Kafka was born in Prague as the son of Herrmann Kafka, the owner of a large dry goods establishment, and Julie (Löwy) Kafka. Herrman Kafka was a dometic tyrant, and as a sensitive child Kafka grew up in an atmosphere of familial alienation and marginalization that he experianced as a member of Prague's Jewish minority. He was educated at the German National and Civic Elementary School and the German National Humanistic Gymnasium. In 1901 he entered Ferdinand-Karls University, where he studied law and received a doctorate in 1906.

During there years Kafka became a member of a circle of intellectuals, which included Franz Werfel, Oskar Baum and Max Brod, whom Kafka met in 1902.

Until his retirement Kafka worked at the insurance business (1907-23), first at an administrative position in an Prague branch of an Italian insurance company and then at the Workmen's Accident Insurance Institute of Prague. His work was highly valued at the company and during World War I his supervisors arranged for his draft deferment.

In 1912 Kafka met Felice Bauer, a twenty-four-year-old businesswoman from Berlin. Their relationship lasted for five years. Kafka's first creative period started with such short stories as DAS URTEIL and DIE VERWANDLUNG, where Gregor Sampsa turns into an insect, remains there trapped by his petite bourgeois family and dies in his room. His unfinished novel, DER VERSCHOLLENE (retitled Amerika), was published in 1927.

World War I stopped Kafka's productivity as a novelist and short story writer, but he continued to write letters and diaries. In 1914 he began his second novel, DER PROZESS (The Trial) and wrote the short story IN DER STRAFKOLONIE, which was one of the few works published in Kafka's lifetime. The Trial depicted the hopeless attempts of Joseph K. to survive nightmarish events, that starts from his arrest.

In August 1917 Kafka discovered that he had contracted tuberculosis. He spent ten months with his sister Ottla in the Bohemian village of Zuerau. In 1919 he was hospitalized because of influnza. Kafka spent increasing periods of time on leave in various rural sanatoriums, and fell in love with Milena Jesenská , a twenty-four-years-old writer, who had translated some of his stories in Czech.

After their relationship ended Kafka wrote his last novel, DAS SCHLOSS, where K. arrives at a village, claiming to be a land surveyor. K. tries to obtain recognition of his status as the officially appointed land surveyor to the Castle, a mysterious domain that rules over the village. His assistants, Arthur and Jeremiah, are not helping. K. makes love to the barmaid Frieda, a former mistress of Klamm, a castle superior. Frieda leaves K. when she discovers that he is merely using her.

Kafka retired in 1922 on pension and met in 1923 Dora Diamant, a twenty-years old woman from an Orthodox Jewish family. They moved to Berlin. Kafka's health was rapidly deteriorating and in 1924 they moved to the Kierling Sanatorium outside Vienna, where Kafka died on June 3, 1924.

As a Jew Kafka was isolated from the German community in Prague, but his friend and biographer Max Brod (1884-1968) did his best to promote his career as writer. However, in his life time Kafka published only few stories. From the last two and half years of his life date some of Kafka's best short stories, EIN HUNGERKÜNSTLER, DER BAU, and JOSEPHINE, DIE SÄNGERIN.

Kafka's request before his death, that all his manuscripts should be destroyed, was disregarded by Max Brod, who published the unfinished novels DER PROZESS, DAS SCHLOSS and AMERIKA, classics of modern fiction.

For further reading: Franz Kafka and Prague by P. Eisner (1959); Franz Kafka: A Biography by M. Brod (1960); The Process of Kafka's Trial by A. Jaffe (1967); Franz Kafka: A Critical Study of His Writings by W. Emrich (1968); Conversations with Kafka by A. Janouch (1971); On Kafka's Castle: A Study by R. Shepard (1973); Kafka's Other Trial by E. Canetti (1974); Kafka: A Biography by R. Hayman (1982); F. Kafka and Prague by J. Grusa (1983); Kafka: Judausm, Politics, and Literature by R. Robertson (1985); F. Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature by G. Deleuze and F. Guattari (1986); Critical Essays on Franz Kafka, ed. by R. Gross (1990); Franz Kafka: A Study of the Short Fiction by A. Thiher (1990); Kafka and Dostoevsky by W.J. Dodd (1992)

See also:Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde

Trivia: G. Janouch's Conversation with Kafka (1971) is a hoax; Kafka suffered insomnia like many authors, among them Charles Dickens.

Selected works:

• BETRACHTUNG, 1913 - Meditation
• DAS URTEIL, 1913 - The Judgement
• DIE WERWANDLUNG, 1915 - The Metamorphosis
• DAS URTEIL, 1916 - The Judgment
• IN DER STRAFKOLONIE, 1919 - In the Penal Colony
• EIN LANDARZT, 1919 - A Country Doctor -
• EIN HUNGERKÜNSTLER, 1924 - A Hunger Artist
• DER PROZESS, 1925 - The Trial film 1962 (Le procés), dir. by Orson Welles
• DAS SCHLOSS, 1926 - The Castle film 1968, dir. by Rudolf Noelte; 1986, dir. by Jaakko Pakkasvirta
• AMERIKA, 1927 - transl. Amerika - film 1969, dir. by Zbynek Brynych ; 1983, dir. by Jean-Marie Straub & Daniéle Huillet
• BEIM BAU DER CHINESISCHEN MAUER, 1931 - The Great Wall of China
• BESCHREIBUNG EINES KAMPFES, 1936 - Description of a Struggle
• TAGEBÜCHER 1910-23, 1951 - The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1910-1913, The Diaries of Franz Kafka 1914-1923
• BRIEFE AN MILENA, 1952 - Letters to Milena
• HOCHZEITSVORBEREITUNGENAUFDEMLANDE, 1953 - Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Posthumous Prose Writings
• BRIEFE 1902-24, 1958 (ed. by M. Brod)
• BRIEFE AN FELICE, 1967 - Letters to Felice - see also: Elias Canetti
• SÄMTLICHE ERZÄHLUNGEN, 1969
• The Basic Kafka, 1971
• BRIEFE AN OTTLA, 1974 - Letters to Ottla and the Family
• I Am a Memory Come Alive: Autobiographival Writings, 1974
• Letters to Friends, Family and Editors, 1977
• SCHRIFTEN, TAGEBÜCHER, BRIEFE, 1982
• BRIEFE AN DEN VATER, 1986 - Letters to His Father