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