Franz Kafka is a fascinating figure and the museum in Prague that traces his story is well worth a visit.

Visiting The Franz Kafka Museum In Prague

Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, into a middle-class Jewish family. He grew up speaking German but was also fluent in Czech. By day, Kafka worked a steady but unglamorous job at an insurance company, a career that paid the bills but quietly suffocated his spirit. By night, he wrote, producing stories and novels that would only achieve widespread acclaim after his death. His works, including The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle, are famous for their unsettling blend of the absurd, the bureaucratic, and the existential.

I remember reading The Metamorphosis in high school, first in English, then in the original German. That book will forever stick with me…the tension between realism and the fantastical is jarring.

Despite his enduring influence, Kafka published little in his lifetime and instructed his friend Max Brod to burn his manuscripts after his death — an instruction Brod thankfully ignored. Personally, Kafka was plagued by self-doubt, ill health, and a fraught relationship with his domineering father, themes that bled into his fiction. He never married, though his romantic entanglements were complex and often troubled. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1917, Kafka’s health steadily declined, and he died in 1924 at the age of 40 in an Austrian sanatorium.

Nearly a century later, Kafka’s name has become an adjective — “Kafkaesque” — describing surreal, nightmarish situations trapped in a tangle of illogical systems.

I’m probably not alone in life getting in the way of reading for enjoyment. Upon sharing about my trip, one of my clients presented me with a Kafka book that contains his greatest works. It sits on my nightstand…I still have not opened it several months after the trip. It reminds me of Kafka’s own words, from a 1914 diary entry:

“I waste away my life in unproductive half-sleep, in which I toss about, unable to begin, afraid to end.”

In any case, Kafka is a fascinating figure and the museum in Prague that traces his life (open daily from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm) offers a great background on him and an introduction to his writings. Set aside 2-3 hours for this museum and you will not regret it.

Here are some pictures from my visit:

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to read The Trial and The Castle. Oh, who am I kidding…maybe one day.

“How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense?”
-The Metamorphosis