Franz Kafka: biography, doll story, fun facts, quotes, and sayings
- Ryszard Skarbek
- May 3, 2022
- 15 min read
Updated: Oct 17
Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) was a German-speaking writer of Jewish origin who was associated with Prague throughout his life. Let us introduce you to his life by presenting the lost doll story. There are many versions of the story. All of them are beautiful, simple, and touching. People are invariably moved when they hear how Kafka helped a desperate little girl.
At 40, Kafka, who had never married and had no children, was walking in a park in Berlin. At one point, he met a little crying girl because she had lost her favorite doll. They both agreed to look for the doll. Unfortunately, unsuccessfully. So they parted to meet again and continue the search for the lost doll the day after.
Franz Kafka and Doll Story.
The next day, at the very beginning of the meeting, Kafka handed the girl a letter "written" by a doll: "Please don't cry. I went on a trip to see the world. I will write you about my adventures ... "
This is how the story that lasted until the end of the writer's life began.
During their meetings, Kafka read carefully written letters from the doll. They were full of adventures and stories that the girl listened to with bated breath each time.
Eventually, Kafka brought a doll (which he had bought himself) to the meeting, claiming that it had just returned to Berlin.
"It doesn't look like my doll at all," said the girl.
Kafka then handed her another letter in which the doll wrote: "My travels have changed me." The girl hugged the new doll and happily took it home with her.
A year later, Kafka died at the age of 41.
Years later, an adult girl found a letter in the doll. The tiny letter signed by Kafka included the following words:
"Everything you love is likely to be lost, but in the end, love will return in a different form."
Accept the change. It is inevitable for growth. We can turn pain into a miracle and love, but it requires consciously and intentionally creating this connection.
Franz Kafka: literary genius.
Kafka's influence was so significant and permanent that the terms "Kafka style" or "Kafka situation" exist independently in several languages.
He created a model of a circumstance called the Kafkaesque situation. It refers to absurd, burdensome, and annoying situations, the essence of which is the conflict of an enslaved individual with a superior authority. Moreover, in his works, Kafka presents an alienated, lonely man, separated from others, struggling with the system and himself.
His writings became famous in German-speaking countries after World War II, influencing their literature. Then, the influence spread worldwide in the 1960s, affecting artists, composers, and philosophers.
He was one of those writers who could create a literary world with an inimitable atmosphere. Full of unique, ambiguous codes and symbols. A constant sense of threat and uncertainty constitutes the panorama of Kafka's great works.
He left behind a personal diary (which he kept since 1910), short stories and novels, and a play. His best-known works are The Trial, The Metamorphosis, and The Castle. He also left beautiful testimonies in the form of letters, including to his sister Ottla, his best friend Max Brod, and his beloved Felice Bauer.
Franz Kafka: A Short Biography and Interesting Fun Facts.
Writer Franz Kafka was born in Prague on July 3, 1883, into a middle-class Jewish family. His father, Hermann Kafka, was a Jewish merchant, and his mother was Julia Löwy. His father came from a simple, impoverished family and achieved wealth thanks to his hard work. On the other hand, his mother came from an educated and wealthy family. Her father was a brewer and cloth merchant.
Kafka's upbringing in this complex environment would later influence his literary work, encapsulating themes of alienation and existential despair, which are prevalent in German culture of the time.
His father was a hard, impulsive, and despotic man. In harsh words, he regularly reminded his children and employees of the good life he had provided for all. The mother always remained in the background. They ran a haberdashery shop.
A complicated relationship with his father influenced Franz's entire life. In a heart-moving letter from 1919, Kafka tries to come to terms with this topic. It is a cry of despair from a son who feels dominated by his father. The son who loves and hates simultaneously. A 60-page booklet is being created under the title "Letter to the Father", in which Kafka writes, among other things:
"Dearest father. You recently asked me why I claim to be afraid of you. As usual, I didn't know what to answer, partly because of the fear I feel towards you, and partly because I would have to provide too many details to justify this fear. , before I half-argued it."
Elsewhere, Franz describes the atmosphere in the house in particular:
“I live in my family among the most beloved people, and yet I feel more alien than stranger. In recent years, a conversation with my mother consisted of an average of twenty words, and conversations with my father consisted mainly of greetings.
His closest friend and literary executor, Max Brod, recalls it in his book:
"Franz throughout his life was in the shadow of his imperious father, also externally impressive in his attitude (tall, broad-shouldered) (...)".
