Editing Franz Kafka (section)

=== Early life ===
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| footer            = Franz Kafka's parents, Hermann and Julie Kafka
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Kafka was born near the [[Old Town Square]] in Prague,<!-- next to the Church of St Nicholas --> then part of the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]]. His family were German-speaking middle-class [[Ashkenazi Jews]]. His father, Hermann Kafka (1854–1931), was the fourth child of Jakob Kafka,{{sfn|Gilman|2005|pp=20–21}}{{sfn|Northey|1997|pp=8–10}} a {{lang|he-Latn|shochet}} or [[Shechita|ritual slaughterer]] in [[Osek (Strakonice District)|Osek]], a Czech village with a large Jewish population located near [[Strakonice]] in southern Bohemia.{{sfn|Kohoutikriz|2011}} Hermann brought the Kafka family to Prague. After working as a travelling sales representative, he eventually became a fashion retailer who employed up to 15 people and used the image of a [[Western jackdaw|jackdaw]] ({{lang|cs|kavka}} in Czech, pronounced and colloquially written as ''kafka'') as his business logo.{{sfn|Brod|1960|pp=3–5}} Kafka's mother, Julie (1856–1934), was the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a prosperous retail merchant in [[Poděbrady]],{{sfn|Northey|1997|p=92}} and was better educated than her husband.{{sfn|Gilman|2005|pp=20–21}}

Kafka's parents, from traditional Jewish society, spoke German replete with influences from their native [[Yiddish]]; their children, raised in an acculturated environment, spoke [[Standard German]].{{sfn|Gray|2005|pp=147–148}} Hermann and Julie had six children, of whom Franz was the eldest.{{sfn|Hamalian|1974|p=3}} Franz's two brothers, Georg and Heinrich, died in infancy before Franz was seven; his three sisters were Gabriele ("Elli") (1889–1942), [[Valli Kafka|Valerie]] ("Valli") (1890–1942) and [[Ottla Kafka|Ottilie]] ("Ottla") (1892–1943). All three were murdered in [[the Holocaust]] of [[World War II]]. Valli was deported to the [[Łódź Ghetto]] in [[occupied Poland]] in 1942, but that is the last documentation of her; it is assumed she did not survive the war. Ottilie was Kafka's favourite sister.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Metamorphosis|last=Kafka|first=Franz|publisher=Simon and Schuster Paperbacks|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4165-9968-5|location=New York|page=ix|ref=none}}</ref>

Hermann is described by Kafka scholar and translator [[Stanley Corngold]] as a "huge, selfish, overbearing businessman"{{sfn|Corngold|1972|pp=xii, 11}} and by Franz Kafka as "a true Kafka in strength, health, appetite, loudness of voice, eloquence, self-satisfaction, worldly dominance, endurance, presence of mind, knowledge of human nature, a certain way of doing things on a grand scale, of course also with all the defects and weaknesses that go with these advantages and into which your temperament and sometimes your hot temper drive you".{{sfn|Kafka-Franz, Father|2012}} On business days, both parents were absent from the home, with Julie Kafka working as many as 12&nbsp;hours each day helping to manage the family business. Consequently, Kafka's childhood was somewhat lonely,{{sfn|Brod|1960|p=9}} and the children were reared largely by a series of governesses and servants. Kafka's troubled relationship<!-- abrupt shift to troubled relationship here; suggest moving down later b/c more to do with later life --><!-- – the father issues have roots in early life, which is why it was put here – --> with his father is evident in his {{lang|de|[[Brief an den Vater]]}} (''Letter to His Father'') of more than 100&nbsp;pages, in which he complains of being profoundly affected by his father's authoritarian and demanding character;{{sfn|Brod|1960|pp=15–16}} his mother, in contrast, was quiet and shy.{{sfn|Brod|1960|pp=19–20}} The dominating figure of Kafka's father had a significant influence on Kafka's writing.{{sfn|Brod|1960|pp=15, 17, 22–23}}

The Kafka family had a servant girl living with them in a cramped apartment.{{sfn|Stach|2005|p=[https://archive.org/details/kafkadecisiveyea00stac/page/22/mode/2up 22]}} Franz's room was often cold. In November 1913, the family moved into a bigger apartment, although Ellie and Valli had married and moved out of the first apartment. In early August 1914, just after World War I began, the sisters did not know where their husbands were in the military and moved back in with the family in this larger apartment. Both Ellie and Valli also had children. Franz at age 31 moved into Valli's former apartment, quiet by contrast, and lived by himself for the first time.{{sfn|Stach|2005|pp=[https://archive.org/details/kafkadecisiveyea00stac/page/390/mode/2up 390–391], [https://archive.org/details/kafkadecisiveyea00stac/page/462/mode/2up 462–463]}}