Diaries of Franz Kafka

by Franz Kafka

  132. Frydlant and Liberic, two old towns in northern Bohemia. The text retains Kafka’s German spelling of the names.

  133. Judging from the last entry in the diary of this trip (this page), it seems probable that Kafka visited these places on official business for the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute, by which he was employed.

  This castle may perhaps have influenced Kafka’s conception of the castle in his novel.

  134. A recollection of the trip to Riva, Brescia, in 1909.

  135. Kafka undertook this trip together with the Editor. We planned to write a novel together, called Richard and Samuel, one chapter of which has been preserved under the title of ‘The First Long Train Journey’. (See n. 14)

  136. Alice R. is the woman who appears as Dora Lippert in ‘The First Long Train Journey’. (See n. 21).

  137. As shown in a drawing in the manuscript.

  138. An allusion to the theory of the ‘Indistinct’, with which the book Anschauung und Begriff by Felix Weltsch and myself begins. The ‘Indistinct’ is represented there by the graphic symbol, A + x.

  139. A Czech expression for the little envelopes that contain fortunes; a trained parrot would draw one out of a heap.

  140. Writing entries in our diaries.

  141. Paintings in the Louvre.

  142. Paintings in the palace of Versailles.

  143. From this point on the entries were made at the Erlenbach Sanatorium, Switzerland, whither Kafka had gone on alone while I returned home. His leave of absence was a little longer than mine. The entries, however, soon revert to the impressions of Paris that he had just absorbed.

  144. Kafka and I went to Weimar together during our holiday, staying there until 7 July. On 8 July Kafka left for the Jungborn nature therapy establishment in the Harz. Kafka was always interested in Naturheilkunde in all its various forms, such as the raw food diet, vegetarianism, Mazdaznan, nudism, gymnastics, and anti-vaccinationism. The curious mixture of irony and respect in his attitude to these cults, and his efforts over the years to live in accordance with several of them, defy all analysis. The ‘Travel Diary’ faithfully reflects Kafka’s attitude.

  145. Patriotic Czech gymnastic societies.

  146. [‘Confession’, by Goethe. The following is a translation by Paul Dyrsen (1878):

  Absolution give to us!

  And we shall forever

  To remember your command

  Faithfully endeavour;

  Wholly love all worth and beauty

  And from doing half our duty

  Resolutely sever.]

  147. Johannes Schlaf, with Arno Holz one of the first men in German literature to write in the genre of modern realism, was one of the forerunners of Gerhart Hauptmann. In the years before our visit he had again made himself much talked about by advancing and vehemently defending an anti-Copernican theory according to which the sun moved round the earth.

  148. Wickersdorf was a progressive country boarding school founded in Germany in 1906 in close conformity with the ideals of the German Youth Movement.

  CHRONOLOGY

  1883 – 1924

  1883 Born 3 July in Prague.

  1901 Graduates from the German Gymnasium. (Incorrectly given in Diaries as 1903.)

  1906 Doctorate in jurisprudence from the Karl-Ferdinand University in Prague.

  before 1907 Writes ‘Description of a Struggle’ and ‘Hochzeitsvorbereitungen auf dem Lande’.

  1907–08 Temporary employment in the Assicurazioni Generali, an Italian insurance company.

  1908 Appointed to post with government-sponsored Arbeiter-Unfall Versicherungs-Anstalt für das Königreich Böhmen in Prag.

  1909 Publication of ‘Conversation with the Supplicant’ and ‘Conversation with the Drunken Man’, two dialogues from ‘Description of a Struggle’, in the literary periodical Hyperion. Publication of ‘The Aeroplanes at Brescia’ in the Prague newspaper Bohemia.

  1910 Publication in Bohemia of several short pieces later included in Meditation.

  1911 Trip to Frydlant and Liberic.

  Trip to Switzerland, Italy, Paris, and Erlenbach.

  Meets Yiddish theatre troupe in Prague.

  1912 Publication in the literary periodical Herderblätter of ‘The First Long Train Journey’, first chapter of Richard and Samuel.

  Trip to Weimar and Jungborn.

  Meets F.B.

  Begins Amerika.

  Writes ‘The Judgement’.

  1913 Publication of Meditation.

  Publication of ‘The Judgement’ in the literary year-book Arkadia.

  Publication of ‘The Stoker’, first chapter of Amerika.

  Trip to Riva.

  Writes ‘The Metamorphosis’.

  1914 Formal engagement to F.B.

  Begins The Trial.

  Writes first draft of ‘In the Penal Colony’.

  Writes ‘The Giant Mole’.

  Trip to Denmark.

  1915 Publication of ‘The Metamorphosis’.

  Completes The Trial.

