Among Colleagues: Franz Kafka and Franz Werfel

Among the great names of the Prague guild of writers, that of the storyteller, lyric poet, and novelist Franz Werfel, is one of the most important. He was born in Prague 1890, the son of a well-off Jewish industrial family. From an early age he devoted himself to literature, writing poems and dramas while at his grammar school, the German Neustädter Gymnasium, in Prague; by 1910 the famous expressionistic lyric poet was considered the heart of the Prague “Arco” Circle. From 1912 he worked as an editor at the Kurt Wolff publishing house in Leipzig. After his service in the First World War he moved to Vienna, where, in 1929, he married the widow of Gustav Mahler. In 1938 he had to leave Austria, eventually arriving in exile in the US. There he succumbed to a heart problem after the end of the war.

Kafka probably got to know Werfel towards the end of 1908 through Max Brod. His relationship with Werfel lurched between admiration and brusque rejection. Werfel, meanwhile, prophesied to Kafka that his works would never get past Tetschen-Bodenbach, a small provincial town on the German border – although he had to admit later that he’d been mistaken. 

Last Saturday, Werfel recited his Songs of Life and his opera in the Arco. A prodigy! But I looked him in the eye and held his gaze for the whole evening. 

Franz Kafka, Diaries

Werfel is truly a wonder; when I read his book “Der Weltfreund” for the first time I thought my enthusiasm for it would drive me mad. The man can do prodigious things.

Franz Kafka to Felice Bauer

You are certainly a leader of this generation, which is not flattery, nor could it be considered flattery of anybody, because some people could lead this society into the swamps. That is why you are more than just a leader. You are obviously striving for more and people follow your path with wild eagerness. 

Franz Kafka to Franz Werfel