Original subtitles

Subtitle: North German Broadcasting 2024

♪ Hectic orchestral music ♪

* Creaking *

The Jewish Prague insurance official,

Factory owner and writer Dr. Franz Kafka:

He lived for 40 years and eleven months.

He died of laryngeal tuberculosis in a sanatorium near Vienna.

He was in Berlin, Munich, Zurich and Paris,

Milan, Venice, Verona, Vienna and Budapest.

He saw the sea a total of three times.

North Sea, Baltic Sea, Italian Adriatic.

Dr. Franz Kafka remained unmarried.

He probably had love affairs with six women he had love affairs with,

most short.

He also had intimate contacts

to an unknown number of prostitutes.

His literary work comprises 350 pages of completed texts,

plus ten times as many fragments, letters, diaries.

According to the instructions in the will according to the will,

which he addressed to to his friend Max Brod.

Finally, he called on Max Brod:

(hoarse) You have to destroy everything.

Nothing may remain.

* Cough *

Have you actually executed his will?

No, no. You have to start differently.

* Rattling and clanging *

Max, this has to go in the second suitcase. We don't have another one.

It's full. You know what's inside.

Yes, but ... our things! The train won't wait.

♪ Hectic music ♪

1939: Dr. Franz Kafka has been dead for 15 years.

Excuse me! Excuse me!

This is the last train from Prague to Poland.

Places 33 and 35.

Max, wait.

Max. Yes.

These are our seats. Release them.

You don't have to get upset, Mr. Brod. You know me?

I have read your Tycho Brahes. What will happen?

Nothing, as long as there are negotiations. President Hacha is with Hitler.

Your word in God's ear!

* Locomotive signal *

Half a lifetime before.

The well-known writer

takes a trip to Italy with his unknown friend on a trip to Italy.

Shall we write a novel together about our journey?

I don't really know.

You'll never become a writer that way. I do write.

Write more. Then it will not good. It will be good enough.

Good enough.

* Laughter *

♪ Playful music ♪

Good ... enough.

* Rumble * What has happened? Nothing, Elsa.

They say the Germans have entered Olomouc.

You're crazy! - You'll see!

Why are you spreading such rumors? You ... Ganeff!

Max, have you heard?

Hacha is with Hitler. Nothing happens for the next few days.

He does not march in during the trial.

But Max, what the Hitler ... Elsa, I know what I'm talking about.

♪ Tense music ♪

15.

16.

17.

I couldn't fall asleep tonight.

The strange room is not good for me.

You were snoring. I tried to wake you up.

I sleep deeply. Enviable! Every breath of wind wakes me up.

Because I couldn't sleep well

and you work best at night work best at night ...

Me in the afternoon. No, it has to be at night.

And even the night is not night enough. In any case ...

Yes?

Because I couldn't sleep,

I wrote our novel I wrote our novel. Franz!

Great! No, very bad.

It didn't go well? Unfortunately not at all!

* Gasp *

Do you have to do this every morning? I did it every morning.

Yes, but do you have to?

The Müller brochure states: "If you don't mill, you get sick."

But so does anyone who dumps.

Yes, that's true. Anyone who wastes, gets sick too. * Laughter *

Perhaps we should write travel guides instead of the novel.

We write both. At the same time? Of course!

The more you write, the better it goes.

I'm worried that Wibke is pregnant. Why?

You were relieved that she can't have children.

That's the other one. Luzia? No, no.

That Luzia gets pregnant, doesn't worry you?

Yes, that would be the worst thing ever!

Maybe you should less socializing.

I'm in love with all of them, with each of them.

I don't understand how you so rarely need a woman.

And when you have one, you walk around with it

and everyone sees you and you don't mind.

You talk to her as if ... as if it wasn't embarrassing.

Yes, why not, Max? I'll talk to you too.

Why are you looking at me like that? Do you have to chew for so long?

According to Horace Fletcher you should bite 40 times.

This is how the main part of digestion ...

I know that, but it's so exhausting to watch you do it.

* Laughter *

Now you sound like my father.

* Heavy exhalation *

♪ Slow instrumental music ♪

* Chew loudly *

* Heavy exhalation *

I can't see it, how the guy eats!

Calm down, Hermann! Franz just eats like that.

What if it tastes better that way?

I can't watch it. Like a rabbit!

I can't stand it.

Don't serve so slowly! The food will get cold.

(speak Czech)

(screams) Of course I mean that!

* Bird calls *

Have you seen the man? He had a gold tooth. Yes, and?

Nothing. I thought, a gold tooth is useful

when describing a person.

Also in case of other ambiguity of the impression.

You write "gold tooth" and there it is.

