The lock

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The castle is one of Franz Kafka's three unfinished novels , along with Der Verschollene (also known as America ) and The Trial . The work, created in 1922, was published posthumously by Max Brod in 1926 . It describes the futile struggle of the surveyor K. for recognition of his professional and private existence by a mysterious castle and its representatives.

First edition by Kurt Wolff Verlag 1926
Original paperback from the first printing in 1926

action

At the beginning of the novel fragment, the protagonist K. arrives in a wintry village that belongs to the rule of a castle. When asked if he has a permit to stay, he declares that he is the appointed surveyor . As can be seen from a conversation with the village chief, the appointment of a surveyor was discussed, but it remains unclear whether K.'s appointment actually took place. He is allowed to stay that way, but only work temporarily as a school servant.

The castle with its administration seems to control every single one of the inhabitants through a huge, opaque bureaucratic apparatus and thereby remain aloof and inaccessible. Exposed to an intangible threatening hierarchy, at the top of which are the officials of the castle, the life of the villagers turns out to be depressing. If the regulations are exceeded, there is a supposedly bad threat. However, the castle never imposes any recognizable sanctions. All of K's efforts are directed towards approaching the castle. But all efforts fail. The events between the village and the castle and the submissive behavior of the villagers remain incomprehensible to him.

At first full of ambition and confidence, K. feels increasingly powerless in the face of the opacity of the system in which he finds himself. At the end there is a certain rapprochement with the villagers. After several conversations with various women from the village, the novel breaks off.

Emergence

After years of writing difficulties, Kafka started with the novel The Castle in February 1922 during a recreational stay in the Giant Mountains in Spindleruv Mlyn, probably after a health breakdown . In March he presented what he had created to his friend Max Brod. In Plan , Kafka spent the summer to relax further in West Bohemia , where he continued the novel. On July 1, 1922, he was finally retired because he was no longer able to work. In the autumn he had to go back to Prague, health problems increased. After this interruption, Kafka put the fragment of the novel aside for good.

In Kafka's autobiographical writings there are few references to the genesis of the castle novel.

Kafka's notes do not provide any information about suggestions from films. What is striking, however, are the similarities with the Murnau film Nosferatu , which was made in 1921 and premiered on March 4, 1922 in Berlin. The film also shows a castle with mysterious processes to which a person seeks access from outside. Kafka's health resort Matlarenau (Matliary) in the High Tatras was not far from the Arwaburg (Oravský hrad), which was the scene of the film events and which has striking similarities with the castle described in the novel.

content

Arrivals

In the first chapter, the protagonist K. reaches a poor village near a count's castle on a winter evening. He spends the night in the village inn, the Brückenhof, but is soon woken up by a representative of the castle, who explains that one can only stay in the village with the permission of the castle. K. introduces himself as a surveyor whom Count Westwest had called for. There are two phone calls to the lock. In the first, K's appointment is disputed from there, but in the second, however, it appears to be confirmed, so that K. is allowed to stay. In the morning K. tries to go to the castle; but inexplicably he cannot approach it and must turn back. The villagers treat him with distance and distrust.

The stay in the village

In the further course, the attempts to legitimize himself as a count's employee through the castle become K's only purpose in life. The castle sends him two helpers, allegedly to "cheer him up", as he only learns later. The messenger Barnabas twice hands him letters from senior official Klamm, which seem benevolent but do not correspond to reality. Klamm becomes the central figure in K's thinking. He meets the bar girl Frieda, the alleged lover of Klamm, who immediately draws him into an erotic relationship, but which soon dissolves.

There is a conversation with the village headman, who gives K. an inkling of the huge, chaotic bureaucracy that dominates the village and castle. The processes appear to be very thorough, excruciatingly cumbersome and yet the result is often random. The statements of the village headman lead K. to assume that his appeal was based on a letter that was misdirected many years ago. As a surveyor you have no work for K. in the village. The village chief employs K. as a school clerk against the teacher's will. K. accepts this position. He, Frieda and the assistants who keep following him live briefly in one of the two classrooms, which also has gymnastics equipment. The scenes here are grotesque and especially degrading for K. The teacher exposes K. in front of the students and even beats him. When there was an argument with the teacher, K. chased his assistants away in a fit of rage.

All of K's endeavors are aimed at gaining access to Klamm. He lies in wait for him in vain. He had long conversations with various women who revealed their own situation to him and at the same time told him how ignorant he was about the conditions in the castle. The Brückenhof landlady confesses to him that she, too, was Klamm's lover and that she still fell for him. The messenger's sisters, Olga and Amalia, give an insight into the mechanism of village life. Amalia had refused to accept an obscene offer from the high castle official Sortini and tore up his letter before the eyes of the delivering messenger. Since then, the whole family has been despised and isolated by the villagers. But there was no reaction from the castle.

In the manor

The manor house is the guest house in which the lords of the castle work temporarily, stay overnight and receive parties. It was here that K. had met Frieda. After K. tried in vain to meet Klamm in the courtyard of the Herrenhof, the authorities here access K. directly for the first time, in the form of Klamm's village secretary Momus. He would like to draw up a record of K's appearance in the Brückenhof. K. is not very accessible, and when he learns that Klamm will certainly not read these minutes, he completely refuses to participate.

