Walk with Kafka in Prague

The imperial and royal (k. u. k.) State Secondary School with instruction in the German language

Kinský Palace, Old Town Square 12, Old Town

Kinsky Palace The Kinsky Palace is a mature work from the latter part of architect Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer’s life, created between 1755 and 1765 by the Italian master builder Anselmo Lurago. The decorative work on the outside of the building comes from the workshop of Ignaz Franz Platzer. On the inside of the building there is an entrance and stairway in the empire style from the 1830s. The town palace built originally for Johann Arnold von Goltz did not come into the possession of the Kinsky family until 1786. Bertha von Suttner, born as Bertha Sophia Felicita Countess Kinsky von Chinic and Tettau, the well-known pacifist author and firs Nobel Peace Prize Winner, spent the early years of her childhood here. In 1871 the high school, in which Kafka passed his school days, was established in the wing of the building erected in the years 1836 to 1839. In 1911 the institution was continued as the first Prague German Modern High School with emphasis on scientific subjects. In 1924 it closes its doors forever.

The shop of Kafka's father, Hermann Kafka From 1912 until 1918 the town palace, with its unique Rococo façade, also housed the retail store of Hermann Kafka. He moved his wholesale business to the ground floor of the right wing of this palace in October 1912. In July of 1918 he sold the company to his wife’s relative Friefrich Löwy right before the end of World War I. After the Second World War the Kinsky family was expropriated by the infamous presidential doctrine decreed of Edvard Beneš. On February 21, 1948, the Stalinist prime minister Klement Gottwald proclaimed the resignation of the bourgeois ministers in the cabinet and with that act the completion of the communist takeover of power in Czechoslovakia.

Today, a picture gallery of the National Gallery is located in this elegant structure jutting out into the square on a wide front, Since 1995 a bookshop on the premises of the former store selling notions reminds the visitor of the Kafka family business.

Kinsky Palace around 1910 The 10th of September 1893 was a memorable day for the now ten year old Franz – his first school day in the first level of the State High School with Instruction in the German Language.

With the exception of mathematics, for which he did not have the greatest aptitude and liking, Kafka showed good ability in all subjects, according to the annual school reports of the first three years. Only from the fourth grade of high school on, when the requirements got even more difficult, did Kafka’s academic results flag a little. He himself always doubted his capabilities and constantly feared, “that I would not pass the yearly final exams and should I succeed in them, that I would not get on in the next grade and should that somehow be avoided by swindling my way through, that I would flunk the Matura in the end and that I would certainly, no matter at which on of those points in time, suddenly surprise the rest of the world by the revelation of an unheard-of inability.”

Franz Kafka 13 years old Jews generally comprised two thirds of the student body at Kafka’s Old Town High School. It was practically an unwritten law under the monarchy that latent anti-Semitism from centuries of discrimination against Jews only rarely allowed unconverted Jews to work in the civil service.

The big event of the summer of 1901 was exams leading to the leaving certificate, the culmination of his high school studies and awaited by Kafka with some amount of trepidation. Especially the written exam in mathematics caused him anxieties. Then there was the essay in German, a translation of a German text into Latin and the rendition of a Latin one into German. In the case of a translation from Greek, some of the students being examined, among them Kafka, were said to have helped themselves along by bribing the person who looked after the household of their Greek teacher to allow them to have a peak at the text to be translated.

Kafka's classroom, Kafka is the second from the left in the last row In his first years of high school Franz Kafka was outstanding, later and for the rest of his life was an average und unremarkable student. After some time, his classmates and contemporaries remember him in different ways, often influenced by the literature about Kafka, Emil Utitz, later a professor of aesthetics, commented about Kafka, the high school classmate he apparently did not like very much: “He was not a great student, but there was never the threat of being held back, Only he was terrified before the graduations exams. Otherwise he somehow stood outside of the whole business o school. He was no way arrogant, but a bit alien, like it was an affair that had nothing to do with him personally, which he had to endure politely. The very last thing anyone would suspect him of was pride or arrogance. Also it would be almost absurd to attribute to Kafka any kind of insolence or annoyance. We all liked him and respected him, but were not close with him: he was encased inside a sort if thin glass. With his quiet, kind, compassionate smile he opened himself up to the world, while simultaneously closing himself off to it. And he never took part in our boisterous fun. Only once was he with us in a really shady bar. Even there he was no different than usual: a guest noticing the unusual surroundings with interest, smiling politely, bust still keeping his distance. There is not a lot I can say about Kafka: I recognized his value as a person, but I am embarrassed to admit that only much later did I recognized the poet inside him. It is definitely my fault, but at the same time it is also deeply significant. I could cay infinitely more about my other classmates, who meant something because they ere friendly and talkative. What I remember are not individual statements or events, bit the almost touching picture of the skinny, tall, boyish fellow who looked so quiet, delicate and almost saintly, who was good an smiled almost embarrassedly, readily recognizing anyone’s merits, yet was still always distant and alien.