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1883 Born, Prague (now Czech Republic, then part
of Austria). Kafka belonged to three minorities: he was Jewish, he was
a German-speaker in predominantly Czech Prague, and he was a speaker of
Prague German within the larger German-speaking area.
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1906 Graduates with a law degree.
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1908 Begins working for a workers' accident insurance
company.
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January 1912 Diary entry
(Jan. 3) on how being a writer causes the inability to enojy any other
aspect of life.
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1912-1917 Relationship with Felice Bauer--they are engaged
twice, but never marry.
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September 1912 Kafka writes "The Judgment" between 10 p.m., Sept.
22 and 6 a.m., Sept. 23. (The story is published in 1913.)
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November-December 1912 Kafka writes "The Metamorphosis" (published in 1915).
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1917 Diagnosed with tuberculosis, resigns his position
soon after.
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1919 Treated in various sanitoriums.
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1920-23 Relationships with Milena Jesenska-Pollak and Dora
Dymant.
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1924 Dies, at Klosterneuburg near Vienna.
1925 Kafka's friend, Max Brod, begins publishing
Kafka's previously unpublished works. Kafka had instructed Brod to destroy
the manuscripts, but Brod ignored this and eventually edited and published
all the works Kafka had left unpublished at his death. Kafka had published
relatively little in his lifetime; the majority of works were brought out
later by Brod.
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Posthumously published works include the novels The Trial and The
Castle.
Diary entry of January 3,
1912
Als es in meinem Organismus klargeworden war, daß das Schreiben
die ergiebigste Richtung meines Wesens sei, drängte sich alles hin
und ließ alle Fähigkeiten leer stehn, die sich auf die Freuden
des Geschlechtes, des Essens, des Trinkens, des philosophischen Nachdenkens,
der Musik zuallererst richteten. Ich magerte nach allen diesen Richtungen
ab . . . . Ich habe diesen Zweck natürlich nicht selbständig
und bewußt gefunden, er fand sich selbst . . . (Tagebücher
144, 3. Januar 1912).
When it became clear in my organism that writing was the most productive
direction of my being, everything in me turned in that direction and left
all abilities empty that involved the joys of sex, of eating, of drinking,
of philosophical thought, and, first of all, of music. I starved in all
these directions . . . . I didn't find this purpose [i.e. of writing] consciously,
it found itself . . . . (Diary entry of January 3, 1912)
Franz
Kafka