About us

Project Kafka2024

The project is under the auspices of the Czech Minister of Culture Martin Baxa and the auspices of the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media Claudia Roth.

The 3rd June 2024 marks the anniversary of the death of the writer and Prague native Franz Kafka. He and his legacy will be commemorated in many places and at many events, in books, blogs, podcasts and even video games, emphasising once again how topical and inspiring his texts and his reflections on life and art are. Growing up in the multicultural city of Prague in German and Czech, Kafka not only experienced the cross-fertilisation and overlapping of German, Czech and Jewish cultures, but also the rise of nationalism and anti-Semitism, issues that also concern us today. And last but not least, he paid attention to a healthy lifestyle and diet in keeping with the contemporary time; it is perhaps not generally known that he was a vegetarian.

The anniversary not only offers the opportunity to look at Kafka's work and life from current and new perspectives. It also provides an opportunity to look at the Czech-German cultural heritage and the mutual exchange and influence of both cultures and nations right up to the present day.

The Kafka 2024 project deliberately connects the actors who will dedicate their program to the German-speaking author born in the Bohemian metropolis of Prague, especially in the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. It will provide up to trilingual information on events in the individual cities, competitions and calls for entries, background information on Franz Kafka, blogs and much more. The platform, which was launched in fall 2023, is also a central point for information about Franz Kafka and the context of his life and work.

The project was initiated and coordinated by the Adalbert Stifter Association (Munich) and is being developed in cooperation with the Prague City Library / Prague - UNESCO City of Literature. Participants include the Goethe-Institut Prague, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the Czech Centers, the Literature Museum of the Czech Republic in Prague, the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie in Regensburg, the German Cultural Forum for Eastern Europe in Potsdam, the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Berlin, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Prague, Munich City Library, the Literature House in Munich, Institute for German Studies at the Philosophical Faculty of Charles University, Society for Intercultural German Studies, Franz Kafka Societies in Prague and Vienna, the Czech Literature Center, the West Bohemian Gallery in Pilsen and the Munich Adult Education Center. Advisor and curator of some of the events is Reiner Stach, one of the leading experts on Kafka's work and life.

Information about all project partners can be found here.

The project was funded by the German Federal Government's Office for Culture and the Media and the German-Czech Future Fund.