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The picture shows a work of art by Mary Flanagan depicting floating walls in front of a blue sky over a blue sea.

Mary Flanagan, [borders: chichen itza], 2010

Access Kafka

Exhibition

Kafka comes to Berlin! One hundred years after the death of Franz Kafka, the Jewish Museum Berlin is providing new insights into his work with its exhibition Access Kafka: manuscripts and drawings from Franz Kafka’s estate come together with contemporary art by artists such as Yael Bartana, Maria Eichhorn, Anne Imhof, Martin Kippenberger, Maria Lassnig, Trevor Paglen and Hito Steyerl. The focus is on universal and timeless questions concerning access.

13 Dec 2024 to 4 May 2025

Map with all buildings that belong to the Jewish Museum Berlin. The Old Building is marked in green

Where

Old Building, level 1
Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin

In its broadest sense, the term “access” refers to the permission, freedom and ability to enter or leave a place – including an imaginary or virtual space. Questions of admission and affiliation are a recurring motif in Kafka’s literary texts. His unsettling descriptions of disorientation, surveillance and meaningless rules are relevant in a different way today than they were in Kafka’s era: the boundaries between private and public spheres are blurring in our age of widespread digitization, in which social networks, artificial intelligence and algorithms control access anonymously. These circumstances define the conditions for social participation. The contemporary artworks reflect these questions, also with reference to the role of art and artistry itself. The exhibition Access Kafka and accompanying program invite you to follow, participate in and further develop these reflections.

Artists: Cory Arcangel, Yuval Barel, Yael Bartana, Guy Ben-Ner, Marcel Broodthaers, Marcel Duchamp, Maria Eichhorn, Mary Flanagan, Ceal Floyer, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Tehching Hsieh, Anne Imhof, Fatoş İrwen, Uri Katzenstein, Lina Kim, Martin Kippenberger, Maria Lassnig, Michal Naaman, Trevor Paglen, Alona Rodeh, Roee Rosen, Gregor Schneider, Hito Steyerl

The picture shows a work of art by Mary Flanagan depicting floating walls in front of a blue sky over a blue sea.

Exhibition ACCESS KAFKA: Features & Programs

Exhibition Webpage
Current page: Access Kafka (13 Dec 2024 to 4 May 2025): Information on the exhibition chapters, artworks and documents
Accompanying Events
Exhibition Opening: 12 Dec 2024, 7 pm
Curator's Tour with Shelley Harten: Tour with fixed dates, in German
Access Word – JMB Book Club The Vegetarian by Han Kang: 21 Jan 2025, in German
Kafka and Art – Lecture by Hans-Gerd Koch: 30 Jan 2025, in German and German Sign Language (DGS)
Public Tour in German: Tour with fixed dates
Public Tour in English: Tour with fixed dates
Public Tour in Hebrew: Tour with fixed dates
Bookable Tour for Groups: By appointment
Digital Content
Access Deferred: Essay by Vivian Liska on Kafka’s Judaism, from the exhibition catalog, 2024
Franz Kafka: A short biography and further online content on the topic
Kafka in Berlin: Berlin walk on Jewish Places to biographical stations of Franz Kafka, written by Hans-Gerd Koch
Publications
Exhibition catalog: German edition, 2024
Exhibition catalog: English edition, 2024
“If you want to be an artist, come along!” (Franz Kafka, The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika))

Access Denied

The refusal of access is everywhere in our society, whether economically, politically, or in private life. In his texts, Kafka – a legal scholar by training – gives tangible shape to that refusal. Josef K. is under threat of a trial without knowing why and by whom; Gregor Samsa, transformed into a kind of “vermin,” is shut out by his family; the man from the country waits in vain “Before the Law” for admission. Kafka himself nearly prevented the almost unrestricted access to his own works that we enjoy today: he instructed that all his manuscripts must be destroyed after his death. Despite the perceived accessibility of art, Kafka’s biography and texts show it is never certain when something becomes art, when somebody becomes an artist – or who decides. Is it the artists themselves? The public? Or the job market?

Ink drawing of a male standing in a kind of gate.