  Awarded the Fontane Prize for ‘The Stoker’.

  Moves from parental house into a rented room.

  1917 Tuberculosis.

  Sick leave from the Arbeiter-Unfall-Versicherungs-Anstalt

  Final break with F. B.

  1918 Writes ‘The Great Wall of China’.

  1919 Publication of the collection of stories, A Country Doctor. Short-lived second engagement to J.W.

  1920 Publication of ‘In the Penal Colony’.

  Stay in Meran, Austria.

  Resumes work at his office.

  Meets Milena Jesenská

  1921 Stay in a sanatorium in the Tatra.

  Writes The Castle.

  Publication of ‘The Bucket Rider’ in Prager Presse.

  1922 Publication of the story ‘A Hunger Artist’ in Die Neue Rundschau.

  1923 Writes ‘Investigations of a Dog’, ‘The Burrow’, and ‘Josephine the Singer’.

  Meets Dora Dymant; goes with her to Berlin.

  1924 Publication of the collection of stories, A Hunger Artist.

  Dies 3 June in a sanatorium near Vienna.

  Buried 11 June in the Jewish cemetery in Prague-Strashnitz.

  LIST OF AUTHORS, ARTISTS, PERIODICALS, AND WORKS

  Numerals preceded by an italic n refer to notes at the end of the book.

  It was not possible to identify all the authors and artists mentioned in the text. In such cases their names are not listed here.

  Abramowitsch, Solomon Jacob, see Mendele Mocher Sforim

  Abschied von der Jugend, play by Max Brod

  Adler, Friederich (1857–1938), German Jewish poet and playwright from Prague, n 110

  Adler, Jacob P., founder of distinguished family of actors

  ‘Aeroplanes at Brescia, The’, by Franz Kafka, n 30

  Aktion, Die, political and literary monthly edited by F. Pfemfert, published in Berlin 1911–32

  Alarcos, by Friedrich Schlegel

  Amerika, by Franz Kafka, n 48, n 53, n 81, n 90 n 101

  Annalen für Naturphilosophie, monist publication edited by Wilhelm Ostwalt, published in Leipzig 1901–21

  Annunzio, Gabriele D’ (1864–1938), Italian poet and novelist,

  Arkadia, poetry yearbook edited by Max Brod, appeared in Leipzig 1913

  Arme Spielmann, Der, by Franz Grillparzer

  Arnold Beer, novel by Max Brod

  Asmus Sempers Jugendland, by the German novelist Otto Ernst (1862–1926)

  Az Est, Budapest newspaper

  Baal Shem Tov, Israel B. Eliezer (c. 1700–1760), founder of Hasidism

  ‘Bachelor’s “Ill Luck” ’, by Frank Kafka, n 31, n 123, n 130

  Bakunin, Mikhail (1814–76), Russian anarchist

  Baluscheck, Hans (1870–1936), German painter

  Bar Kokhba, play by Abraham Goldfaken, 104–6, 108–9

  Bartered Bride, The, Opera by Friedrich Smetana

  Baum, Oskar (1883–1941), Jewish author
and music critic from Prague, n 8

  Beer-Hofmann, Richard (1886–1946), Austrian-Jewish lyric poet and dramatist, n 43

  Beermann, Richard Arnold, pseud, of Arnold Höllriegel (1883–1939), author of travel books

  Beethoven und das Liebespaar, novel by Wilhelm Schäfer

  Belinski, Vissarion Grigorievich (1811–48), Russian critic

  Beradt, Martin (1881–1949), German-Jewish novelist

  Bergmann, Hugo (1883–1975), Jewish philosopher from Prague, later Professor at the Hebrew University

  Berliner Tageblatt, newspaper edited by Theodor Wolff, founded in 1872, later absorbed by Nazis

  Bernhardt, Sarah (1844–1923)

  Besuch aus dem Elysium, by Franz Werfel

  Bialik, Hayim Nahman (1873–1934), Hebrew poet

  Biberpelz, by Gerhart Hauptmann

  Bible

  Bie, Oskar (1864–1938), German art critic

  Biedermann, W. von, editor of Gespräche mit Goethe

  Birnbaum, Nathan (1864–1937) Austrian-Jewish author and Zionist publicist

  Bizet, Georges (1838–75), French composer

  Black Flags, by Johan August Strindberg

  Blanc, Louis (1811–82), French revolutionary and historian

  Blei, Franz (1871–1943), German novelist and satirist, 128–9

  ‘Blinde Gast, Der’, story by Otto Pick, 316

  Blüher, Hans (1888–1955), German writer, author of a number of anti-Semitic works n 127, 421–2

