Max Brod

Max Brod (May 27, 1884 – December 20, 1968) was a German-speaking Jewish author, composer, and journalist. Brod was born in Prague, which was then part of the province of Bohemia in Austria-Hungary, and is now the capital of the Czech Republic. A prolific writer in his own right, he is most famous as a friend, biographer, and literary executor of Franz Kafka. Max Brod, writer File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Max Brod, writer File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... May 27 is the 147th day (148th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 218 days remaining. ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Jews (Hebrew: יהודים, Yehudim) are followers of Judaism or, more generally, members of the Jewish people (also known as the Jewish nation, or the Children of Israel), an ethno-religious group descended from the ancient Israelites and converts who joined their religion. ... Prague (Czech: Praha (IPA: ), see also other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ... Bohemia. ... Austria-Hungary, also known as the Dual monarchy (or: the k. ... A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of the literary estate of an author who has died. ... Kafka redirects here. ...

He studied law at the Charles University of Prague (which at the time was divided into a German language university and a Czech language university; he attended the German one) and graduated in 1907 to work in the civil service. From 1912 he was a pronounced Zionist (which he attributed to the influence of Martin Buber) and when Czechoslovakia became independent in 1918 he briefly served as vice-president of the Jüdischer Nationalrat. From 1924, already an established writer he worked as a critic for the Prager Tagblatt. The Charles University of Prague (also simply University of Prague; Czech: Univerzita Karlova; Latin: Universitas Carolina) is the oldest, largest and most prestigious Czech university and among the oldest universities in Europe, being founded in 1340s (for the exact year, see below). ... Czech (čeÅ¡tina []) is one of the West Slavic languages, along with Slovak, Polish, Pomeranian (Kashubian), and Lusatian Sorbian. ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Poster promoting a film about Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1930s: Toward a New Life (in Romanian),The Promised Land (in Hungarian), in small (down) text is written First Palestinian sound movie 1844 Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews by Mordecai Noah, page one. ... Martin Buber pictured late in life. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1939, as the Nazis took over Prague, Brod and his wife Elsa Taussig emigrated to what was then the Palestine, where he lived until his death December 20, 1968 in Tel Aviv, Israel. He continued to write and worked as a dramaturg for Habimah, later the Israeli national theatre. 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... National Socialism redirects here. ... Map of the territory under the British Mandate of Palestine. ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Tel-Aviv was founded on empty dunes north of the existing city of Jaffa. ... Dramaturg is a position in the theater which gained its modern-day function through the innovations of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a playwright and theater practitioner who worked in Germany in the 18th century. ... Habima Theater (Hebrew: the stage) in Tel Aviv is Israels national theater and it is one of the first Hebrew theaters. ...

Brod first met Kafka October 23, 1902, when both were students at the Charles University. Brod had given a lecture at the German students' hall on Arthur Schopenhauer. Kafka, one year older, addressed him after the lecture and accompanied him home. "He tended to participate in all the meetings, but up to then we had hardly considered each other," wrote Brod. The quiet Kafka "would have been... hard to notice... even his elegant, usually dark-blue, suits were inconspicuous and reserved like him. At that time, however, something seems to have attracted him to me, he was more open than usual, filling the endless walk home by disagreeing strongly with my all too rough formulations." (Max Brod: Über Franz Kafka, 45) October 23 is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 69 days remaining. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher. ...

From then on, Brod and Kafka met frequently, often even daily, and remained close friends until Kafka's death. Kafka was a frequent guest in Brod's parents' house; there he met his future girlfriend and fiancée Felice Bauer, cousin of Brod's brother-in-law Max Friedmann. After graduating, Brod worked for a time for the post office. The relatively short working hours gave him time to begin a career as an art critic and freelance writer. For similar reasons, Kafka took a job at an insurance agency involved in workmen's accident insurance. Together with his close friend Felix Weltsch and Franz Kafka these three were the so called "close Prague circle", "Der enge Prager Kreis". Felix Weltsch (born Oct. ... Kafka redirects here. ...

Unlike Kafka, Brod rapidly became a prolific, successful published writer. His first novel and fourth book overall, Schloß Nornepygge, published in 1908 when he was only 24, was celebrated in Berlin literary circles as a masterpiece of expressionism. This and other works made Brod a well-known personality in German-language literature. He unselfishly promoted other writers and musicians; among his protoges was Franz Werfel, whom he would later fall out with as Werfel abandoned Judaism for Christianity; he would also write at various times both for and against Karl Kraus, a convert from Judaism to Roman Catholicism. His critical endorsement would be crucial to the popularity of Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier Svejk, and he played a crucial role in the diffusion of Leoš Janáček's operas. 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation). ... The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893) which inspired 20th century Expressionists Portrait of Eduard Kosmack by Egon Schiele Rehe im Walde by Franz Marc On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ... Franz Werfel, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Werfels grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna. ... Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people with around 15 million followers as of 2006 [1]. It is one of the first recorded monotheistic faiths and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as recounted in the New Testament. ... Karl Kraus (April 28, 1874 - June 12, 1936) was an eminent Austrian writer and journalist, known as a satirist, essayist, aphorist, playwright, and poet. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... Jaroslav Hašek (April 30, 1883 - January 3, 1923) was a Czech humorist and satirist who became well-known mainly for his hilarious, world-famous novel The Good Soldier Svejk, a unfinished collection of farsical incidents about a soldier in World War I which has been translated into sixty languages. ... Fritz Muliar as Schwejk (1972) The Good Soldier Švejk (spelled Schweik or Schwejk in many translations, and pronounced /ʃvɛjk/) is the shortened title of the world-famous unfinished novel written by Czech humorist Jaroslav Hašek in 1921-22. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

