Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 and belonged to the German-speaking Jewish minority. Therefore he was on the sidelines. But he had no support from his family either. Throughout his life he was at odds with his father, who would have preferred his son to be a businessman rather than a writer. Kafka worked from morning to noon as an insurance company employee and then lived the life he liked. He rode a motorcycle, went to the movies and visited brothels. He enjoyed sports, went on trips to Berlin and Paris and enjoyed socializing with people. But he didn’t do so well with women, as he didn’t like commitment.

In the evenings he wrote diaries, short stories, but also novels. His best friend, Max Brod, whom he had met in law school, recognized Kafka’s literary talent and encouraged him to publish his writings. But the author himself doubted his writing abilities. In 1924 he died of tuberculosis a few weeks before his 41st birthday. He had previously instructed his friend to burn all his manuscripts after his death.

Known from Asia to Latin America

Fortunately for posterity, Max Brod did not grant his wish, or The Trial would never have been published. Today the unfinished novel is one of Kafka’s best-known texts.

In Germany his books are still taught in schools even today. Kafka is read all over the world. In Asia, Africa, North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia, India, he is everywhere known in intellectual circles and is a point of reference for important writers.

Colombian author and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, who died in 2014, said that after reading Kafka’s book The Metamorphosis he was inspired to write his own texts, while the term “Kafkaesque” is used in many languages ​​and means something dark, labyrinthine, hypocritical.

Popular with younger generations too

Kafka is still relevant because he dealt with timeless themes such as bureaucracy and the labyrinthine and dark world of power. The feeling of the little man lying loose in her arms. His stories poetically describe how one can feel alone and helpless in this world. And all these descriptions apply to people all over the world regardless of color and religion. However, his books were banned and burned in Germany during National Socialism.

But strangely enough, Kafka is popular with Gen Z and social media like TikTok. They reproduce his sayings, which are not always correct, but the author is popular because he too was a man who challenged authority, clashed with authority and sometimes felt lost, as sometimes happens with people of the spirit.

However, the content on TikTok does not refer to the author, but to a character from the Chinese video game “Honkai: Star Rail”. He bears no relation to the real Kafka, except in name. So the author became coincidentally famous and transformed into a female character reminiscent of a Japanese comic, with purple hair, sunglasses and hot shorts.