  Blumenfeld, Kurt (1884–1963), German Zionist leader, later in Jerusalem

  Bohemia, Prague German-language newspaper, 188–9

  Böse Unschuld, Die, novel by Oskar Baum

  Bouvard et Pécuchet, by Gustave Flaubert

  Boy-Ed, Isa (1852–1928), German popular novelist

  Brahms, Johannes (1833–97)

  Brandenburg, Hans (1885–1968), German poet and critic

  ‘Brescia’, see ‘Aeroplanes at Brescia, The’, by Franz Kafka

  Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend (1759), a series of literary criticisms edited by Friedrich Nikolai in collaboration with Moses Mendelssohn and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

  Briefe, by Heinrich von Kleist

  Briefwechsel zwischen Rahel und David Veit

  * Brod, Max (1884–1968), 45–6, n 14, n 30

  Brothers Karamazov, The, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 322–3

  Bruckner, Ferdinand, see Tagger, Theodor

  Buch des Richters, by Søren Kierkegaard, n 58

  By the Open Sea, novel by Johan August Strindberg

  Carmen, by Georges Bizet

  Castle, The, by Frank Kafka, n 18, n 70

  Christliche Welt, Die, Protestant magazine first published 1886 in Marburg

  Claudel, Paul (1868–1955), French poet and playwright, n 5, n 63 ‘Confidence Trickster’, see ‘Unmasking a Confidence Trickster’, by Franz Kafka

  ‘Conversation with the Supplicant’, by Franz Kafka, n 4

  Corriere della Sera, Milanese newspaper

  Country Doctor, A, collection of stories and prose pieces by Franz Kafka 386–7, n 87, n 124

  Dalcroze, Emile Jacques (1866–1950), Austrian choreographer, founder of Hellerau school

  Daudet, Alphonse (1840–97), French novelist

  Dauthendey, Max (1867–1918), German novelist and poet

  David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens

  David, Pierre Jean (1789–1856), French sculptor

  Davids Geige, by Joseph Lateiner

  ‘Death of Ivan Ilyich, The’, by Leo Tolstoy, it 121

  Dehmel, Richard (1863–1920), German poet

  ‘Description of a Struggle’, by Franz Kafka, n 4

  Deutschen in Russland, Die, by Paul Holzhausen (1860–), German author of a number of works on Napoleon

  Deutsches Abendblatt, Prague German-language newspaper

  Dichtung und Wahrheit, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Dick, Eisik Meir (1808–94), Yiddish author and novelist

  Dickens, Charles (1812–70)

  Diederich, Eugen (1868–1930), German publisher

  Diener zweier Herrn, Der, by Carlo Goldoni

  Dilthey, Wilhelm (1833–1911), German historian and philosopher, n 64

  Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (1821–81), 322–3

  Dream of a Spring Morning, play by Gabriele D’Annunzio

  Dubrovačka Trilogijia, play by Ilo Vojnovič

  Edelstatt, David (1866–92), Yiddish poet

  Education sentimentale, by Gustave Flaubert

  Eheleute, by Martin Beradt

  Ehrenfels, Christian von (1859–1932), German philosopher and playwright

  Ehrenstein, Albert (1886–1950), Austrian-Jewish poet

  Eiserne Frau, Die, novel by Naum Meir Schaikewitz

  Either-Or, by Søren Kierkegaard

  Eleseus, see Growth of the Soil

  Eliezar ben Schema, by Jacob Gordin

  Erdgeist, play by Frank Wedekind

  Erlebnis und die Dichtung, Das, essays by Wilhelm Dilthey, n 64

  Ernst, Paul (1866–1933), German author

  Er Und Seine Schwester, comedy by the Hungarian-born German playwright, novelist, and journalist Bernhard Buchbinder (1852–1922)

  Esther, Kaiserin von Persien, play by Franz Werfel, 318–19

  Excelsior, illustrated newspaper published in Paris from 1910 to 1942

  Fall Jacobsohn, Der, by Siegfried Jacobsohn

  Fidelio, by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

  ‘First Long Train Journey, The’, by Max Brod and Franz Kafka, n 14

  Fishke der Krummer, by Mendele Mocher Sforim

  Flaubert, Gustave (1821–80)

  Fliegenden Blätter, Die, Satirical magazine published in Munich

  Foerster, Friedrich Wilhelm (1869–1966), German pacifist, writer on politics and pedagogy, later in the United States

  ‘Fogs of London, The’, chapter in My Past and Thoughts: The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen

  Franz Kafka, a Biography, by Max Brod, n 30

  Franzi, novel by Max Brod

  Franziska, novel by Ernst Weiss, n 77

  Fred, W., pseud, for Alfred Wechsler (1879–), German-Jewish writer

  Freud, Sigmund (1856–1939)

