Franz Kafka: A Man of His and Our Time

Franz Kafka: A Man of His and Our Time

Concept and text: Radek Malý Illustrations: Renáta Fučíková Graphic design: HMS design Project Manager, CC: Adriana Krásová

The Kafka Phenomenon: Famous against His Will

In the centre of Prague, you will find

Franz Kafka, or the Kafka phenome-

Kafka at almost every turn – he peers

non, has been a constant inspiration

Prague, the capital of Czechia, has a lot

out from postcards, mugs and t-shirts,

to readers, literary scholars and artists

to offer: unique historical buildings,

hides in the names of cafés, he is the

for a hundred years. What was his life

magical corners and unexpectedly

little man who has saddled up a huge

like when he called Prague home? And

beautiful nature at your fingertips. But

coat, and a huge silver moving bust.

what exactly from the environment

there is also something else that at-

Kafka seems to have Prague at his feet.

that surrounded him is reflected in his

tracts visitors from all over the world

Or is the city paying him back for the

work and appeals to future genera-

every year: Franz Kafka.

way he made it famous in his works?

tions?

Franz Kafka (1883–1924)

Franz Kafka: A Man Like Us

Even one hundred years ago, a healthy lifestyle was in vogue, and Franz was completely caught up in it. He enjoyed visiting spas and sanatoriums to test the effects of new treatments. He did not smoke or drink alcohol, tea and coffee. He was also a sworn vegetarian.

In his book on Kafka, Max Brod recalls a scene in a Berlin aquarium where Franz looked at the fish through the glass and said:

I can look at you with peace of mind now that I no longer eat you.

Kafka is surrounded by many myths

exercise by the open window, and when

based on the idea that he was a brood-

he felt his hands were too physically in-

ing recluse who, apart from the office

active, he would volunteer to help out in

job he hated, devoted himself exclu-

the garden shop.

sively to writing. In reality, Franz was a sociable man of many interests, who did not shy away from sport.

He liked to go to the cinema in Prague and enjoyed all the novelties from the world of technology. He was an avid traveller who enjoyed exploring new countries from the water – he was a keen swimmer and a member of a rowing club. In the mornings, he would

Franz Kafka: A Man Like Us

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

Kafka: Tightrope Walker

Kafka’s Prague: A Mother with Claws

Workers’ Injury Insurance Company

Karl-Ferdinand (today Charles) University

German High School in the Kinsky Palace

a hundred spires. Franz Kafka loved and

Prague never lets you go. This dear mother has sharp claws. We should set her on fire from either side, from Vyšehrad and from Hradčany, then perhaps we would be free of her.

hated the city, which was both his home

(from a letter to Oskar Pollak, 1902)

Prague: the golden mother of cities with

and his prison. He was born in Prague on 3 July 1883 and spent most of his life there. Kafka’s novels are not directly set in Prague, but the city is clearly reflected

The author’s Hebrew teacher recalled how they once looked out of the window of Kafka’s parents’ apartment in the Oppelt house on the Old Town Square:

Over there was the gymnasium I used to go to; the building behind it is the university, and a little further to the left is my office. Within this little circle, my whole life is contained.

in the image of a strangely oppressive place.

Kafka’s Prague: A Mother with Claws

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

Family Ties and Shells

Kafka’s father constantly urged his son to marry well and get a decent job, while Franz’s only desire was to write. Franz saw his father as the master of the family and he was aware that he meant well for them. This was also the source of Franz Kafka’s qualms and self-blame.

The tragedy of the relationship between Franz and his father lies mainly in the distance between their worlds and their inability to understand each other.

Kafka’s parents came from the Czech

Franz, his only son, was to take over the

countryside. His mother, Julie, was

business and was given a great deal of

always supportive of her son, even

attention from an early age. The fami-

though she was often under the sway of

ly recognised his extraordinary talent,

her husband. Hermann Kafka, Franz’s

but the young man often felt trapped in

father, came from a humble back-

a tight shell. Kafka’s ideas about the life

ground. After moving to Prague, he

he would like to lead were very differ-

worked his way up from a small hab-

ent from what his parents had in mind

erdashery merchant to the owner of

for him, which was the source of the

a wholesale business and an apartment

oppressive tension that is reflected in

building.

many of his short stories and novels.

