Collected Stories (9 page)
Authors: Franz Kafka
| DATE | HISTORICAL EVENTS |
| 1883 | Death of Wagner, Marx, Manet. Birth of Mussolini, Webern. First Russian Marxist revolutionary organization, the Liberation of Labour, founded in Geneva by Georgi Plekhanov. Opening of National Theatre in Prague. First skyscraper built (10 stories) in Chicago. |
| 1884 | Fall of Khartoum. Berlin conference on African affairs; Togo and the Cameroons become part of the German Empire. Death of Smetana. |
| 1885 | Bulgarian Crisis (to 1886); Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg becomes Prince of Bulgaria. Formation of the German East Africa protectorate. Karl Benz produces first car. Birth of Alban Berg. |
| 1886 | German deputies in the Bohemian Diet leave in protest at the Czechs’ not acknowledging restricted German-language areas in Bohemia (Germans return to Diet, 1890). Neutrality agreement between the Russian and German Empires (1887). |
| 1888 | Death of German Emperor, Wilhelm I. Convention of Constantinople: Suez Canal declared open to ships of all nations. Mahler’s first symphony. |
| 1889 | Second International founded in Paris, and the establishment of 1st May as a workers’ holiday (first celebrated in Austria-Hungary, 1890). Eiffel Tower built. Birth of Hitler. |
| 1890 | Fall of Bismarck. Wilhelm II’s personal rule begins. Death of Van Gogh and Heinrich Schliemann. |
| 1891 | Decisive election victory for liberal Young Czech party. 20,000 Jews brutally evicted from Moscow. Work begins on Trans-Siberian railway. |
| 1892 | Panama scandal in France. Anarchist outrages in Paris. Munich Sezession (German artists under Franz von Stuck rebel against salon system). Diesel patents internal combustion engine. |
| 1893 | Independent Labour Party founded in England. Omladina show-trial of radical youth movements in Prague. Death of Marshal MacMahon. Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony. Munch: The Scream . |
| 1894 | Dreyfus trial begins. German–Russian commercial treaty. Beginning of Armenian massacres in Turkey. Yellow Book launched. Debussy: L’Après-midi d’un faune. |
| 1895 | Lenin leads the St Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class. Arrested; banished to Siberia (1897–1900). Cézanne exhibition in Paris. Lumière brothers invent cinematograph. Marconi invents wireless telegraphy. X-rays discovered. Freud’s Studien über Hysterie inaugurates psychoanalysis. Masaryk: Czech Question, Our Present Crisis. Mahler: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks. |
| 1896 | Establishment of Nobel prizes. Theodore Herzl, founder of modern political Zionism, publishes Der Judenstraat putting forward the idea of a Jewish national home in Palestine. Henry Ford produces his first car. |
| 1897 | Badeni Language Decrees give Czech the status of ‘internal official language’; implementation hampered by Germans, leading to anti-German riots in Prague with an anti-Semitic element, and the withdrawal of the Decrees. First Zionist Congress in Basel. Graeco–Turkish War. Vienna Sezession founded by Klimt to further modern ( Jugendstil , Symbolist) movement. Beginning of Klondike gold rush. Electron discovered. Death of Brahms. |
| 1898 | First German Navy Law begins the arms race. Death of Bismarck. The Gautsch Language Decrees, a watered-down version of the Badeni decrees, are accepted: Czech could be ‘official language’ in mixed German–Czech communities. First Congress of Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party in Minsk. War between Spain and USA. British reconquer the Sudan. German fleet seizes Kiaochow; secures 99-year lease from China. Curie discovers radium. Moscow Arts Theatre founded. |
| 1899 | Renewal of Ausgleich of 1867 (established Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary) following agitation for its repeal and (in 1897) breakdown in constitutional government and government by imperial decree. In Prague, Polná or Hilsner Affair: a Jewish vagabond accused of ritual murder of Czech girl. Boer War (to 1902). Second Dreyfus trial and pardon. Karl Kraus founds the journal Die Fackel in Vienna. Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht. Berlin Sezession formed by German avant-garde artists under Max Liebermann. |
| 1900 | Beginning of severe recession in Austria-Hungary. Economy does not recover until 1906–07. Czech People’s Party founded (programme composed by Masaryk). Bülow becomes Chancellor of Germany. Founding of British Labour Party. Boxer Rebellion in China (to 1901). Max Planck formulates quantum theory. Birth of German composer Kurt Weill. |
