Walk with Kafka in Prague

Franz Kafka Monument

Vězeňská Street, Old Town

On December 4, 2003, on the occasion of Kafka’s 120th birthday, the Franz Kafka Society unveiled a bronze-cast statue 3.75 meters high, weighing 700 kilograms. It stands on a small plateau between the Church of the Holy Spirit and the Spanish Synagogue at the entrance of the former Jewish Quarter. Thus, since that date a roguish Kafka-figure rides on the shoulders of a man’s form which has been reduced to a headless, armless, footless, empty suit of clothes.

The sculptor Jaroslav Róna had hit upon this motif, while reading Kafka’s Description of a Struggle, the part of the text that reads: "In an instant and with unusual deftness I had jumped on the shoulders of my acquaintance and by stabbing my fists into his back brought him to a light canter. When still he unwillingly stamped his feet a little and at times even stood still, I dug my boots into his stomach repeatedly in order to make him brisker. I succeeded and with good speed we came further and further into the inner precinct of a great but yet unfinished region, in which evening had descended. …Now on the broad shoulders of my acquaintance I even exaggerated the up and down motion of riding and, while holding myself with both hands tightly on his neck, I bent my head far back and observed the manifold clouds that more feeble than I flew along clumsily with the wind. I laughed and trembled with courage. My coat spread itself out and gave me strength. At the same time I pressed my hands together vigorously and pretended I did not know I was throttling my acquaintance by doing so."