The Franz Kafka Society (; ) is a non-profit organisation established in 1990 to celebrate the heritage of

German Language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

literature in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. The society is co-sponsor the annual

Franz Kafka Prize The Franz Kafka Prize is an international literary award presented in honour of Franz Kafka, the Jewish, Bohemian, German-language novelist. The prize was first awarded in 2001 and is co-sponsored by the Franz Kafka Society and the city of Prag ...

. Membership currently stands at around 1000 people globally, including

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winner

Günter Grass Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gda ...

and the acting president of the society is

Vladimír Železný Vladimír Železný (born 3 March 1945) is a Czech businessman and politician. He was the first CEO of Nova (Czech TV), TV NOVA, a popular Czech television station and was a member of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2009. As a media mogu ...

. Among the stated goals of the organisation is to foster cultural pluarity among the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

, German and

Jewish people Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

. It also aims to translate the entire work of

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

into

. The Franz Kafka Society initiated the creation of the '' Statue of Franz Kafka'', created by Jaroslav Róna. The statue was presented in the Czech capital of Prague in 2003 where it has remained ever since. The buildings of the society currently host a replica of the library of books owned by Kafka, totalling around 1,000 books and articles.

References

External links

Official website

A look inside the society buildings
{{Authority control Franz Kafka Literary societies