Franz Kafka, drawing, [ca. 1923]; סימול ARC. 4* 2000 05 037, Max Brod Archive, National Library of Israel

Kafka’s Last Will

Franz Kafka died on June 3, 1924, when aged only 40. Kafka almost denied future generations access to his largely unpublished estate. Find out more from this note in his will:

Handwritten short letter from Franz Kafka to Max Brod, see transcription on the website.

Testamentary note to Max Brod, from: Franz Kafka’s testaments, 1921-1922; סימול ARC. 4* 2000 05 050 Max Brod Archive, National Library of Israel

Transcription of the testamentary note to Max Brod (1921/22)

“Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me (in my bookcase, linen cupboard, my desk both at home and in the office, or anywhere else where anything may have got to and meets your eye) in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others’), sketches and so on, is to be burned unread and to the last page, as well as all writings of mine or sketches which either you may have or other people, from whom you are to beg them in my name. Letters which are not handed over to you should at least be faithfully burned by those who have them.
Yours
Franz Kafka”

Benjamin Balint, Kafka’s Last Trial, The Case of a Literary Legacy, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2018.

Kafka’s Work

Franz Kafka was a lawyer by profession. His vocation was literature. He described both as work.

The following manuscript page from the unfinished novel The Man Who Disappeared (America), written in 1914, gives an insight into his work. It is the first page of the presumed final chapter about the protagonist Karl Rossmann's encounters with the Theater of Oklahoma.

Handwritten manuscript by Franz Kafka with various deletions and the title: Last chapter.

First page of the presumed final chapter “The Great Theatre of Oklahama” of the unfinished novel Der Verschollene (Amerika) (The Man Who Disappeared (America)), 1914, ink and pencil on paper, 25 × 20.5 cm; MS. Kafka 42, fol. 18r, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford (transcription in the picture gallery above, in German)

Access Word

In present-day communication forms, access is defined by symbols, slogans, codes, and emojis, and script is replaced by pictograms. Words become pictures. Kafka chooses writing and the text as his route to access the world of his imagination – a transit that demands his great concentration. His imagery often involves doors and windows, giving a visible form to experiences of exclusion and intrusion. It is rare for Kafka to describe the external appearance of his protagonists or the setting in his stories. He forbade all illustration of his works, and his own drawings are condensed like symbols. The author concentrates on the essence, leaving embellishments to his readers’ imagination.

Handschriftlich geschriebene Postkarte mit grüner Briefmarke und Poststempel sowie Stempel von Max Brod's Literary Estate.

Franz Kafka, postcard to Sophie Brod, 26.2.1911, pencil on printed cardboard, 9.3 × 14.1 cm; סימול ARC. 4* 2000 05 044, Max Brod Archive, National Library Israel

Kafka’s Picture Riddle

Franz Kafka and his translator into Czech, Milena Jesenská, were good friends and had a brief but intense love affair from 1919 to 1920. Find out more about it in the following letter to Milena dated July 28, 1920:

Handwritten letter page, with the margins also written on, transcription in the continuous text below the image.

A “difficult picture riddle”, letter to Milena Jesenská, 28.07.1920, ink on paper, 23 × 14.4 cm; DLA, D 80.15/18, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

Transcription of the letter to Milena Jesenská (excerpt)

To Milena Jesenská [Prague, July 28, 1920] Wednesday

[“...I spat out something red at the civil swimming school. It was strange and interesting, wasn’t it? I looked at it for a while and then forgot about it. And then it happened more often and when I wanted to spit I managed to make it red, it was entirely up to me. Then it was no longer interesting] but boring and I forgot about it again. If I had gone to the doctor right away—well, everything would probably have been exactly the same as it was without the doctor, but then nobody knew about the blood, actually not even me, and nobody was worried. But now someone is worried, so please go to the doctor.
Strange that your husband says he will write me this and that. And hit me and strangle me? I really don’t understand it. I believe you completely, of course, but I find it so impossible to imagine that I feel nothing about it, as if it were a completely foreign, distant story. As if you were here and said: “Right now I am in Vienna and people are shouting and stuff.” And we would both look out the window towards Vienna and of course there would be no cause for any excitement.
But one thing: don’t you sometimes forget when you talk about the future that I am Jewish? (jasná, nezapletená) [clear, uncomplicated]. Judaism remains dangerous, even at your feet.”