Family Ties and Shells

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

Ottla: Kafka‘s Beloved Sister

Kafka and Judaism

The Jews of Prague assimilated over time and abandoned their traditions. At the end of the 19th century, Prague was a crossroads of cultures and languages.

The lands of the Bohemian Crown were still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the official language was GerThe religious ceremony known as bar mitzvah by which a Jewish boy is accepted into the community of Jewish men.

man. While German speakers were no longer a majority in Prague, most assimilated Jews adopted German as their primary language.

Kafka’s relationship with the faith of his forefathers was ambiguous. His father had the family officially registered as Czech, but visited the synagogue several times a year, taking his son with him. Franz later became very interested in Hasidism, the mystical form of Eastern European Judaism. Under the influence of his friend Max Brod, Kafka also came into contact with Zionism, a political movement calling for the establishment of a Jewish nation-state.

Towards the end of his short life, Kafka even seriously considered emigrating to Palestine.

My Hebrew name is Amschel, after my mother’s maternal grandfather, whom my mother – she was six at the time of his death – remembers as a very pious and learned man with a long white beard.

(Kafka’s diary, 25 December 1911)

Kafka and Judaism

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

The Birth of a Writer

The conviction verified that with my novelwriting I am in the shameful lowlands of writing. Only in this way can writing be done, only with such coherence, with such a complete opening out of the body and the soul. Morning in bed.

The eyes still bright.

The young Kafka tried to write at night.

He produced several pieces of prose of various genres that were published, but many of his manuscripts ended up in flames by the author’s own hand. In September 1912, he wrote the short story The Judgement – a text in which he found the writing style he would use in his later works. At that time, he wrote down in his diary the following, now already notorious, sentences:

The Birth of a Writer

This story, The Judgement, I wrote at one sitting during the night nd rd of the 22 -23 , from ten o’clock at night to six o’clock in the morning. I was hardly able to pull my legs out from under the desk, they had got so stiff from sitting. The fearful strain and joy, how the story developed before me, as if I were advancing over water.

Several times during this night I heaved my own weight on my back.

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková, Franz Kafka

The Prague Circle: Social and Intellectual Life

Max Brod: The Power of Friendship

Curtiss hasn’t even finished his flight yet, and the engines in the other three hangars are already starting up with a roar. Wind and dust come from opposite directions.

Two eyes are not enough to follow. We fidget restlessly in our seats. (…) The early Italian autumn evening is falling, one can no longer see the field so clearly. (from The Aeroplanes at Brescia, 1909)

One of Franz’s closest friends was the

magazine Bohemia in September 1909

writer Max Brod, who would later in-

and contains the first description of

troduce Kafka to world literature. It’s

aeroplanes in German literature.

somewhat paradoxical – Brod tells us a lot of things about Kafka, but we only ever see Kafka through Brod’s eyes. One almost gets the impression that Max Brod – certainly with good intentions – shaped Kafka’s legacy to his own liking.

Max Brod met Kafka in a group of German university students in Prague and later became one of his few confidants.

They read each other their work, went to cafés and swimming pools and organised trips together. Max Brod later made Kafka’s work – and himself – famous by refusing his friend’s request to burn his unpublished manuscripts after his death.

Between 1909 and 1911, Franz Kafka and Max Brod made several tourist trips to France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. They inspired Kafka to continue writing and helped him overcome his sense of isolation in Prague. For example, he wrote a report from the International Aviation Day in Brescia, Italy – the article was published in the Prague Max Brod: The Power of Friendship

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

Kafka and Women: It’s Complicated

Franz was a shy and not very self-con-

Milena Jesenská

fident man, so his relationship with

Franz refused to marry Julie because

women was rather complicated. No

of another woman: the free-spirited

wonder: he lived at a time when a wom-

Czech journalist Milena Jesenská,

an was expected to fulfil the role of

fourteen years his junior. In 1919, while

a housewife, supporting her husband

living with her husband in Vienna, she

and being a good mother to his chil-

offered Kafka, then a little-known

dren. Kafka’s femmes fatales, however,

author, to translate his stories into

were certainly not lacking in independ-

Czech. Thus was born first a working

ence and character, and the young men

and then an amorous relationship,

of Kafka’s time were not prepared for

mainly played out in the pages of their

self-confident girls.

