Franz Kafka Museum Prague Czech Republic

I’ve read most of Franz Kafka’s novels and short stories, but after visiting the Kafka Museum in Prague, discovered I only had a cursory understanding of his life and work. This museum presents unique, in-depth information, teaching fans more about Kafka.

Prague and Kafka’s Writing

Kafka was a great early 20th century Jewish author. The “symbiosis” between Kafka’s life and Prague is well-known. He wasn’t Czech and wrote in German, but he was born in Prague in 1883 and lived there most of his short life. In 1924 at the age of 41, Kafka died from tuberculosis in a Vienna sanatorium. He’s buried in Prague’s New Jewish Cemetery.

Interactive Exhibition

In 1999, the Kafka exhibition opened in Barcelona. It transferred to the Jewish Museum in New York City from 2002–2003. In 2005, The City of K. Franz Kafka and Prague opened on the Malá Strana bank of the Vltava River in a prominently visible museum.

The interactive exhibition has two sections – Existential Space and Imaginary Topography – where dedicated displays profile Kafka’s works. Next, you pass a series of handwritten letters, photographs, and diaries chronologically detailing Kafka’s life, including his career as an insurance attorney. You pass through a dimly-lit labyrinth where music, spot lighting, mirrors, and eerie videos set a fun “Kafkaesque” mood.

Many think that “once you leave the Kafka Museum you may experience some of the tricks the city of Prague plays on the mind”. I’ve been in Prague for three weeks now and understand that – two weeks ago, not sure I would….

Existential Space Section

“In this first stage of immersion into Kafka’s world, we look at how Prague affects and shapes his life. Prague acts on Kafka with its metamorphosing power, confining him to an existential space he only enters by gazing at the surface of things.”

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“Kafka envisioned Prague as a dear little mother with claws.”

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“Prague forces Kafka into a spatial constriction, steadily dosing out its secrets. Prague contributes myth, magic, and a magnificent backdrop but abhors clarity.”

The museum’s design shows Prague from Franz Kafka’s unique point of view. Guided by Kafka, the exhibits condense principal conflicts in his life. Visitors descend into the depths of “his city,” adapting to “his sensorial range and cognitive register”. They become involved in the “gradual distortion of space-time agreeing to a Kafka experience that allows everything, except indifference”.

Imaginary Topography Section

“The way Kafka creates the layers of his city is the most enigmatic operations of modern literature. With few exceptions, Kafka doesn’t name the places described in his novels and short stories. Instead, Prague steps back and is no longer recognizable by its monuments, buildings, and bridges. They have become something else.”

People want to name real Prague places in Kafka’s fiction. The Gothic cathedral in The Trial is St. Vitus. The path taken by the protagonist Joseph K. as he runs all over Prague leads him from Old Town over Charles Bridge to Malá Strana. It’s said that in The Judgment, the wharf, river, and opposite bank of the Vltava appear as they would be seen from Nicholas Street, where Kafka’s family lived.

I recommend visiting the Kafka Museum, but be prepared for a heady experience marked by Kafka’s trademarks – “surreal distortion and a sense of impending danger”. In true Kafkaesque form, this museum takes you into another space – Kafka’s world!