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The Austrian author Franz Kafka was born in Prague, Bohemia (Böhmen, then in Austria-Hungary) on July 3, 1883. His parents were the Austrian-Jewish merchant Herrmann Kafka and the Polish Julie Löwy. Kafka studied German and law at Prague's German University (Deutsche Universität, 1901-1906). He began writing as early as 1904, but destroyed most of his early work, a pattern that would have left Kafka unknown to the world, had not his friend and publisher Max Brod ignored his request to do the same upon Kafka's death.

In 1922, after working in insurance and writing part-time, Kafka moved to Berlin to live as a full-time writer and to share his life with Dora Dymant. The popular term "Kafkaesque" reflects the bizarre, nightmarish nature of most of the author's works. In Die Verwandlung (1915, The Metamorphosis) Kafka's character awakes to discover he has become a large insect. ("As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.") In Der Prozess (1925, The Trial) the anonymous Josef K suddenly finds himself under arrest and attempting to defend himself against unknown charges. More...

http://german.about.com/library/blkafka.htm?once=true& (About.com)