In each individual window

the recurring color of a dress of a dress prevails.

Dreamy music

Signori! Signori!

Of a dress? Ochre marigold, for example.

On these streets your legs come apart.

Why the legs?

We must write in the travel guide:

Avoid wear and tear on shoes.

Otherwise you have expenses.

(Man talks in Italian with the dog) * Barking *

Ciao, bello!

You can feel sorry for a dog like that.

Why?

Nobody respects him and ...

♪ Tense string music ♪

Grazie!

Yes? We have to find a way out of our offices.

Me from the insurance company and you from the post office.

The path goes over a rope. Then we are tightrope walkers.

No, the rope is just above the ground

and should only make you stumble.

Listening to you, you think there is no hope.

Yes, there is infinite hope, but ...

But? Not for us.

* Sigh * He is difficult to understand.

He demands a lot. And he gives almost nothing.

Sometimes the writer Max Brod is exhausted.

Sometimes he feels as if he has to to give up his friend.

Nonsense!

You can admit that to yourself, Max. Sometimes you're close to it.

I am not on a first-name basis with you and ...

* Rumble *

Ostrava!

* Rumble *

* Excited background conversations *

Dismount! To the left, then to the right. March off! Let's go!

♪ Uncomfortable music ♪

Max! Can you hear me? Max?

Max! Max!

* Rumble *

Passports!

I told you so. I told you so!

♪ Depressing music ♪

Passports!

(second inspector) The passports!

Did the Germans invade?

What do you think?

Now things will become different.

For us German-Czechs great days are beginning.

♪ Depressing music ♪

(in the background) The passport, sir!

Can the train still run? Only time will tell.

Do you have anything to declare?

Open the case.

♪ Tense music ♪

* Breathe in and out deeply *

* Click *

What is that?

Nothing.

Nothing?

Manuscripts from a friend.

He left them to me. He bequeathed you his scribblings?

Is that worth anything? For me it is.

I mean, is it worth the money?

I should burn it all. It's worth that much. Max.

And instead you take it with you.

You leave the country with a suitcase full of scribbles.

What can I say, Inspector? He was my best friend.

"I was already jumping, as if it wasn't the first time,

on the shoulder of a friend."

"... and brought him, as I thrust my my fists into his back,

into an easy trot.

As he stomped reluctantly and sometimes stopped,

I hooked my boot into his stomach belly to perk him up.

We succeeded and quickly got further and further into the interior

a large but unfinished area where it was evening."

Unfinished neighborhood? Yes.

Are you sure? Yes.

What nonsense!

"Unfinished neighborhood."

Did he have something on his head? Your best friend?

I don't understand it ...

But it's good.

What do you think, Max?

I think ...

What is it, Max? What do you think?

I don't think I've never heard anything better.

* Laughter *

You are right.

That's really nothing.

That's what I said.

♪ Slow instrumental music ♪

So? Shall we continue?

They were allowed to cross this border to cross.

The transition was there just for you.

Now that you have passed it, it will be closed.

Excuse me?

♪ Depressing music ♪

I said, you're in luck. This is the last train.

The last one? The border will now be closed.

♪ Tense instrumental music ♪

* Click *

Müller? Reimann? We have to take someone away.

They're taking him with them! What happens to him?

♪ Oppressive instrumental music ♪

Through the negation of the will

we can recognize the same suffering in all of them.

They had met on October 23, 1902.

If we had to choose a day on which the literature

of the 20th century forever, he would be:

The day Franz Kafka met the man,

who would save his work from destruction.

On October 23, 1904 Kafka was not yet a doctor

and not yet a writer.

His fellow student Max, one year younger,

had given a lecture on Schopenhauer.

Schopenhauer says that the will is the basic fact of the world

and the principle of individuation.

No, we have to start differently.

You have to explain that.

The thing with Max, with his curved spine,

You have to start with that.

With the fact that he was actually as a hunchback,

to a special existence as a disabled person, as a cripple.

Excuse me, that's what they called it.

His mother wouldn't let him.

Max, come on! Take a look!

He was wrapped in parental love

like a prince in his purple cloak.

Slow down, Max!

And a little more feeling.

♪ Piano playing ♪

He got piano lessons. He was talented.

That is why he was later writer and philosopher,

Virtuoso and music theorist, among many other things.

He was passionate, warm-hearted, always ready to enthuse,

not very profound.

And overall, let's be honest, we have to be honest here,

well ... his ambition was somewhat greater than his talent.

But he was ambitious!

♪ Playful orchestral music ♪

* Knock *

* Door squeak *

Dr. Schnitzler? Yes, please? The great poet.

Probably. My brother is not here.

