THE LIFE OF FRANZ KAFKA

1883	July 3: Franz Kafka is born in Prague, son of Hermann Kafka and Julie, née Löwy.
1889	Enters a German primary school. Birth of his sister Elli Kafka, his first surviving sibling.
1892	Birth of his sister Ottla Kafka.
1893	Enters Old City German Secondary School in Prague.
1896	June 13: Bar mitzvah—described in family invitation as “Confirmation.”
1897	Anti-Semitic riots in Prague; Hermann Kafka’s dry goods store is spared.
1899​–​1903	Early writings (destroyed).
1901	Graduates from secondary school. Enters German University in Prague. Studies chemistry for two weeks, then law.
1902	Spring: Attends lectures on German literature and the humanities. Travels to Munich, planning to continue German studies there. Returns to Prague. October: First meeting with Max Brod.
1904	Begins writing “Description of a Struggle.”
1905	Vacation in Zuckmantel, Silesia. First love affair.
1906	Clerk in uncle’s law office. June: Doctor of Law degree.
1906–1907	Legal practice in the Landesgericht (provincial high court) and Strafgericht (criminal court).
1907–1908	Temporary position in the Prague branch of the private insurance company Assicurazioni Generali.
1908	March: Kafka’s first publication—eight prose pieces appear in the review Hyperion. July 30: Enters the semi-state-owned Workers Accident Insurance Company for the Kingdom of Bohemia in Prague; works initially in the statistical and claims departments. Spends time in coffeehouses and cabarets.
1909	Begins keeping diaries. April: Kafka’s department head lauds his “exceptional faculty for conceptualization.” September: Travels with Max and Otto Brod to northern Italy, where they see airplanes for the first time. Writes article “The Aeroplanes in Brescia,” which subsequently appears in the daily paper Bohemia. Frequent trips to inspect factory conditions in the provinces.
1910	May: Promoted to Concipist (junior legal advisor); sees Yiddish acting troupe. October: Vacation in Paris with Brod brothers.
1911	Trip with Max Brod to northern Italy and Paris; spends a week in a Swiss natural-health sanatorium. Becomes a silent partner in the asbestos factory owned by his brother-in-law. October 4: Sees Yiddish play Der Meshumed (The Apostate) at Café Savoy. Friendship with the Yiddish actor Yitzhak Löwy. Pursues interest in Judaism.
1912	February 18: Gives “little introductory lecture” on Yiddish language. August: Assembles his first book, Meditation; meets Felice Bauer. Writes the stories “The Judgment” and “The Transformation” (frequently entitled “The Metamorphosis” in English), begins the novel The Man Who Disappeared (first published in 1927 as Amerika, the title chosen by Brod). October: Distressed over having to take charge of the family’s asbestos factory, considers suicide. December: Gives first public reading (“The Judgment”).
1913	Extensive correspondence with Felice Bauer, whom he visits three times in Berlin. Promoted to vice-secretary. Takes up gardening. In Vienna attends international conference on accident prevention and observes Eleventh Zionist Congress; travels by way of Trieste, Venice, and Verona to Riva.
1914	June: Official engagement to Felice Bauer. July: Engagement is broken. Travels through Lübeck to the Danish resort of Marielyst. Diary entry, August 2: “Germany has declared war on Russia—swimming club in the afternoon.” Works on The Trial; writes “In the Penal Colony.”
1915	January: First meeting with Felice Bauer after breaking engagement. March: At the age of thirty-one moves for the first time into own quarters. November: “The Transformation” (“The Metamorphosis”) appears; Kafka asks a friend: “What do you say about the terrible things that are happening in our house?”
1916	July: Ten days with Felice Bauer at Marienbad. November: In a small house on Alchemists’ Lane in the Castle district of Prague begins to write the stories later collected in A Country Doctor.
1917	Second engagement to Felice Bauer. September: Diagnosis of tuberculosis. Moves back into parents’ apartment. Goes to stay with his favorite sister, Ottla, on a farm in the northern Bohemian town of Zürau. December: Second engagement to Felice Bauer is broken.
1918	In Zürau writes numerous aphorisms about “the last things.” Reads Kierkegaard. May: Resumes work at insurance institute.
1919	Summer: To the chagrin of his father announces engagement to Julie Wohryzek, daughter of a synagogue custodian. Takes Hebrew lessons from Friedrich Thieberger. November: Wedding to Julie Wohryzek is postponed. Writes “Letter to His Father.”
1920	Promotion to institute secretary. April: Convalescence vacation in Merano, Italy; beginning of correspondence with Milena Jesenská. May: Publication of A Country Doctor, with a dedication to Hermann Kafka. July: Engagement to Julie Wohryzek broken. November: Anti-Semitic riots in Prague; Kafka writes to Milena: “Isn’t the obvious course to leave a place where one is so hated?”
1921	Sanatorium at Matliary in the Tatra mountains (Slovakia). August: Returns to Prague. Hands all his diaries to Milena Jesenská.
1922	Diary entry, January 16: Writes about nervous breakdown. January 27: Travels to Spindlermühle, a resort on the Polish border, where begins to write The Castle. March 15: Reads beginning section of novel to Max Brod. November: After another breakdown, informs Brod that he can no longer “pick up the thread.”
1923	Resumes Hebrew studies. Sees Hugo Bergmann, who invites him to Palestine. July: Meets nineteen-year-old Dora Diamant in Müritz on the Baltic Sea. They dream of opening a restaurant in Tel-Aviv, with Dora as cook and Franz as waiter. September: Moves to inflation-ridden Berlin to live with Dora. Writes “The Burrow.”
1924	Health deteriorates. March: Brod takes Kafka back to Prague. Writes “Josephine the Singer.” April 19: Accompanied by Dora Diamant, enters Dr. Hoffman’s sanatorium at Kierling, near Vienna. Corrects the galleys for the collection of stories A Hunger Artist. June 3: Kafka dies at age forty. June 11: Burial in the Jewish Cemetery in Prague-Strašnice.