“Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning. To his friend the writer and translator Milena Jesenská he wrote: “ My service is ridiculous and miserable easy I don’t know why I get the money.“ First World War In recognition of his achievements, Kafka was promoted four times, in 1910 to the position of a principist, in 1913 to vice-secretary, in 1920 to secretary, and in 1922 to secretary general. His tasks included writing instructions for use and technical documentation. At first he worked in the accident department, later he was transferred to the underwriting department. Outside his service, he showed political solidarity with the working class at demonstrations he attended as a passer-by, he continued to wear a red carnation in his buttonhole. ![]() ![]() The 25-year-old made proposals on accident prevention regulations. He often referred to his service as “his bread and butter profession”. Kafka’s activity required precise knowledge of industrial production and technology. In accordance with the programme, he completed this after five years with a doctorate, which was followed by an obligatory one-year unpaid legal internship at the State and Criminal Courts. After almost a year of employment with the private insurance company “Assicurazioni Generali” (October 1907 to July 1908), Kafka worked from 1908 to 1922 in the semi-public “Workers’ Accident Insurance Institution for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague”. Then he even considered continuing his studies in Munich in 1903, in order to finally stay with the study of law. After a short time he moved in the legal direction then he tried it with a semester of German language and literature and art history. Kafka began his university studies, from 1901 to 1906 at the Karl-Ferdinands-University in Prague, with chemistry. After passing the school-leaving examination (Matura) in 1901 with “satisfactory”, the 18-year-old left Bohemia for the first time in his life and travelled with his uncle Siegfried Löwy to Norderney and Helgoland. Even as a pupil, Kafka was occupied with literature. Nevertheless, his school days were overshadowed by great fears of failure. Kafka was regarded as a preferential pupil. Then, in accordance with his father’s wishes, he went to the German-language humanistic state high school in Prague’s old town, Palais Goltz-Kinsky. From 1889 to 1893 Kafka attended the German Boys’ School at the Fleischmarkt in Prague. While Kafka dealt extensively with his relationship with his father in letters, diaries and prose texts, his relationship with his mother was rather in the background. His paternal grandfather, Jacob Kafka, came from Osek, a Czech provincial town, to set up a small business in Prague. Kafka belonged to the minority of Prague’s population whose mother tongue was German. He is the son of Hermann Kafka (1852-1931) and Julie Kafka, born Löwy (1856-1934), from a rich family of Poděbrady. ![]() His family name Kafka means choucas in Czech (kavka). – Frank Kafka, Metamorphosis (1915) Franz Kafka – Family Background and Early Yearsįranz Kafka was born in 1883 in Josefov in the Jewish quarter of the city of Prague, then capital of the Bohemian province, which is part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.” Most of Kafka’s works were published after his death and against his last will and testament by Max Brod, a close friend and confidant whom Kafka had appointed as executor. For the description of his unusual way of portrayal a separate word has developed: “ kafkaesque“. Kafka’s works are counted among the canons of world literature. On July 3, 1883, German-speaking Bohemian Jewish novelist and short-story writer Franz Kafka was born.
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