Julie Wohryzek

numerous letters.

In 1918, during a convalescent stay in Želízy (Schelesen), he met Julie Wohryzek, the daughter of a Jewish shoemaker and a servant in the Vinohrady synagogue. Julie was a sweet and sensitive girl, but Franz was beset by doubt that he could ever be a responsible partner to anyone. Hermann Kafka also opposed his engagement to Julie, which was one of the impulses for writing Letter to His Father. Franz later Felice Bauer

broke off this engagement as well.

Dora Diamant

Franz was twice engaged to Felice

The last woman to capture Franz Kaf-

Bauer, the daughter of a Jewish mer-

ka’s heart was Dora Diamant. She was

chant from Berlin – and twice he broke

born in Poland and met Kafka at the

off the engagement. Felice was a ca-

Baltic Sea in 1923. Their relationship

pable and self-sufficient woman who

was initially passionate and it was

responded sensitively, if practically,

probably only with Dora that Kafka

to the many letters in which Franz ex-

experienced a truly fulfilling partner-

pressed his concerns about marriage.

ship. They lived in Berlin and planned

He was afraid it would distract him

to go to Palestine and open a restau-

from his mission, which was to write.

rant. This was not to be: Franz died in Dora’s arms on 3 June 1924.

Kafka and Women: It’s Complicated

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

Dora Diamant: Companion until the End

Kafka and the Office

He was well-liked by his colleagues and certainly did not approach his work with the kind of aversion that many of his letters attest to:

Kafka’s clerical career began in 1907 at the Italian insurance company Assicurazioni Generali in Prague. He was not satisfied with the job and the

My job is unbearable to me because it conflicts with my only desire and my only calling, which is literature.

(Kafka’s diary, 21 August 1913)

Kafka’s works immerse the reader in the oppressive atmosphere of official power, which crushes ordinary citizens who have no defence against it. We now

following year he started working at

automatically associate these feel-

the Workers’ Accident Insurance In-

ings with Kafka’s personality and his

stitute, where he held various posi-

dissatisfaction with the job he did for

tions until 1922 and worked his way

a living – and this assumption seems

up the career ladder to become Chief

confirmed by Max Brod’s memoirs and

Secretary of the Institute. Because of

Kafka’s letters. And yet perhaps Kafka’s

his important position (and also his

art of self-stylisation is at work here,

rather weak physical constitution), he

for he was essentially a very capable

avoided conscription in the Great War,

officer who understood his job, did it

which broke out in 1914.

conscientiously and even went beyond the call of duty.

Kafka and the Office

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková, Franz Kafka

Kafka and Illness

I thought it would never stop. How do I stop the outpour if I haven’t opened the valve? I got up, walked around the room, went to the window, looked out, came back – there was blood still; at last it stopped and I fell asleep, sleeping better than I had for a long time.

In mid-August 1917, Franz Kafka woke up with a bloody cough, marking the onset of tuberculosis. At the time, it was a virtually untreatable and quite common disease, particularly among the physically infirm. Kafka, however, saw his illness as a consequence of the mental stress he was under. He himself put it this way:

My head has made an appointment with my lungs behind my back.

For the next seven years, he battled tuberculosis, which had a profound effect on the way he lived his life. He was spending a lot of time outside Prague in sanatoriums, but despite his repeated requests he was not allowed to retire from the office – his employer considered him indispensable.

Kafka and Illness

About 3 weeks ago, I had a severe lung bleed at night. It is about 4 a.m., I wake up, wondering at the unusual amount of saliva in my mouth.

I spit it out, turn on the light – strange, it’s a lump of blood.

And now it’s starting.

In Czech it’s called ‘chrlení’ – I don’t know if I’m spelling it right, but it’s an apt word for this gushing from the throat.

(from a letter to his sister Ottla, 1917)

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

Travelling with Franz Kafka

16

1

12

2

8

Prague

15

4

17 14 6

5

7 9

13 3

11

10

Helgoland [1] An island in the North Sea, where Kafka went with his uncle Siegfried in 1901 as a reward for graduating from secondary school.