| 1901 | Death of Queen Victoria. Accession of Edward VII. Roosevelt succeeds assassinated McKinley as president of USA. Marconi’s first radio communication between USA and Europe. Beginning of Picasso ‘Blue’ period. Dvořák: Russalka. |
| 1903 | Conflict between ‘Bolsheviks’ and ‘Mensheviks’ at 2nd Congress of Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party. Death of Gauguin. King Alexander of Serbia and Queen Draga murdered. Austria-Hungary and Russia conclude agreement about their respective rights in south-east Europe. In Britain, Emmeline Pankhurst founds Women’s Social and Political Union. First flight by Wright brothers. |
| 1904 | Entente Cordiale between Britain and France. Russo–Japanese War (to 1905). Work begins on Panama Canal. Janáček: Jenůfa. |
| 1905 | First Russian Revolution. ‘Red Sunday’ in St Petersburg. Foundation of German Agrarian Party in Bohemia. Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. Beginning of Fauvism. Die Brücke formed in Dresden by leading German Expressionists. Richard Strauss: Salome. |
| 1906 | Constitution in Russia. First Duma meets and is speedily dissolved. Conference of Algeciras; French successfully resist German attempt to gain influence in Morocco (Austria-Hungary alone supports Germany). Young Czech movement reorganized under Karel Kramář. |
| 1907 | Ausgleich again renewed. New financial and commercial arrangements made which last until the Great War. Monarchy embarks on the last stage of its foreign policy – greater influence in the Balkans coupled with closer union with Germany. Law of universal suffrage in Austria-Hungary; first elections under that law. Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia. Failure of Hague Peace Conference to halt the arms race. |
| 1908 | Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina. By obstructive tactics, German minority (German speakers form only 30% of the electorate) succeed in paralysing regional parliament in Bohemia. Second Slav Congress in Prague. Cubism begins in Paris. First performance in Vienna of Schoenberg’s 3 Pieces (demonstrating atonality, or keyless music) arouses vehement hostility. |
| 1909 | Zionists found Tel Aviv. Blériot flies English Channel. La Nouvelle Revue Française founded. Futurist movement founded by Italian poet Marinetti. |
| 1910 | Post-Impressionist Exhibition in London. Death of Edward VII. |
| 1911 | Assassination of Stolypin, Russian Minister of the Interior, by a Socialist Revolutionary terrorist. Italo–Turkish War (to 1912). Strikes in Britain: dockers, miners, weavers, railwaymen. George V announces transfer of capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi. Revolutions in China: Manchu dynasty overthrown. Der Blaue Reiter founded in Berlin. Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle; Allegro barbaro. Amundsen becomes first man to reach the South Pole. |
| 1912 | Haldane (British Secretary for War) visits Berlin, but fails to secure reduction of naval build-up. German Social Democratic party poll more votes in general election than any other party. German Socialists declare themselves anti-war; assert international proletarian solidarity. Formation of Balkan League – Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro. Serious disorder in Croatia leads to policy of repression; elsewhere in the Austro-Hungarian Empire local diets suppressed and constitutional methods of government replaced by autocracy. Sinking of the Titanic. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire. |
| 1913 | Treaty of London ends First Balkan War. Second Balkan War (June–August). Treaty of Bucharest; partitioning of the Balkans. Woodrow Wilson president of USA (later a strong supporter of the dissolution of the Hapsburg monarchy). Bohr’s discovery of atomic structure. First Charlie Chaplin film. Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring. |
| 1914 | Heir to Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz-Ferdinand d’Este and his wife, Sophie, assassinated in Sarajevo (June). Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia (July). World War I breaks out (August). Russia invades Galicia. President Wilson proclaims US neutrality. Political periodicals L’Indépendence tchèque and La Nation tchèque founded in Paris. Leading politically active Czechs begin to be arrested in Austria. Panama Canal opens. Vorticist movement founded. |
| 1915 | Sinking of the Lusitania. Entrance of Italy into the war against Austria-Hungary. Serbia and Poland overrun by Austro-Hungarian and German troops. Gallipoli disaster. Malevich’s Suprematist manifesto. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. |