Brod. Forgive the interruption, but this is a fragment of my novel.

What? If you could read it, it it would be my greatest honor, Mr. ...

Who was that?

♪ Playful orchestral music ♪

And when Max began to study, he joined a debating society.

He stopped there immediately,

that is, on October 23, 1902, his first lecture.

So that date,

that changed the history of literature forever.

Nietzsche's criticism of Schopenhauer

is rooted in vanity and competitive thinking.

Nietzsche is a swindler!

Please ask questions later!

You don't want to claim that Nietzsche's criticism

to Schopenhauer springs from base motives?

Completely without philosophical considerations?

Exactly that - and I will prove I will prove it to you.

If only the will is, why does it unfold into the world?

Why is it not just the will?

Because the will, according to Schopenhauer, must recognize itself.

He is blind. Not blind enough not to want to be.

That night the two go there and back.

Max accompanies Franz to his apartment,

then Franz Max to his, then Franz Max to his again.

That night neither of them sleep.

Since then, whether you like it or not,

there is no Brod without Kafka and no Kafka without Brod.

What posterity would later would later call the Prague Circle,

was nothing else than Max's three best friends:

The insurance clerk Kafka, the blind piano teacher Baum,

the editor Weltsch.

I don't see anything.

Yes, there.

No, posterity did not call them the Prague Circle.

Do you know who called you that? As the only one?

In his book "The Prague Circle"?

That was me. The Prague Circle. That was us. What's the problem?

So this is where the Prague Circle stands

and celebrates the turn of the year 1910/1911.

The world: stable.

War is a thing of the past.

Progress is inevitable

and Halley's comet is resplendent in the sky.

There's nothing there. Maybe it's better if he doesn't show up.

It could probably graze the earth. 1911 is an ominous date.

Every date is ominous.

Tree? Do you see anything?

Nothing. Tree sees nothing either.

Of course the tree sees nothing.

What do you mean by that? * Laughter *

What do I mean by that? The tree is blind.

That's not nice.

Sometimes you need more education of the heart, Max.

He knows he's blind. I'm not calling him ugly.

Did you hear that? * Laughter *

Brod, what has the tree done to you?

Now he's called me called me ugly too.

Still nothing.

We are here especially because of this comet. I was sweating.

Why did you come along? Because the comet is coming.

But he's not coming.

I am writing an article.

A bad review about the comet.

I will tell you everything. You'll be surprised! Who?

People will soon be saying: "It was the Jews' fault."

Shall we go?

Yes, he's not coming today.

The Prague Circle searches for comets

and also makes regular trips to the brothel.

Cheers!

This is now ... but I'll say it: Brothels were commonplace.

Almost all the young men went

and many poor young women had to work there.

You should be able to say something more original than "for the good".

I am not a poet.

I am the only one here who is not a poet

and can say what he wants.

Every phrase, every worn-out thought is my friend.

Thank you, Mitzi. * Kiss sound *

But the real poet here, has nothing to say?

I think she means you, Werfel. I always have something to say.

You have to have something of the poets have. We want to hear something.

Good.

* Clearing throat *

* Applause and individual cheers *

The friends, who talk to me,

very often disgruntled ...

* Laughter *

... glow with pleasure.

They stroll with pleasure in my beautiful trains,

probably arm in arm.

Refined shape.

Alas, my face can never hold dignity.

And seriousness and equanimity will not suffice for him.

Because 1000 smiles in renewed trains

unfold eternally to unfold its heavenly image.

(Quantity) Oooooo!

I am a corso on sunny squares,

a summer party with women and bazaars.

My eye breaks from too much illumination.

I want to sit down sit down on the grass

and with the earth into the evening.

Oh, earth!

Evening!

Luck!

Oh!

Being in the world!

* Initially timid applause *

* Cheers *

Very beautiful, especially the sunny places

and that "being enlightened" and "being in the world" rhyme.

It was good, wasn't it? I've been looking for that for a long time.

That was wonderful!

Let's leave the poems.

There are times for words, there are times for silence.

Every day I walk past the brothel like the house of a mistress.

You say nice things too, but they don't rhyme.

Rhyme.

It is the shore where they land.

Agree with two thoughts.

* Giggle * That's nice too. And it rhymes.

If it didn't rhyme, it would be wrong.

Is this from you? Unfortunately not. Then it wouldn't rhyme.

When I put sentences together the rhyme disappears

and hides in a corner.

Then ... let's go and find him, Mr. Franz.

Promising instrumental music ♪

The great thing is that the girls don't get pregnant. Really?

If they do, it's not my problem,

while Wibke gave me another scared me again.

For ten days she wasn't sure.

