A Chronology of Franz Kafka's Life
- 1883 -- Born in Prague, July 3, son of Hermann and
Julie.
1899 - 1900 -- Reads Spinoza, Darwin, Nietzsche.
1899 - 1903 -- Early writings (destroyed).
1901 - 1906 -- Study of German literature, then law at
German University, Prague.
1904 - 1905 -- "Description of a Struggle" written.
1906 -- Works in the law office of Richard Lowy, Prague.
Gets degree of doctor juris at German University, Prague.
1907 - 1908 -- "Wedding Preparations in the Country"
written.
1908 -- Position at the semi-governmental Worker's Accident
Insurance Institute (until retirement, July 1922). Close friendship
with Max Brod.
1909 -- Publication of eight prose pieces in Hyperion.
1910 -- Publication of five prose pieces in Bohemia,
beginning of the Diaries.
1911 - 1912 -- Contact with Yiddish theater company and
friendship with Yiddish actor Isak Lowy; study of Jewish folklore.
1911 - 1914 -- Working on Amerika (main parts written
1911-12).
1912 -- First studies of Judaism; meets Felice Bauer from
Berlin; manuscript of Meditation sent to the publisher;
beginning of correspondence with Felice Bauer; "The Judgment"
written; "The Stoker" (later became first chapter of
Amerika) written; "The Metamorphosis" written.
1913 -- Publication of Meditation; publication of
"The Stoker"; publication of The Judgment.
1914 -- "Memoirs of the Kalda Railroad" written;
"In the Penal Colony" written; begins writing The
Trial.
1915 -- Renewed meeting with Felice Bauer; continues working
on The Trial; receives Fontane Prize for "The Stoker";
publication of The Metamorphosis; "The Village Schoolmaster"
written.
1916 -- Meeting with Felice Bauer in Marienbad; draws up
a list of reasons for and against marriage; stories written, later
collected in A Country Doctor.
1917 -- "The Hunter Gracchus" written; learning
Hebrew; "The Great Wall of China" written; second engagement
to Felice Bauer; begins coughing blood; diagnosis of tuberculosis;
leave of absence from office; breaking of second engagement to
Felice Bauer; aphorisms written (octavo notebooks).
1918 -- Aphorisms continued.
1919 -- Diary entries are resumed; engagement to Julie
Wohryzek (broken November 1919); publication of In the Penal
Colony; publication of A Country Doctor; "Letter
to His Father" written; "He," collection of aphorisms,
written.
1920 -- Sick leave from Worker's Accident Insurance; meets
Gustav Janouch; meets Milena Jesenska'-Pollak, Czech writer (correspondence);
writing stories.
1921 -- Tatra Mountains sanatorium; then Prague; Milena.
1921 - 1924 -- Stories written, collected in A Hunger
Artist.
1922 -- The Castle written; "A Hunger Artist"
written; last meeting with Milena; "Investigations of a Dog"
written.
1923 -- With Dora Dyamant in Berlin-Steglitz; "The
Burrow" written; A Hunger Artist sent to publisher.
1924 -- "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse Folk"
written; brought as a patient from Berlin to Prague; to Wiener
Wald Sanatorium; death in Kierling; burial June 11, in the Jewish
cemetery in Prague-Straschnitz; publication of A Hunger Artist.
1924 -- Death of K.'s sister Ottla in Auschwitz. The other
two sisters also perished in German concentration camps.
1944 -- Death of Grete Bloch at the hands of a Nazi soldier.
Death of Milena in a German concentration camp.
1952 -- Death of Dora Dyamant in London.
1960 -- Death of Felice Bauer.
Taken from Kafka: The Complete Stories, Schocken Books,
1971, New York.
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