CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT DATES

1883, July 3	Franz Kafka is born in Prague, in a house on the corner of Karpfengasse and Maisegasse.
	German studies in the elementary school in the Masnytrh (Fleischmarkt), then the Staromestké, the best German secondary school in Prague. (One of his schoolmates is Hugo Bergmann, future rector of the University of Jerusalem; his professors are Paul Kisch and Emil Utitz.) He lives with his family at 36 Niklasstrasse (today Parizska), then on the corner of Niklasstrasse and Staromestké Namesti (Old Town Square) near his father’s place of business on the same avenue, in the Palais Kinsky.
1901	Begins his studies in law. Brief stay in Munich.
1902	Beginnings of friendship with Oscar Pollak (the future historian of Baroque art) and Max Brod. Summer in Liboch, then in Zuckmantel.
1906	Receives his doctorate in Jurisprudence (June 18, at the University of Prague). Summer in Triesch with his uncle, Dr. Siegfried Löwy.
1907	First literary works (“Description of a Struggle,” “Preparations for a Wedding in the Country,” etc.). Is mentioned by Max Brod in the Berlin weekly Die Gegenwart.
	Takes a position (in October) with the Assicurazioni Generali.
1908	Leaves the Assicurazioni Generali to work half time in a semi-governmental position (Workmen’s Accident Insurance Company). Makes fair copies of his first stories.
1909	Two sections from “Description of a Struggle” published in Hyperion, Franz Blei’s journal. Vacation on the Italian lakes with Max Brod.
1910	Begins to keep his Diary.
	In October, first trip to Paris with Max Brod.
1911	Many trips—to East Prussia, Switzerland, northern Italy, Paris.
1912	Begins Der Verschollene (“The Boy Who Was Never More Heard Of,” the first sketch of the work published posthumously as Amerika); “The Judgment” and “The Metamorphosis.”
	Summer at Weimar and in the Harz Mountains. On August 13, he meets F. B., “the girl from Berlin.”
1913	Betrachtung (in English, the chapter “Meditation” in The Penal Colony published by Rowohlt, followed (in May) by the first chapter of Amerika (“The Stoker”), published by Kurt Wolf. Trips to Vienna, Venice, Riva (in September, at the Hartungen Sanatorium, a brief romance with a Swiss girl).
1914	Engagement in Berlin to F. B., followed by their first break (“I was bound like a criminal”).
	Trips to northern Germany.
	Beginnings of The Trial and The Penal Colony. Friendship with Franz Werfel and Dr. Weiss.
	Declaration of war (Kafka, a civil servant, is not subject to the draft).
1915	Again meets F. B. Travels in Hungary.
	In October, receives the Fontane Prize for “The Stoker” (following the withdrawal of Sternheim).
1916	Changes of residence. From Kilkova and Dloudha Trida, Kafka moves to Ulicka, in Prague.
	Vacation at Marienbad, with F. B.
	Conference in Munich in November. Writes “A Country Doctor.”
1917	Moves to Alchymistengasse, then to the Palais Schönborn. New engagement to F. B., followed by a new break.
	Tuberculosis (first attack of blood-spitting in the month of August) and sick leave.
	Studies Hebrew and reads Kierkegaard. Publishes “Two Animal Stories.”
1918	Long sojourn in Zürau, then Prague. Writes “Aphorisms” and “The Bucket-Rider”; begins “The Great Wall of China.”
1919	Completes A Country Doctor, published by Kurt Wolf, and The Penal Colony. In Schelesen, writes Letter to His Father (November).
1920-1921	Vacation and treatment in Merano; affair with Milena Jesenská. Winter in a sanatorium in the Tatra Mountains. First draft of The Castle.
1922	Sojourn in Prague and on the Baltic.
1923	Meets Dora Dymant, who will never leave him, in Müritz.
	In Berlin, begins “The Burrow,” “Josephine the Singer,” “Investigations of a Dog,” “A Hunger Artist.”
1924	Max Brod brings Kafka back to Prague. Dora Dymant’s father refuses to give his consent to her marriage.
	Dying, Kafka goes from clinic to sanatorium: the Wiener Wald, Hajek’s clinic, then the sanatorium in Kierling, where he dies on June 3. Burial in Prague, in the Jewish cemetery of Straschnitz.