The nerves nerves can't take it.

How did you get on with Mitzi? You didn't say anything.

Look, the Lord is killing himself.

♪ Tense music ♪

* Chuckle *

No, really.

Now get him out. Why are you getting him out?

You can leave him alone, if he wants to kill himself.

Franz, help me!

* Excited shouts *

Let me through. You have to him. You have to ventilate him.

* Bird calls *

You didn't try to help. You didn't try to look.

His features, as he faced the extreme,

jumped towards ...

You have to help him. You have to look him in the face.

That's not human. We are writers, Max.

And? Our eyes are more important than our hands.

At the decisive moment it is important that we see.

See everything: inside, outside, day, night.

I work differently. You know that.

You need that.

The darkness, the stepping back, the cold look.

But aren't my novels not good enough,

even without me keep my distance from everything?

Yes, good enough. They already are.

Look on your shelf. There are twelve of my books there.

Twelve! He shook us both up, the suicide.

Don't say I did it with half my strength.

Twelve books? Of course not, Max. I was exaggerating.

You know I like to exaggerate.

Twelve!

♪ Playful and cloudy music ♪

* Type *

* Plingen *

* Plingen *

Have you taken leave of your senses abandoned? Good morning.

"As a sign of the high culture of German literature

some adorn the times of existence with art and cruelty.

Heinrich Mann, Wedekind, Mehring, Franz Kafka

and others belong belong to the holy group." Max.

What? I have not yet published yet. And?

"Mann, Wedekind, Mehring, Kafka"? Why are you writing that?

It is true. People will read this. I hope so.

They will ask: "Who is Kafka?" Let them.

Then they want a book from me. It can happen.

Then the bookseller tells them there is none.

You have to remedy this.

♪ Uncomfortable music ♪

His constant enthusiasm was unbearable,

but she was also irresistible.

Mr. Brod, we are delighted that your novel is being published by us.

One novel is not enough, Mr. Rowohlt. I have more.

More? You have written a second novel?

Exactly what we need. - Listen to us!

I have written many novels, but I have also ...

This is from my friend Felix Weltsch.

A philosophical work, but of extraordinary power.

This is from Otto Stössel, a promising writer.

This is also from him.

This is from Werfel, you already know him.

We call him the heavenly high school student.

For an unknown author you come with a lot of baggage.

I come with estimates. This is from Oskar Baum, a friend of mine.

He is blind and he also writes about it. Really?

He writes about being blind! - Exciting! - Listen to him!

What the world is like for those who never sees it,

how you move in it - overwhelming!

You have to bring that out.

We have to check that first, but that's interesting.

* Loud background conversations *

Then there is ...

(whispering) Kafka.

What's his name? Hafa?

Kafka. Kafka.

Franz Kafka. He is perhaps the greatest writer in the world.

Ah, you don't do it under that.

What have you brought back from the greatest writer in the world?

Nothing.

Nothing?

Nothing. There is nothing yet.

But you said ... Are you unwell?

I said that if he will have written something.

When he finishes something,

this will be an adornment of your publishing house Mr. Rowohlt, Mr. Wolff.

People will never stop reading, I promise!

Yes, that sounded ridiculous, silly and over the top.

But wasn't he right?

So who is this great Hafa? - Who is this wondrous person?

Does he still go to school?

He works for the state insurance company.

Exciting!

Well, our curiosity is piqued.

You can do that, dear Brod, arouse curiosity.

Speak for yourself.

I can tame my curiosity.

I know you can do that, Mr. Rowohlt.

Not as good as you spend money.

He doesn't like traveling and the insurance gives him little vacation,

but I will lure him to Leipzig.

In the meantime, however, you must the Werfel and the tree and ...

* Embarrassed snort *

I ... I have forgotten: There's there's someone else. A certain Haas.

He writes amazing things!

He was like a literary agent, but he didn't get any shares.

♪ Playful and cloudy music ♪

Dear Dr. Brod.

We are very pleased that on the occasion of your visit

at the Marbach Literary Archive talk to us.

I'm happy too.

You are, Dr. Brod, a well-known author yourself.

Even better known, of course,

but as a friend of the world-famous Franz Kafka.

Dear Dr. Brod, Let me ask you first,

whether that is not often a disadvantage when you write about Kafka?

When you analyze his work, when you think about him,

whether you often wished you had not been his friend?

Because that would give you a more objective view.

Whether I ... I don't think that it would ever have been an advantage,

not to have been Kafka's friend to have been Kafka's friend.

Hmm.

They accuse you of interfering with his diaries.

If someone was offended, I deleted it.

You have skimmed through Kafka's diaries crossed out?