  Freytag, Gustav (1816–95), German novelist

  Fromer, Jacob (1865–1941), Jewish philosopher and historian

  Frug, Simon Samuel (1860–1916), Yiddish poet

  Gabriel Schillings Flucht, by Gerhard Hauptmann

  Galeere, Die, by Ernst Weiss, n 57 Gespräche mit Goethe, edited by W. von Biedermann

  ‘Giant Mole, The’, story by Franz Kafka

  Glaube und Heimat, by Karl Schönherr

  Gluck, Christoph Willibald (1714–87), German-born French operatic composer

  Goat Song, drama by Franz Werfel

  Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749–1832), n 44, n 45

  Goethe, Philosophical biography by Wilhelm Dilthey

  Goethe Yearbook, Edited by L. Geiger, appeared in Frankfort (1880–1913) 196

  Gogol, Nikolai Vasilievich (1809–52)

  Goldfaden, Abraham (1840–1908), Hebrew and Yiddish poet and playwright

  Goldoni, Carlo (1707–93), Italian dramatist

  Gordin, Jacob (1853–1909), Yiddish dramatist

  Gordon, Judah Loeb (1830–92), poet of the Russian Haskalah

  Gothic Rooms, The, novel by Johan August Strindberg

  Gott, Mensch, Teufel, by Jacob Gordin

  Graetz, Heinrich (1817–91), German-Jewish historian

  Graf von Gleichen, by Wilhelm Schmidtbonn

  Great Wall of China, The, by Franz Kafka, n 61

  Grillparzer, Franz (1791–1872), Austrian dramatic poet

  Grosse Maggid, Der, by Martin Buber (1878–1965), Austrian-born Jewish philosopher and scholar later in Israel, n 130

  Growth of the Soil, by Knut Hamsun

  Grünbaum, Fritz (1880–1940), German-Czech author, playwright, and artist

  Gutsgeschichte, Eine, by Selma Lagerlöf
>
  Haas, Willi (1891–1973), German-Jewish writer, editor, from Prague, n 47

  Hässliche, Die, by Oskar Baum

  Halbe, Max (1865–1944), German novelist and playwright

  Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

  Hamsun, Knut (1859–1952), Norwegian novelist

  Harden, Maximilian (1861–1927), German-Jewish journalist

  Hardt, Ludwig (1886–1947), German-Jewish elocutionist

  Hašek, Jeroslav (1883–1923), Czech writer, n 15

  Hasenclever, Walter (1890–1940), German-Jewish writer and playwright

  Hauptmann, Gerhart (1862–1946), German dramatist, n 2

  Hebbel, Christian Friedrich (1813–63), German poet and dramatist

  Hegner, Jakob (1882–1962), German publisher, n 63

  Heiligenlegenden, see Schönsten Heiligenlegenden in Wort und Bild, Die Heine, Heinrich (1797–1856)

  Herder, Johann Gottfied von (1774–1803), German author and philosopher

  Herderblätter, Die, literary magazine published in Prague, n 47

  Hermann und Dorothea, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, n 44

  Hermann, Hugo (1887–1940), Zionist editor and author from Prague

  Hermann, Leo (1888–1951), Zionist worker and author from Prague

  Herzele Mejiches, by Moses Richter

  Herzen, Alexander (1812–70), Russian author and revolutionist, n 60

  Hippodamie, by Jaroslav Vrchlicky

  Histoire de la Littérature Judéo-Allemande, by Meyer Isser Pines

  ‘History of the Devil’, by Gustav Roskoff

  History of the Jews, by Heinrich Graetz

  Hofmannsthal, Hugo von (1874–1929), Austrian poet

  Hose, by Karl Sternheim

  Hugo, Victor (1802–85)

  Humboldt, Wilhelm von (1767–1835), German philologist and man of letters

  ‘Hunter Gracchus, The’, by Franz Kafka, n 61

  Ibsen, Henrik Johan (1828–1906), Norwegian poet and dramatist

  Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780–1867), French painter

  Insel Almanach, Literary almanach, first published in 1905 in Leipzig by Insel-Verlag

  ‘In the Penal Colony’, by Franz Kafka

  Iphigenie auf Tauris, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Ivan Ilyich, see ‘Death of Ivan Ilyich, The’

  Jacobsohn, Siegfried (1881–1927), German-Jewish publicist and editor of Die Weltbühne

  Jammes, Francis (1868–1938), French poet and novelist

  Jerusalem, Karl Wilhelm (1747–72), prototype of Goethe’s Werther

  Johanna von Neapel, drama by Hanna Rademacher (1881–), German author and playwright