Although Franz's father was the head of the Jewish synagogue, only German was spoken at home because this would enable him to achieve more in life (as Kafka's father believed).
Kafka had five siblings, but two of his brothers, Georg and Heinrich, died in infancy before Franz was seven, and his three sisters, Gabriele, Valerie, and Ottilie, tragically died long after the writer's death. During the Holocaust, they were taken to the Łódź ghetto, and then in September 1942, they were deported to the extermination center in Chełmno nad Nerem, where they ended their lives.
Very interestingly, Franz Kafka was a vegetarian. And this, in his time, was a rare thing. Since childhood, he has been in poor health and has often spent time in various sanatoriums.
He was already engaged in literature at a school age, but most of his works are considered lost. Most likely, Kafka himself destroyed them.
Franz studied law at the University of Prague. In addition, he studied chemistry and attended lectures on cultural history and German studies. He completed his law faculty and then, in 1906, obtained a Doctor of Law degree. After graduation, Kafka began an obligatory year of unpaid service as a law clerk for the civil and criminal courts.
In 1902, during the third semester of his studies, Kafka met Max Brod, who supported him faithfully until the end of his life. Although Max was a year younger, he was already well-known in the Prague literary community.
Among Kafka's friends were the journalist Felix Weltsch, the actor Yitzchak Lowy, who came from an orthodox Hasidic family in Warsaw, and the writers Ludwig Winder, Oskar Baum, and Franz Werfel.
Franz Kafka wrote in German, knew Czech, and began to learn Hebrew only at the end of his life. Successfully.
Among other interesting facts, it is worth mentioning that from 1908 to 1922, Kafka worked at the Workers' Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague. As part of his official duties, he traveled a lot around the Czech Republic and was responsible for inspecting subsequent plants.
He performed well at his job and rose quickly to the superintendent position. This meant he earned very well, considering local conditions at that time. Despite rich earnings, Kafka stayed with his parents until he was 34.
In the winter of 1916, he moved to Alchemiki Street, today known as Golden Lane. He rented an apartment there from his youngest sister, Ottla. The deplorable living conditions had a significant impact on the rapid deterioration of the writer's already poor health.
Golden Lane, located near the royal castle, is nowadays one of the main tourist attractions. According to legend, it was created for alchemists searching for a recipe to produce gold. Then it was taken over by goldsmiths of Jewish origin. Because the street was part of the defensive walls, the apartments were small and low. They consisted only of a room, a kitchen, and an attic. Kafka lived at No. 22. Today, a Franz Kafka Museum is located at this address.
In 1917, Franz Kafka was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which at that time was an incurable disease. He had to quit his job. Franz asked his employer to retire him. He received consent only after five years and was released from the obligation to work on July 1, 1922.
In September 1923, his health failing, he moved to Berlin and devoted himself exclusively to writing. It didn't take long. His lung condition got worse during the months that Kafka lived in Berlin. On June 3, 1924, he lost his battle with illness and died in a sanatorium in Kierling near Vienna. His body was brought back to Prague, where he was buried on June 11, 1924, in the New Jewish Cemetery in Olsanske.
Both father and mother survived Franz. They died in the 1930s.
Franz's cousin, Bruno Kafka, was very similar to him physically, but unlike the writer, he was robust, healthy, and energetic. He was a law professor and eventually rector of the German University. He also became a member of the Czech Parliament and played an outstanding role in the German liberal community.
Another interesting fact about Kafka is that his last life partner, Dora Diamant (also known as Dora Dymant), came from Pabianice, Poland. It was for her that he decided to break off the toxic relationship with his father, and in 1923, he moved out of Prague to live with Dora Diamant in Berlin. Shw was the only woman with whom Franz lived for a few months.
His engagements with Felice Bauer, a fiancée he met on August 13, 1912, foundered. He broke off the engagement the first time in 1914 and, after a second attempt, finally in 1917. The other female figures in his life were Grete Bloch and Julie Wohryzek, to whom he became engaged in 1919 and broke off the engagement in 1920. Another important woman was Milena Jesenská, a Czech journalist and writer who was non-Jewish and married.
An intriguing piece of information related to this German-language writer of Jewish origin is his influence on the work of the Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński. Beksiński himself wrote about it as follows:
In my youth, I was inspired by Artur Grottger and this type of painting. Picasso also had a big influence on me, but it's nothing original. (…) I think that literature was much more important for my painting, especially the writings of Kafka, for whom I still have great sentiment.
