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Franz Kafka

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Cydney Jenkins
Mr. Oliver
5th Period Honors English
Franz Kafka
“I need solitude for my writing; not ‘like a hermit’- that wouldn’t be enough – but like a dead man” – F. Kafka
Family life On July 3rd, 1883 Franz Kafka born into a middle class Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia. Hermann Kafka (1852-1931) and Julie Kafka (1856-1934) are the parents of Kafka and his five younger siblings. Kafka the eldest of the children had two younger brothers Georg who had died at fifteen months and Helnrich who had died at six months. Kafka was around six when both brothers had deceased. He also had three younger sisters Gabriele who went by Elli (1889-1941), Valerie who went by Valli (1890-1941) and Ottillie who went by Ottla (1892-1943). Each sister and their families were sent to Łódź Ghetto and died there or in concentration camps. Ottillie the youngest of the sisters was believed to have been sent to a concentration camp in Theresienstadt and then to a death camp in Auschwitz.
Education
During 1883 when Kafka was born in Prague, Bohemia was a part of the kingdom of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. Kafka’s first language was German, yet he was fluent in Czech and also knew some of the French language. Between 1889- 1893 Kafka attended Deutsche Knabenschule. Deutsche Knabenschule this was a Fleischmarkt, which is a German all boys school at the meat market. Kafka’s Jewish education was very limited to a Bar Mitzvah at the age of thirteen and going to the synagogue for times a year with his father Hermann. After Elementary school Kafka was admitted to the classics- state gymnasium, Altstadter Deutsches Gymnasium, which was an academic secondary school with eight grade levels. German was used for instruction. At Staroměstské náměstí, within the Kinsky Palace of the Old Town is where Kafka completed his Matura exams in 1901.

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