Berlin [12] Kafka came to the German capital to visit Felice and later moved here with Dora.

Dresden [2] In the summer of 1903, at the local White Deer Sanatorium, Kafka tried out a fashionable natural treatment based mainly on sunbathing, swimming and healthy eating. Kafka stayed in an artists’ colony in Hellerau on the outskirts of Dresden in 1914.

Merano [13] A renowned spa in South Tyrol, now part of Italy, where Kafka went for treatment in 1920.

Riva del Garda [3] From this northern Italian resort, Franz Kafka and Max Brod travelled to Brescia in the autumn of 1909, where they watched an air show with great enthusiasm. Kafka returned here in 1913.

Paris [4] Visiting Paris and its famous Montmartre district was a must for any young artist – Franz Kafka went there several times with Max Brod.

Zurich, Luzern, Lugano [5, 6, 7] Swiss holiday destinations in 1911.

Vienna [14] Franz spent four days here with Milena Jesenská in 1920.

Tatranské Matliare [15] Sanatorium in the High Tatras, where he met the medical student Robert Klopstock – who was, together with Dora, with him at the hour of his death.

Graal-Müritz [16] The famous seaside spa resort on the Baltic coast, where he stayed in 1923 and met his last love.

Klosterneuburg-Kierling [17] On 3 June 1924, Franz Kafka’s life came to an end in this sanatorium.

Weimar [8] In 1912, Franz Kafka and Max Brod followed in the footsteps of Johann Wolfgang Goethe and set off for the famous old town in Thuringia, Germany.

Milan, Venice, Verona [9, 10, 11] Franz travelled to Italy in September 1913 and took the opportunity to reflect on his relationship with Felice.

Travelling with Franz Kafka

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

Doll Mail: Franz and Children

The girl wanted to see the letter, so Kaf-

searched for by Kafka scholars from all

ka, now playing the part of the postman,

over the world for several generations,

promised to deliver it to her tomorrow.

in vain.

He took the task very seriously: he had reportedly written letters from the doll

Maybe a hundred-year-old lady some-

for three weeks in order to reassure the

­where in Berlin smiled just now, re-

little girl of her doll’s affection. Final-

membering the thin man in the black

ly, he had the doll married abroad to

hat. In her memories, he remains a good

explain her ultimate disappearance.

person. A man of his time and ours.

These letters and the little girl have been Franz Kafka’s stay in Berlin during the last year of his life is linked to an anecdote told by his friend Dora in a later interview. One autumn day, they met a little girl crying in the park in the Steglitz district where they lived. They started talking and when Franz found out that she had lost her doll, he was quick with an answer:

Your doll has gone on holiday. I know, she sent me a letter.

Doll Mail: Franz and Children

Text Radek Malý

Illustrations Renáta Fučíková

Kafka in the Land of the Kafkaesque Franz Kafka’s work was long neglect-

her will, for example when dealing with

a brief period of political and social

ed within Czech literature: his accu-

the authorities.

liberalisation in Czechoslovakia in

rate portrayal of the desperation felt by

the late 1960s. After the armies of the

a man crushed by the gears of the power

In 1963, a famous expert conference

Warsaw Pact occupied the country in

apparatus was not welcomed by either

on Franz Kafka was held at the Lib-

August 1968, all democratising ten-

the Nazis or the Communist regime.

lice Castle, where literary scholars ar-

dencies were violently suppressed.

For a long time, his work was consid-

gued about whether and how Kafka’s

Franz Kafka’s books were banned and

ered decadent and unfit for publica-

work could be read and interpreted in

removed from public libraries, and the

tion. Nevertheless, Czechs often used

the countries of the Communist Bloc.

country descended into a strange, suf-

the term ‛Kafkaesque‛, which to this

Their conclusion that Kafka was still

focating fear and gloom so familiar

day refers to an absurd situation into

relevant became one of the impuls-

from his prose.

which a person is thrown against his or

es that triggered the Prague Spring,

Metamorphosis: The Famous Story

Franz Kafka: Author of Novels