Access Judaism

The question of whether Kafka is a Jewish writer is best answered by the author himself. In his diary, he asks: “What do I have in common with Jews?” and immediately replies: “I have scarcely anything in common with myself.” In his texts, Kafka explores belonging and exclusion, communities and individual experiences in a way that is both ambivalent and universal. That makes him surprisingly up-to-date – people’s affiliations with a particular social group, state, or religion are neither clear-cut nor permanent. Kafka himself came from an assimilated, liberal Jewish family. He did not write explicitly about Judaism, but he learned Hebrew and was interested in Zionism. His greatest enthusiasm was for Yiddish theater, where he experienced a sense of Jewish community. His self-reflexive, ambivalent relationship with society finds its place in his art.

Pencil drawing of a male face looking directly at the viewer, stamp of Max Brod's Literary Estate at lower right.

Franz Kafka, Self-portrait, [ca. 1911]; סימול ARC. 4* 2000 05 086, Max Brod Archive, National Library of Israel

Kafka studies Hebrew

Kafka spoke German at home, among friends, and at university. Czech was increasingly spoken in the family business and at work. Kafka had also been studying Hebrew on his own since 1917. In 1922–23 Kafka attended private lessons with Puah Ben-Tovim (1903–1991). Ben-Tovim was born in Jerusalem and came to Prague to study on the recommen­dation of Hugo Bergmann, Kafka’s friend and director of the Hebrew National Library in Jerusalem.

There is no clear evidence as to why Kafka studied Hebrew. One of Kafka’s moti­vations might be that Kafka temporarily considered emigrating to British Mandate Palestine. The words in Kafka's vocabulary book provide information about what he was dealing with:

Opened double page of a notebook with handwritten German-Hebrew vocabulary.

Franz Kafka, Hebrew vocabulary booklet, 1922–1923, ink and pencil on paper, 10.2 × 17.2 cm; MS. Kafka 30, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford

Access Law

Kafka’s story “Before the Law” is about a man who spends his whole life demanding admission to the law. A doorkeeper prevents him from crossing the threshold intended for him. This guardian gives no reason. As a trained lawyer and a civil servant, Kafka brings questions about the law into his art: his work is concerned with meaningless constructions of bureaucratic rules, control by anonymous external forces, invasions into the private sphere, and the inaccessibility of power. In the rooms of what was once Berlin’s Court of Appeal and today is the Museum’s exhibition space, Kafka’s drawing “Guardian of the Threshold” keeps watch. Which responsibility do artists have to cast light on whatever is behind that guarded threshold?

Pencil drawing of a large, animal-like figure above a crowd of very small people.

Franz Kafka, drawing, 1901–1907, pencil on paper, 17.1 × 10.6 cm; סימול ARC. 4* 2000 05 080, Max Brod Archive, National Library Israel

Kafka’s Process of The Trial

Ausschnitt aus dem Buchcover Franz Kafka: Der Prozess vom Verlag die Schmiede mit typografisch blau-schwarz-weiß gestaltetem Cover.

Detail from the book cover of Franz Kafka: Der Prozess. Berlin: Die Schmiede, 1925.

“‘Like a dog!’ he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him.” (Franz Kafka, final sentence of the unfinished novel The Trial)

Franz Kafka does not manage to finish his three novels: The Trial, The Castle, and The Man Who Disappeared (America). The writing process of The Trial is reproduced here according to the findings of Kafka biographer Reiner Stach:

