Franz Kafka in Karlsbad
by Hartmut Binder, from the book Franz Kafka. Ein Leben in Bildern [Franz Kafka. An Illustrated Life
Karlsbad is very pleasant.
This pronouncement on Karlsbad [Karlovy Vary] was made in the knowledge of Marienbad [Mariánské Lázně], which Kafka had just visited for the first time and found incredibly beautiful. As a result, he would soon suggest to Felice Bauer that they spent their planned holiday together in the spa resort.
On 9 April 1916, Kafka wrote to Felice: […] in Karlsbad for two days, on business: Ottla is with me. Our first walk yesterday evening was – just as we went to the Goethe House in Weimar that first midnight – to the Villa Tannhäuser.
Other letters to Felice Bauer show that Kafka’s memories of their stay in Karlsbad in July 1915 together were very mixed. He speaks of aches and tension in the head that made him simply unbearable to his partner: I’m sure you remember very clearly what I was like in Karlsbad. I am now, if such a thing is possible, even worse. But I don’t want to foist a person like that on you now. I don’t want you to see me like this, […] I’m not even showing my face in Prague. Which is not to say, however, that I’m entirely hopeless. How could I live without hope.
