Franz Kafka

Birthday: 3 July 1883, Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now in Czech Republic]

Height: 182 cm

Franz Kafka was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Austrian Empire, in 1883. His father, Hermann Kafka, was a business owner and a domestic tyrant, frequently abusing his son. Kafka later admitted to his father, "My writing was all about you...". He believed that his father broke his will and caused insecurity and guilt, that affected his whole life. Their tensions come out in "The Trial" and in "The Castle" in form of a hopeless conflict with an overwhelming force. His mother, Julie Lowy, came from an intellectual, spiritual family of the Jewish merchant and brewer Jakob Lowy. Although her influence was diminished by his dominating father, she shared her son's delicate nature. Kafka had a few relationships with women and was engaged, but never made a family.He finished the German National Gymnasium in 1901, and graduated from the German University in Prague as Doctor of Law in 1906. He worked for insurance companies for the rest of his life. His profession shaped the formal, cold language of his writings which avoided any sentimental interpretations, leaving it to the reader. In 1908 Kafka published eight short stories compiled under the title "Meditation". In 1911 he became interested in Yiddish theater, that absorbed him more than abstract Judaism. In 1912 he began writing "The Judgment", which was more than an autobiography, providing a therapeutical outlet for his wrecked soul. The same year he started "Metamorphosis" about a traveling salesman, who transformed into a giant bug. In 1914 he wrote "In the Penal Colony" and "The Trial", which is regarded to be his best work. His style remains unique, though literary connections may be traced to Edgar Allan Poe, E.T.A. Hoffmann and Nikolai Gogol, as well as to Chinese parables, to the Bible and Talmud.As a Jew Kafka experienced social tensions and isolation from the German community, so very few of his writings could find readers during his life. His three sisters later died in the Nazi concentration camps. He suffered from clinical depression, social anxiety, insomnia, and tuberculosis, complicated by laryngitis, that caused him the loss of his voice before his death in 1924. He was comforted by his girlfriend Dora Diamant, who had broken away from her Hasidic shtetl in Poland. She was 19 when they met in 1923 and Kafka wrote to her parents, asking for their permission to marry her. Their answer was negative, because Kafka presented himself as a non-religious Jew. He asked Dora to destroy his manuscripts after his death, but she kept about 20 notebooks of his writings and 35 private letters, that were reportedly confiscated by the Gestapo in 1933 and are not yet recovered. His university friend Max Brod became his editor, biographer and literary agent, who preserved and published most of Kafka's works posthumously, including the unfinished novels "The Trial", "The Castle", and "America". Hide

All revolutions evaporate leaving only the slime of a new bureaucracy. All revolutions evaporate leaving only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

The Meaning of Life is that it stops. The Meaning of Life is that it stops.

Evil is whatever distracts. Evil is whatever distracts.

[The Country Doctor] "Do you know," I hear someone saying in my ear, "my confidence in you is very s Show more [The Country Doctor] "Do you know," I hear someone saying in my ear, "my confidence in you is very small. You were shaken out from somewhere. You don't come on your own feet. Instead of helping, you give me less room on my deathbed. The best thing would be if I scratch your eyes out." "Right," I say, "it's a disgrace. But now I'm a doctor. What am I supposed to do? Believe me, things are not easy for me either." "Should I be satisfied with this excuse? Alas, I'll probably have to be. I always have to make do. I came into the world with a beautiful wound; that was all I was furnished with." "Young friend," I say, "your mistake is that you have no perspective. I've already been in all the sick rooms, far and wide, and I tell you your wound is not so bad. Made in a tight corner with two blows from an axe. Many people offer their side and hardly hear the axe in the forest, to say nothing of the fact that it's coming closer to them." "Is that really so, or are you deceiving me in my fever?" "It is truly so. Take the word of honour of a medical doctor." He took my word and grew still. But now it was time to think about my escape. Hide

[Trial] People under suspicion are better moving than at rest, since at rest they may be sitting in Show more [Trial] People under suspicion are better moving than at rest, since at rest they may be sitting in the balance without knowing it, being weighed together with their sins. Hide

[Castle] Only a total stranger could ask such a question. Are there control agencies? There are only Show more [Castle] Only a total stranger could ask such a question. Are there control agencies? There are only control agencies! Of course they aren't meant to find errors, in the vulgar sense of that term, since no errors occur, and even if an error does occur, as in your case, who can finally say that it is an error? Hide

[The Country Doctor] Poor young man, there is no helping you. I have found out your great wound. You Show more [The Country Doctor] Poor young man, there is no helping you. I have found out your great wound. You are dying from this flower on your side. The family is happy; they see me doing something. The sister says that to the mother, the mother tells the father, the father tells a few guests who are coming in on tip toe through the moonlight of the open door, balancing themselves with outstretched arms. "Will you save me?" whispers the young man, sobbing, quite blinded by the life inside his wound. That's how people are in my region. Always demanding the impossible from the doctor. They have lost the old faith. The priest sits at home and tears his religious robes to pieces, one after the other. But the doctor is supposed to achieve everything with his delicate surgeon's hand. Well, it's what they like to think. I have not offered myself. If they use me for sacred purposes, I let that happen to me as well. Hide

[Trial] It's characteristic of this judicial system that a man is condemned not only when he's innoc Show more [Trial] It's characteristic of this judicial system that a man is condemned not only when he's innocent but also in ignorance. Hide

What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense... What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense...

[Trial] How are we to avoid those in office becoming deeply corrupt when everything is devoid of mea Show more [Trial] How are we to avoid those in office becoming deeply corrupt when everything is devoid of meaning? Hide

Women are traps which lie in wait for men everywhere, in order to drag them down into the Finite. Women are traps which lie in wait for men everywhere, in order to drag them down into the Finite.

[Castle] Surveyor, in your thoughts you may be reproaching Sordini for not having been prompted by m Show more [Castle] Surveyor, in your thoughts you may be reproaching Sordini for not having been prompted by my claim to make inquiries about the matter in other departments. But that would have been wrong, and I want this man cleared of all blame in your thoughts. One of the operating principles of authorities is that the possibility of error is simply not taken into account. This principle is justified by the excellence of the entire organization and is also necessary if matters are to be discharged with the utmost rapidity. So Sordini couldn't inquire in other departments, besides those departments wouldn't have answered, since they would have noticed right away that he was investigating the possibility of an error. Hide

A writer who does not write is a monster courting insanity. A writer who does not write is a monster courting insanity.

[Amerika] It's impossible to defend oneself in the absence of goodwill. [Amerika] It's impossible to defend oneself in the absence of goodwill.

[The Country Doctor] They had called me out for nothing. I'm used to it. [The Country Doctor] They had called me out for nothing. I'm used to it.

[Trial] Someone must have been telling stories about Joseph K, because one morning, without having d Show more [Trial] Someone must have been telling stories about Joseph K, because one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested. Hide

A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.

[Trial] K. didn't thumb through that book any more, but just threw open the next one at its title pa Show more [Trial] K. didn't thumb through that book any more, but just threw open the next one at its title page, it was a novel with the title, "What Grete Suffered from her Husband, Hans". "So this is the sort of law book they study here," said K., "this is the sort of person sitting in judgment over me." Hide

Franz Kafka's FILMOGRAPHY

as Creator (1)

The Trial