destroyed most of his early work, a pattern that would have left Kafka unknown to the world, had not his friend and publisher Max Brod ignored his request to do the same upon Kafka's death. In 1923, after working in insurance and writing part-time, Kafka moved to Berlin to live as a full-time writer and to share his life with Dora Dymant (orig. Diamant). But his ongoing battle with tuberculosis soon forced him to return to Prague.

The popular term “Kafkaesque” (kafkaesk in German) reflects the bizarre, nightmarish nature of most of the author's works. In Die Verwandlung (1915, The Metamorphosis) Kafka's character awakes to discover he has become a huge bug: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” (Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.) In Der Prozess (1925, The Trial) the anonymous Josef K suddenly finds himself under arrest and attempting to defend himself against unknown charges. Most Kafka experts attribute the tortured, ambiguous nature of his writings to his personal struggle to understand his own relationship with his domineering father, using the autobiographical “Brief an den Vater” (1919) as Exhibit A.

Plagued off and on by tuberculosis from 1911 on, Kafka died of that disease in a sanatorium near Vienna (Kierling) exactly one month before his 41st birthday. His family brought him back to Prague for burial. Although he did not live long enough to witness his nightmare world come true or to suffer at the hands of the Nazis, Kafka's three sisters all perished in German concentration camps. A marble plaque at the base of the Kafka family gravestone in Prague commemorates his sisters. (His beloved Berlin companion Dora Dymant lived until 1952.) Most of his work was published posthumously by his friend and editor Max Brod (who ignored Kafka's request to destroy them). Although he saved Kafka's works from oblivion, Brod also has been criticized in recent years for altering some of Kafka's texts in ways the author may not have intended. Franz Kafka's works include:

The Metamorphosis / Die Verwandlung (1915)
The Judgment / Das Urteil (1916)
In the Penal Colony / In der Strafkolonie (1919)
The Country Doctor / Ein Landarzt (1920)
The Trial / Der Prozess (1925, posthumous)
The Castle / Das Schloss (1926, posthumous) - Film version: "The Castle" (1968), directed by Rudolf Nölte, featuring the German-Swiss actor Maximilian Schell.
Amerika / Verschollene/Amerika (1927, posthumous)
The Diaries 1910-23 / Die Tagebücher 1910-23 (1951, posthumous)

More about Kafka's works in Part 2

Review: Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories
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