| 1916 | Franz Joseph I dies; Charles I’s accession to Austro-Hungarian throne. Russian troops again on Austrian soil. Murder of Austrian premier Stürgh; growing unpopularity of the war leads to strikes and rioting. Huge death tolls at the battles of Verdun and the Somme. Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister. Easter Rising in Dublin. Political strike in Berlin. Rasputin assassinated. Tzara founds the Dada group in Zürich. |
| 1917 | February and October Revolutions in Russia. In March, fall of the monarchy; Petrograd riots. US declares war on Germany, 6 April. Balfour Declaration, promising the Jews a home in Palestine. Ausgleich due for renewal but proves impossible to negotiate. |
| 1918 | Wilson’s Fourteen Points (January); point 10 includes notion of self-determination for the nationalities of Austria-Hungary. Russia accepts terms dictated at Brest-Litovsk (March). Pittsburgh Accord on the union of Czechs and Slovaks in a joint republic (May). Brazil declares war on Austria-Hungary (September). Declaration of Czecho-Slovak independence (October). German deputies from Bohemia and Moravia meet in Vienna under leadership of Lodgman von Allen, aiming to establish a German Land in Bohemia with its own parliament, as a province of German Austria. To forestall the build-up of a ‘greater Germany’, the Allies join with the Czechs to take action against the separatists. Conclusion of World War I: Armistice Day, 11 November. Abdication of Wilhelm II. Masaryk elected President of Czecho-Slovakia. In Great Britain the Suffrage Bill is passed, giving women over thirty the vote. Irish rebel Con Markiewitz elected first British woman MP. Russian Civil War. Nicholas II assassinated. Rutherford splits the atom. |
| 1919 | Versailles Peace Conference. Weimar republic created in Germany; a ‘Soviet Republic’ established in Munich and quickly suppressed. Collapse of Austro-Hungarian Empire. Food shortages and demonstrations in Prague; some channelled into anti-Semitic pogroms. Social Democrats win election and ally with Agrarians to form a government. The ‘Red Scare’ in the US. First Atlantic flight. Death of Renoir. Foundation of the Bauhaus, teaching institution for the arts, by Walter Gropius. Marinetti’s Manifestos of Futurism. |
| 1920 | League of Nations meets for first time. Russians driven out of Warsaw. ‘Little Entente’ between Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Yugoslavia. Chauvinistic activities of right-wing Czech extremists lead to bloody clashes with German population. Jewish shops attacked. Social Democrats win convincing election victory (even winning 43.5% of the German vote); Marxist left-wing expelled. Ensuing General Strike crushed. Irish Civil War. Kapp putsch in Germany to effect Nationalist counter-revolution defeated by Berlin workers. Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr Caligari – epitome of Expressionism in German cinema. Gandhi initiates campaign of civil disobedience in India. |
| 1921 | Irish Free State (excluding six counties) founded. New Economic Plan in Russia. Communist Party of Czechoslovakia founded. Rise of Fascism in Italy. Janáček: Katya Kabanova. |
| 1922 | Stalin becomes General Secretary of the Central Committee. USSR established. Fascist march on Rome; Mussolini becomes Italian Prime Minister. Creation of Czech Fascist Party. In Germany, political assassinations of Erzberger and Rathenau by right-wing extremists. |
| 1923 | Czechoslovak Minister of Finance, Rašín, assassinated. National revolution in Turkey under Kemel Pasha. Munich putsch by Nazis fails. Hyperinflation in Germany. |
| 1924 | First Labour Government in Britain, under Ramsay MacDonald. In Italy, Fascists obtain almost two thirds of votes in election amidst widespread use of violence and intimidation. Murder of Mateotti, openly opposed to Mussolini. Death of Lenin. Breton: Manifesto of Surrealism. |
| 1925 | Hindenburg becomes German Chancellor. ‘Monkey Trial’ (Scopes), Dayton, Tennessee. Eisenstein: Battleship Potemkin. Trotsky’s Literature and Revolution. Berg: Wozzeck. G. B. Shaw awarded Nobel Prize. |
| 1926 | General Strike in Britain. Germany admitted to membership of League of Nations. |
| 1927 | Socialist riots in Vienna following acquittal of Nazis for political murder. Leon Trotsky expelled from Communist Party. World economic crisis. Lindbergh’s solo Atlantic flight. Invention of cinema sound. |
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