Only things that are nobody's business. You just decided that?

You know, Mr. ...

For you, it's a book, but for us it was our life.

If someone there said something that ...

Or if he ...

So, for example, about a work in words that ...

This is of little concern to the public. little to the public.

You mean, for example, when he comments on your works?

We were each other

in extraordinary esteem connected.

There should be passages in the diaries.

Show me those.

I can't do that.

That's the point.

If I have deleted something, then only with good reason.

Like the Pachinger, for example.

A notorious collector of, As you can see, a Prague original,

which Max and Franz paid a visit to.

In any case, I am delighted that you honor me today, gentlemen.

People who understand art I always like to show them something.

And the evening progressed.

The pregnant female body is preferable to all other women.

What you don't say! I have experience.

Best for shagging, do you think?

Better than all the others. Tell us more, Mr. Pachinger.

These are mine.

Not the pictures. I mean the women.

I've had them all. All of them?

Thousands!

Take a look.

Carnival in Munich.

Every year over 6000 women come to Munich every year.

Unaccompanied, just to be ... ... coitus?

Accurate, Doctor Kafka. Accurate!

* Laughter *

* Prolonged laughter *

Well, if you have another and another one ...

People see you in front of them, when you talk like that.

Just imagine,

how to stuff your big member slowly into women.

Do you still want pictures? Absolutely! I'll cross that out!

It goes without saying that nobody of such an evening.

I did the right thing under the circumstances the right thing to do.

As publisher, executor,

Executor of his will.

But have you actually executed his will?

(hoarse) Every notebook.

And every story, especially the novel manuscripts.

* Sluggish swallowing *

You have to destroy everything.

Nothing may remain.

* Cough *

I never promised him.

He knew how I felt about his work.

The fact that he asked me means that he did not want the destruction.

He knew what I would do. Even the diaries?

You could have could have published his work,

but the most personal ...

The most intimate.

Did he really secretly want for the public to see them?

A writer of this importance ...

His every word is ...

Every word. But that is not the question, Mr. Brod.

The public would like to ...

... But it can.

He trusted you.

You accuse me of having deleted sentences

and at the same time, not to have burned everything?

If someone today mentions the name Max Brod ...

Let's be honest!

Then it is always in connection with Kafka.

Her own novels, your many writings.

We are not in competition.

My writings are read. But they are not available.

I am satisfied with my work as a writer

just as at peace as with their resonance.

What do you want from me?

I did not expected such a survey.

You mean the kind of interview where someone asks questions?

♪ Sad instrumental music ♪

What are you doing here, Franz?

I wanted to visit you.

You used to do that a lot. You look sad.

I write book after book,

exchange letters with Einstein, Thomas Mann and Freud.

I am discussed in Berlin and Vienna.

And I think the next book I'll come out of the post.

Then I get out out of this office.

I think it must be that time.

I am writing, another book comes out

and again nothing happens.

Will I perhaps never out of the post office?

You'll come out, Max. Are you sure, Franz?

I'm not so sure anymore.

Why won't it work?

"Because I write things that are good enough?"

Some things are not good enough. What?

You'll get out of the post, I promise!

How can you be sure?

We all end up out of the post.

♪ Depressed music ♪

Where are you going?

Out of the post office.

I have exiled his work into exile.

Then they closed the border closed. One day longer ...

But you have not only not only abroad.

You have also published it.

You have edited it, you have commented on it.

You have shown the world what you think Kafka was like.

They made him a saint, a prophet, an interpreter of truth.

He was all that ... and more.

And contradiction you did not tolerate.

But you have never explained what entitles you to do all this.

Excuse me, Doctor Brod,

but I quote the opinion of others.

"A self not a first-rate writer,

without literary training education.

A ... not at all ... qualified person."

Why do we the great Franz Kafka without you?

Why were you always there? always in the picture?

Why is there Kafka without Brod?

The third-class carriages are at the back.

You have to get in at the front. Why?

If the access door is blocked,

traveled first class for the price of a third-class ticket.

We have to make budget travel really do.

Then we earn too much money for it.

Attenzione, prego! Treno per Praga via Trieste parte tra due minuti!

I'll be back in the office tomorrow, you're on a two-week cure.

Yes, but it is a nude sanatorium. Naked?

Not like this! A dull medical matter.

I'm not exactly looking forward to it. Would you rather be in the office?

Better naked then.

I repeat the question, Mr. Brod.

What entitles you?

What gives you of all people the right,

about his work, about him to make apodictic statements about him?

He was ...

He was my best friend.

♪ Playful orchestral music ♪

♪ Playful orchestral music ♪

Copyright subtitle: NDR 2024