Germany 101: Who was Franz Kafka?

September 23, 1:28 AMGermany Headlines ExaminerBuffy Naillon

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Michael Allen Smith, Flickr Commons

Kafkaesque. It is perhaps one of the most famous catch words of the twentieth century. It pays homage to the influence of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, Franz Kafka.

The Greatest Writer of the 20th Century is Born

Although known as a German writer, Franz Kafka was actually from the Czech Republic. He came from a German speaking family in Prague. His father was a Jewish businessman. According to Wikipedia, his father is described by Kafka as having been

"huge, selfish, overbearing businessman” and by Kafka himself as "a true Kafka in strength, health, appetite, loudness of voice, eloquence, self-satisfaction, worldly dominance, endurance, presence of mind, [and] knowledge of human nature".

The Kafka family, headed by Julie and Hermann Kafka, consisted of three boys, Franz, Georg, and Heinrich, and three younger sisters Gabriele,Valerie, and Ottilie. Kafka is said to have been closest to Ottilie, who later died at Auschwitz upon arrival.

Before the outbreak of World War II, Kafka studied studied law at the Charles-Ferdinand University of Prague, but spent a good portion of his spare time writing. He and friends, Felix Weltsch and Max Brod, formed a writer’s group called the Close Prague Circle.

Family, Friends, and Lovers

It was Max Brod himself who saved Kafka’s writings from the trash heap. According to Wikipedia, Kafka wishes were to have his work destroyed

Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others'), sketches, and so on, [is] to be burned unread.

Brod disregarded Kafka’s dying wish and had many of the writer’s works published after his death.

Besides Brod and his sister, Ottilia, there were a few others people with whom Kafka is said to have ties, Felice Bauer, Milena Jesenská, and Dora Diamant.

He was engaged to Bauer twice, but ultimately the two split. His relationship with journalist, Jesenská, is described as “intense”, but ultimately, it was with Diamant whom Kafka shared a roof.

Kafka’s writing style

While Kafka’s writing is certainly famous in translation (The Metamorphosis, The Penal Colony, The Trial, The Castle), he is most famous for his unique use of the German language. Capitalizing on the fact that the verb is most often positioned at the end of the sentence in German, Kafka’s writing delivers a one, two punch surprise at the end of the sentence, which can be seen in the opening sentence of The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung in German). (These are emphasized in bold. The corresponding word in English is also in bold in the translation.)

Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

Here is the same passage translated into English.

One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.

He’s also known for deliberately using ambiguous terms that have double meanings in German. While his words sometimes have both a mundane and sexual connotation in German, they often only have one right translation in other languages.

Not easy to categorize, Kafka’s works have been claimed by the likes of various literary movements such as modernism, magical realism, existentialism, and Marxism. The themse in Kafka’s writing center mostly around alienation and persecution.

Death of a Legend

In addition to suffering from a slew of ailments throughout his life, Kafka contracted tuberculosis in 1917. He died from complications from the disease on June 3rd, 1924.

To read more in my Germany 101 series, click on the links below:
 

Germany 101: Who was Hermann?

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