May 1914 First engagement of Franz Kafka and Felice Bauer.
12 Jul 1914 The engagement takes place in the Berlin hotel Askanischer Hof. Kafka describes the event as a tribunal in the hotel.
28 Jul 1914 Start of the First World War From 1915, Kafka is considered an “irreplaceable specialist” by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fund and is not called to serve at the front.
11 Aug 1914 Kafka begins to write The Trial. The first and final chapters are written first. It is probably an attempt to finish the book at all costs. However, Kafka never completes The Trial.
Oct 1914 Kafka writes the story In the Penal Colony.
Kafka writes the chapter on the Nature Theater of Oklahoma for the novel The Man Who Disappeared (America).
30 Nov 1914 Franz Kafka’s diary entry: “I can’t go on writing. I am at the final limit, in front of which I may have to sit for years.”
Oct–Dec 1914 Kafka writes the doorkeeper legend Before the Law. The story is part of the novel The Trial, but is published separately, first published on September 7, 1915, in Selbstwehr, an independent Jewish weekly magazine, Prague.
Jan 1915 Kafka’s concentration breaks off. He is no longer able to complete The Trial.
Jul 1916–1917 Second engagement with Felice Bauer.
1920 Kafka writes The Problem of our Laws. The short text is about a small group of nobles who rule “us” through secret laws.

“... it remains a vexing thing to be governed by laws one does not know.” (Franz Kafka, in The Problem of our Laws, 1920)

Access Space

For some people, globalization and the digital era open up new and unexpected spaces. Others are denied that access. The border between private and public domains begins to blur. Art, too, is no longer restricted to the traditional sites such as galleries or museums. Given that, how do we still recognize art as art? Or has art long since infiltrated everyday life? In his texts, Kafka uses motifs such as doors, gates, windows, thresholds, or buildings to give shape to feelings of hopelessness, disorientation, and unease. Many readers see themselves reflected in the narrative architecture that he creates.

Line drawing of a person standing in front of a frame and holding on to a pole with one arm.

Franz Kafka, drawing, [ca. 1923]; סימול ARC. 4* 2000 05 037, Max Brod Archive, National Library of Israel

The Metamorphosis of Kafka’s Apartment

Kafka lived with his parents in Nikolasstrasse in Prague from 1907 to 1913. The apartment is on the fourth floor of the Haus zum Schiff. This is where, in November–Dezember 1912, he wrote his most famous story: The Metamorphosis.

The Kafka family’s apartment has the same floor plan as the Samsas’ apartment in The Metamorphosis.

Floor plan of a 4-room apartment plus kitchen, bathroom and maid's room.

Drawing by the Kafka-expert Hartmut Binder, in: Hartmut Binder, Kafkas Verwandlung, Frankfurt a. M./Basel: Stromfeld Verlag 2004, Abb. 22

Access Body

In Kafka’s stories, bodies are animals, are transformed, are pierced by needles, hollowed out by worms, starved, executed. His own body seems to him to be weak and inadequate, even though it’s what enables him to write – an activity that for Kafka is extremely physical. He often describes art as a performance: his artist figures are performers, whether Josephine the singer, the hunger artist, or the acrobat on the trapeze. The body, as the place where regulations and exclusions are battled out, is deployed in art, especially in performance art. When they consider their sense of their own body, artists often define themselves as the last barrier between art and audience. That connects them to current debates about inclusion, body transformation, and transhumanism.

Triangular piece of brown paper with a pencil drawing that looks like legs with four feet.

Franz Kafka, drawing on triangular paper, ca. 1906, pencil on brown paper, 10.4 × 8.3 × 7.8 cm; סימול ARC. 4* 2000 05 080, Max Brod Archive, National Library Israel

Kafka’s Body

The significance of the body is central to both Kafka’s biography and his literature. As an employee of the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institution for the Kingdom of Bohemia, he has to deal with physicality. Kafka did not hold psycho­analysis in high regard, however, he sub­scribed to the idea that body and mind are closely linked.

Full-length portrait of Franz Kafka, standing with coat, hat and tie, hands clasped in front of his body.

Franz Kafka; akg-images / Archiv K. Wagenbach

Kafka’s Animals

Franz Kafka often includes animals as main characters in his texts.

Exhibition Information at a Glance

  • When 13 Dec 2024 to 4 May 2025
  • Entry Fee 10 €, reduced 4 €
  • Where Old Building, level 1
    Lindenstraße 9–14, 10969 Berlin
    See Location on Map

Sponsors

The German federal government representative for culture and media (logo) Das Bild zeigt das Logo der Friends of the Jewish Museum Berlin in the U.S. Logo Freunde des JMBN. Berliner Sparkasse logo with red S and dot on top

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