Editing Franz Kafka (section)

=== Political views ===

Before World War&nbsp;I,{{sfn|Brod|1960|p=86}} Kafka attended several meetings of the ''Klub mladých'', a Czech anarchist, [[anti-militarist]], and [[anti-clerical]] organization.{{sfn|Lib.com|2008}} [[Hugo Bergmann]], who attended the same elementary and high schools as Kafka, fell out with Kafka during their last academic year (1900–1901) because "[Kafka's] socialism and my [[Zionism]] were much too strident".{{sfn|Bergman|1969|p=8}}{{sfn|Bruce|2007|p=17}} Bergmann said: "Franz became a socialist, I became a Zionist in 1898. The synthesis of Zionism and socialism did not yet exist."{{sfn|Bruce|2007|p=17}} Bergmann claims that Kafka wore a [[red carnation]] to school to show his support for [[socialism]].{{sfn|Bruce|2007|p=17}} In one diary entry, Kafka made reference to the influential anarchist philosopher [[Peter Kropotkin]]: "Don't forget Kropotkin!"{{sfn|Preece|2001|p=131}}<!-- He later stated, regarding the Czech anarchists: "They all sought thanklessly to realize human happiness. I understood them. But&nbsp;... I was unable to continue marching alongside them for long".{{sfn|Janouch|1998|pp=118–119}}{{failed verification|date=February 2013}} -->

During the communist era, the legacy of Kafka's work for [[Eastern Bloc]] socialism was hotly debated. Opinions ranged from the notion that he satirised the bureaucratic bungling of a crumbling [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], to the belief that he embodied the rise of socialism.{{sfn|Hughes|1986|pp=248–249}} A further key point was [[Marx's theory of alienation]]. While the orthodox position was that Kafka's depictions of alienation were no longer relevant for a society that had supposedly eliminated alienation, a 1963 conference held in [[Liblice]], Czechoslovakia, on the eightieth anniversary of his birth, reassessed the importance of Kafka's portrayal of bureaucracy.{{sfn|Bathrick|1995|pp=67–70}} Whether Kafka was a political writer is still an issue of debate.{{sfn|Socialist Worker|2007}}