During Kafka's lifetime, Brod tried repeatedly to reassure Kafka in the latter's doubts about his own literary efforts and pushed him to publish his work. It is probably owing to Brod that Kafka began to keep a diary. He tried, but failed, to arrange common literary projects. Even after Brod's 1913 marriage with Elsa Taussig, he and Kafka remained each other's closest friends and confidantes, assisting each other in problems and life crises. 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

On Kafka's death in 1924 Brod was the administrator of the estate and preserved his unpublished works from incineration despite what was stipulated in the will. Before even a line of Kafka's work had been published, Brod had already praised him as "the greatest poet of our time", ranking with Goethe or Tolstoy. Brod edited and later published Kafka's papers, beginning 1925–1927 with the publication of fragments of Kafka's novels and extending in the 1930s to 6 volumes of collected works; in 1937 Brod wrote the first biography of his friend: Franz Kafka, eine Biographie. He always resisted one-sided interpretation of Kafka, and hated the term "Kafkaesque", arguing that it presented a picture of the man and his work contradicted by his own intimate knowledge. 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749–March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... Coat of arms of Count Leo Tolstoy This article is about the Tolstoy family; for the famous novelist, see Leo Tolstoy. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Sir Thomas Malory wrote the most famous fictional biography of the Middle Ages with Le Morte dArthur about the life of King Arthur. ... Kafkaesque is an adjective which is used to describe concepts, situations and ideas which are reminiscent of the literary work of Franz Kafka, particularly his novel The Trial and his short story The Metamorphosis. ...

Brod's musical compositions are little known. They include songs, works for piano and incidental music for his plays. He translated some of Leoš Janáček's operas into German, wrote a biography of him in 1924, and authored a study of Gustav Mahler, Beispiel einer Deutsch-Jüdischen Symbiose, in 1961. A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (possibly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ... A baby grand piano, with the lid up. ... Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program or some other form not primarily musical. ... Gustav Mahler in 1909 Gustav Mahler (July 7, 1860–May 18, 1911) was a Bohemian-Austrian composer and conductor. ...

Works

• Schloß Nornepygge (Nornepygge Castle, 1908)
• Weiberwirtschaft (Woman's Work, 1913)
• Über die Schönheit häßlicher Bilder (On the Beauty of Ugly Pictures, 1913)
• Die Höhe des Gefühls (The Height of Feeling, 1913)
• "Anschauung und Begriff", 1913 (together with Felix Weltsch)-->
• Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott (Tycho Brahe's Way to God 1916)
• Heidentum, Christentum und Judentum (Paganism, Christianity, and Judaism, 1922)
• Reubeni, Fürst der Juden (Reubeni, Prince of the Jews, 1925)
• Zauberreich der Liebe (The Charmed Realm of Love, 1930)
• Biografie von Heinrich Heine (Biography of Heinrich Heine, 1934)
• Die Frau, die nicht enttäuscht (The Woman Who Does Not Disappoint, 1934)
• Novellen aus Böhmen (Novellas from Böhmen, 1936)
• Rassentheorie und Judentum (Race Theory and Judaism, 1936)
• Franz Kafka, eine Biographie (Franz Kafka, a Biography, 1937, later collected in Über Franz Kafka, 1974)
• Franz Kafkas Glauben und Lehre (Franz Kafka's Thought and Teaching, 1948)
• Verzweiflung und Erlösung im Werke Franz Kafkas (Despair and Release in the Works of Franz Kafka, 1959)
• Beispiel einer Deutsch-Jüdischen Symbiose (An Example of German-Jewish Symbiosis, 1961)
• Beinahe ein Vorzugsschüler (Almost a Gifted Pupil)
• Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt (The Woman For Whom One Longs)
• Annerl
• Rebellische Herzen (Rebel Hearts)
• Die verkaufte Braut (The Sold-Off Bride)

Felix Weltsch (born Oct. ... Tycho Brahe , born Tyge Ottesen Brahe (December 14, 1546 – October 24, 1601), was a Danish (Scanian) nobleman astronomer as well as an astrologer and alchemist. ... Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (born as Harry [Hebrew: Chaim] Heine December 13, 1797 – February 17, 1856) was one of the most significant German poets. ...

Further reading

• Kayser, Werner, Max Brod, Hans Christians, Hamburg, 1972 (in German)
• Pazi, Margarita (Ed.): Max Brod 1884-1984. Untersuchungen zu Max Brods literarischen und philosophischen Schriften. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, 1987 (in German)
• Lerperger, Renate, Max Brod. Talent nach vielen Seiten (exhibit catalog), Vienna, 1987 (in German)
• Wessling, Berndt W. Max Brod: Ein Portrait. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne and Mainz, 1969. New edition: Max Brod: Ein Portrait zum 100. Geburtstag, Bleicher, Gerlingen, 1984 (in German)

References

• This article draws material from the corresponding article in the German-language Wikipedia, retrieved February 16, 2005. That in turn cites:
  • Brod, Max, Über Franz Kafka; edition not stated there, but presumably Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 1974