Kafka's Sisters
18.01.2024 - 29.09.2024 ,
Jüdisches Museum München (Jewish Museum Munich)
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On June 3, 1924, Franz Kafka died in a sanatorium near Vienna as a result of tuberculosis that he had suffered from for several years. He was buried on June 11 in the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague. The posthumous publication of his works and ultimately world fame ensued.
While Franz Kafka’s life is recorded in countless biographies, his three sisters have remained largely in the shadows. The most is known about Ottla, the youngest, who was a close confidant of her brother’s throughout his life. Elli and Valli, who both married and left their parents’ house early, only appear in passing in Kafka’s writings. After Kafka's early death, the lives of the three become blurred. Most biographies content themselves with noting that Kafka's sisters were murdered in German extermination camps in 1942/43.
On the 100th anniversary of Franz Kafka’s death, an installation by the artist Sebastian Jung at the Jewish Museum Munich commemorates the life and fate of the three sisters: Their biographies are representative of the extermination of German-speaking Jewry in Prague, of which their brother is celebrated today as a symbolic figure.
An installation by artist Sebastian Jung in the foyer of the Jewish Museum Munich as part of the KAFKA 2024 festival.
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Last edited on 30.09.2024