The idea to write his flagship work, entitled "Process", most likely originated from the numerous experiences gained during his work as an official.
In turn, "The Penal Colony" presents a drastic history. A public reading of this book took place in 1916 in Munich as part of the "Evenings with New Literature". Many people fainted during this reading. By the end of it, almost all seats in the audience were empty. Mostly, because this story is full of very graphic descriptions of torture scenes. This, according to historians, results from the writer's personal experiences at that time.
Franz then invented the most terrible ways to take his own life, using cruel torture and torment, which were called "punitive fantasies". Similarly, the novel The Trial contains a detailed description of the execution. All such bloody situations are described in an extremely precise, yet cold and dispassionate way.
Researchers of Franz Kafka's work pay attention to the peculiar language of the author of The Trial. The reason is the multilingualism of Prague, where Franz grew up. A dedicated book was even written about this peculiar language ("Towards Minor Literature"), in which its authors complement the revolutionary character of Kafka's style and describe it as the language of a Czech Jew trying to find his way in the German language.
Honesty in Kafka's books.
But one of the most distinctive aspects of his work is intellectual honesty. Franz asked his best friend Max to burn all his works.
Fortunately, Brod did not do this, and thanks to him, we can still enjoy Kafka's masterpieces today. A true friend decided to promote Kafka's work in the 1940s and 1950s and posthumously published, among others, three titles of an unfinished novel (America, The Trial, and The Castle). Max Brod also published Kafka's diaries, numerous short stories, and miniatures.
There are probably many professional studies on the legacy that Kafka left behind. According to researchers, it is hard to assign Kafka and his work to any literary stream. But that's not the point of this post. Especially since I am not a professional literary critic or researcher. I think you have to know your place. Moreover, instead of reading studies, I would suggest everyone read "The Process". It's not easy, at least it wasn't for me.
The purpose of this entry is to show a man who was undoubtedly different from others. The legacy he left after his life influenced many others.
But another goal is also to demonstrate how the environment in which we grew up and our relationships with our loved ones influence our perception of the world. Our perspective, way of thinking, and ability to establish new relationships and find our way in the world. We come into this world alone, and we will leave alone. But between these two extreme events, there is not necessarily loneliness.
Loneliness was Kafka's personal, constant, and painful experience.
And the great Jean-Paul Sartre wrote this about his work:
“Everything has already been said about Kafka: that he wanted to describe bureaucracy, the progression of his illness, the situation of Eastern European Jews, the search for inaccessible transcendence, the world of grace when it is lacking. All this is true, but I think he wanted to describe being human. However, we felt especially that during this ongoing Trial, which ends suddenly and badly and whose judges are unknown, that in these vain efforts of the accused to learn the points of the accusation, that in this slowly forming defense which turns against the defender, becoming an accusation that in this absurd reality, which the characters live with zeal and to which the keys are found elsewhere, we have understood this story and recognized ourselves in it. We were far from Flaubert and Mauriac: at least there was a never-before-seen way of presenting tricked-out, undermined, petty, inventively mediocre fates and the irreducible nature of phenomena, and a sense that beyond them there was another truth that it will remain inaccessible to us forever. Kafka is not imitated, he is not written anew: through his books, one had to gain valuable encouragement and look elsewhere.
Franz Kafka: quotes and sayings.
After learning about the life and work of Franz Kafka, let's end this article with his most famous aphorisms. These golden thoughts and deep reflections of a strange nature and unique beauty are the quintessence of his style. All of Franz Kafka's quotes come from his works.
Only by escaping from the world can you enjoy it.
How many happy thoughts are smothered under the blanket when you sleep alone in your bed, and how many unhappy dreams you warm yourself with it.
Lies are becoming the essence of the world order.
The world is bad and it's making it easier.
Often, if you look carefully, you recognize yourself by the face of the butler at the door.
Christ is an abyss full of light... whoever looks into it must throw himself into it.
A person's gesture of bitterness is often only a fossil of a child's shame.
Man cannot live without constant trust in something indestructible.
Man comes into this world with a bleeding wound.
One of the most effective temptations of evil is the call to fight.
There is a goal, but no path: what we call a path is hesitation.
How many happy thoughts are smothered under the blanket when you sleep alone in your bed, and how many unhappy dreams you warm yourself with it.
The executioner always has a bad reputation.
Victims exist because executioners exist.
