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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,
publication of A Hunger Artist.
1942 -- 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.
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