Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 in Prague, which at the time was part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. His birthplace was located on the corner of the Great Ring (Staroměstské náměstí No. 2), near the Teyn Church in Prague's Old Town.

However, this original building was destroyed by fire in 1897. The current house on this site is a reconstructed building known as "Kafka's birthplace". Today, it houses a small exhibition about Kafka and his life.

Franz Kafka came from a German-speaking, Jewish, middle-class family. His father, Hermann Kafka, was a wealthy merchant whose dominant personality strongly influenced his son's life and writing.

Kafka published only a few works during his lifetime. He suffered from tuberculosis, which is why he took early retirement in 1922. He died in 1924 at the age of just 40 in a sanatorium near Vienna.

The world owes his literary legacy above all to his close friend Max Brod, who ignored Kafka's wish to destroy all manuscripts after his death and published many works posthumously (1925. „The Trial;“, 1926: „The Castleß“). This made Kafka one of the most important authors of modernism. His works are regarded as an expression of existential fear, alienated bureaucracy and the absurdity of human existence - the term "Kafkaesque" became synonymous with these experiences.