You lie as little as possible when you lie as little as possible, not when you have few opportunities to do so.
Even old friends can't be sure.
You can encourage someone who is blindfolded to look through the blindfold and still not see anything.
There are two cardinal sins from which all others arise: impatience and sloth. Because of impatience people were driven out of paradise, because of delay they do not return there.
All mistakes that human beings make are the result of lack of patience. Premature interruption of an orderly process is an artificial obstacle raised in the way of artificial reality.
The right way is along a rope that is not stretched high, but just above the ground. People seem to trip over it more than they walk on it.
The desire for death is the first sign of coming understanding.
Only our concept of time allows us to talk about the final judgment. It is essentially a summary court.
We are abandoned like lost children in the forest. Standing in front of me and looking at me, what do you know about the pains that are inside me, and what do I know about yours? And if I fell down before You and cried and told you, what more would you learn about me than about hell when someone tells you that it is hot and terrible. If only for this reason, people should stand before each other with such reverence, such reflection, such love, as before the gate of hell.
I think we should only read the kind of books that hurt and pierce us (...) We need books that affect us like a catastrophe, that sadden us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished to the forest with away from anyone, like suicide. The book must be an ax to the frozen sea inside us.
To understand happiness is to understand that the ground you are standing on cannot be wider than the two feet that cover it.
If anyone loves you, it's me. If a million loves you, I'm one of them. If no one loves you, then know that I am dead. - Letters to Milena
Love is that you are the knife with which I dig inside myself. - Letters to Milena
I can speak more freely with you than with anyone, because no one has been there for me the way you are, with all the knowledge about me, with such awareness, against everything, in spite of everything.
And finally, we invite you to read a fragment of the letter to Max. This is a sample of the unique style created by the genius from Prague. And at the same time, it shows his sensitivity, extraordinary intellect, and sense of humor.
“Here you have it, dear Max, two books and a pebble. I always tried to find something for your birthday that, due to indifference, would not change, would not be lost, would not be spoiled and could not be forgotten. And thinking about it for months, I again saw no other solution than to send you a book. However, there is a problem with books, on the one hand they are indifferent, and then on the other hand they are so much more interesting, and then I was attracted to these indifferent ones only by a conviction that did not resolve anything in me, and finally, still with a different conviction, I held a book in my hand that was burning just out of curiosity. Once I even deliberately forgot your birthday, which was better than sending a book, but it wasn't good. That's why I'm sending you this stone now and I will continue to send it to you as long as we live. You will keep it in your pocket, it will protect you, you will put it in a drawer, it will also not be idle, but if you throw it away, it will be best. Because you know, Max, my love for you is greater than myself and I live in it more than it in me, and it also has little support in my uncertain being, but this way it will get a place in a rock and let it be only in a crack. cobblestones on Schalengasse. It has been saving me for a long time, more often than you think, and now, when I know less about myself than ever before, and I only feel myself fully consciously in half-sleep, only ever so slightly, only now - I am still moving around as if I had black insides - so it will be a good thing throwing such a pebble into the world and thus separating the certain from the uncertain. What then are books! The book starts to bore you and won't stop, or your child will tear it up, or, like Walser's book, it falls apart when you get it. With a pebble, on the contrary, nothing can bore you, such a pebble cannot be damaged, and if it does, it is only after a long time, so you cannot forget it, because you are not obliged to remember it, after all, you can never forget it lose it, because on the first gravel road you find, you will find it again, because it is just the first pebble you come across. And yet I could not harm it with greater praise, for damage from praise occurs only when the praise crushes, destroys or misplaces the thing praised. But a pebble? In short, I found you the most beautiful birthday present and I give it to you with a kiss, which is supposed to express clumsy thanks for being you.“
The Most Important Works of Kafka.
Stories and fragments.
Das Urteil, 1913 (The Judgment).
In der Strafkolonie, 1914 (Penal Colony).
Vor dem Gesetz, 1914 (Before the Law).
Die Verwandlung, 1915 (The Metamorphosis or The Transformation).
Ein Bericht für eine Akademie, 1917 (Report to the Academy).
Forschungen eines Hundes, 1922 (The Inquiries of a Dog).
Ein Hungerkünstler, 1922 (The Starving Artist).
Der Bau, 1923 (Shelter).
Novels.
Der Prozess, published posthumously, 1925 (The Trial).
Das Schloß, published posthumously, 1926 (Castle).
Der Verschollene, published posthumously, 1927 (America).
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