The plot seems to take a turn when K. is called to the secretary of a castle official in Erlanger one night in the Herrenhof. He chooses the wrong door and so happens to meet an officer named Bürgel, who seems accessible for K's wishes, since he lacks work and he is almost waiting for a task. However, K. is not able to take advantage of this opportunity, as he is seized by a leaden tiredness in the course of the conversation and falls asleep. Later it also turns out that Bürgel has no influence. Not only is he not responsible, his boss has also been sidelined, his word has no weight. Conclusion: “There are things that fail because of nothing else than themselves.” When Erlanger calls K. over shortly before he leaves, he tells him to let Frieda work again in the bar in the Herrenhof so that Klamm doesn't stop had to get used to a different serving girl. Afterwards, K. experiences the distribution of files to the officials in the Herrenhof in a particularly bizarre scene, which begins at 5 a.m. and reveals how often files are mixed up, which leads to violent disputes between officials and servants about the files.

Frieda has meanwhile decided to leave K. and go back to work in the Herrenhof. K. tries to stop them. But now she seems to prefer Jeremias, one of the assistants she knew from her childhood, to K. Finally there is a lengthy conversation between K and Pepi, Frieda's temporary successor in the bar, who explains to him that Frieda only used it.

The end

After K.'s puzzling conversation with the landlady about her clothes, the fragment breaks off here. There are still several individual passages and deleted passages from the novel, such as a passage about the encounter with the carter Gerstäcker or with his mother. The description of Gerstäcker's room, in which his mother is reading a book, breaks off in the middle of the sentence and represents the end of the novel fragment: “She gave K. the trembling hand and let him sit down next to her, she spoke with great effort, one had trouble to understand her, but what she said "

A conclusion written by Kafka himself does not exist, but it was reconstructed by Max Brod from the author's personal stories. On the seventh day, K. was supposed to die of physical and mental exhaustion, while at the same time the castle granted him a right of residence for the sake of grace due to his eager and always flawless application and K. would have achieved a partial victory in his endeavors.

Text analysis with personal description

Narrative perspective and structure

The novel is written in the " Er-Form ", although the narrator at least at the beginning expresses himself largely from the direct point of view of the main character. This does not apply to the Bürgel scene in which K. sleeps. (Not even for Max Brod's intended end through K.'s death.) On the other hand, K. himself hides some things from the reader, particularly recognizable in the passages in the text that suggest K.'s ambiguity, for example when K. says that he should have sneaked in unobtrusively should. The result is an ironically broken narrative perspective. In the course of the novel, the parallel view of K. and the reader is increasingly lost, the reader experiences a relativization and distancing, and a "seemed" inserted into the sentences appears again and again .

The structure of the novel varies somewhat depending on the version. The Brod version is divided into 20 untitled chapters. Only the fifteenth chapter, which describes the circumstances of the Barnabas family, is subdivided into itself (Amalia's secret / Amalia's punishment / petitions / Olga's plans). The Pasley edition is divided into 25 chapters, 19 of which are titled.

A plot is developed only in the initial chapters. The progressive chapters, on the other hand, are characterized by long, circular conversations. The causal process is increasingly lost.

In addition to the depressing ones, the novel has many bizarre and comical passages, but it is precisely these that often signal the hopelessness of the situation, so the novel can also be seen as a "black satire". Through blurring, illogical references to place and time and material objects that have become strangely independent, a strongly surreal moment is also represented.

As a stylistic device, no “thriller” moments of tension or physical horror as in Der Trial or In der Strafkolonie are used, but rather a “comprehensive description of an incomprehensible persistence that does not lead to the goal”, as Reiner Stach puts it.

The person K.

K. is a little explained or characterized phenomenon. At the beginning he talks about leaving his wife and child in the distant homeland. This is no longer mentioned in the marriage plans with Frieda. His demeanor, his keenly analyzing manner of speaking, his exposure of the old-fashioned clothes of the landlady of the manor, suggest that K. comes from a background other than those of a village. In the first notes on the novel, which Kafka later rejected, the surveyor is not portrayed as a poor wanderer, but as a distinguished guest, for whom the prince's room in the inn is held ready. The whole village was obviously waiting for him, which aroused his displeasure and distrust.

Whether or not K. is really a surveyor cannot be clearly deduced from the fragment of the novel. Max Brod uses the phrase "the alleged land surveyor" in his epilogue to the novel. The further course of the novel raises doubts about K's credibility, especially about his professional status. It is z. B. The existence of the two assistants from his previous working life, for whom he initially actually or apparently waited and who would legitimize him as a surveyor, is not mentioned later. His consideration, perhaps as a “simple wanderer” - as he once put it - to find easier access shows helplessness, but also cunning. In the conversation with the landlady at the end of the novel, she accuses him of not telling the truth. His answer: “You don't say it either.” So he's lying.

The term "land surveyor" can also be interpreted linguistically in connection with "be measured" and "tramp".

K. is characterized exclusively by his struggle to get closer to the castle and to legitimize his existence there. Again and again in the text in K's thinking there are terms of the fight with and against the lock. The lock does not react to this. K. is also characterized by a memory from his youth when he climbed a high wall as a boy. In a dream sequence he fights victoriously against a secretary in the form of a naked Greek god. These dreams of success have no place in the reality that is frustrating for K.

For a long time, his behavior towards the villagers appeared inaccessible, almost arrogant. At first he is courageous and hopes to realize his wish through targeted actions. Gradually he realizes the powerful suction effect and at the same time the inaccessibility of the castle. In the end he is tired and depressed because of the futility of his attempts, but he gradually opens up to the villagers, as he gets an idea of ​​what moves them.

K. corresponds with the figure of the country man from Kafka's doorkeeper legend, Before the Law , who does not get access to the law and so senselessly waits until death.

The villagers

They appear poor and limited. Your statements about the castle are mostly mysterious or enigmatic and characterized by fear or resignation. All processes around the castle are meticulously observed and interpreted. Real effects of the castle on the villagers are barely discernible, except that the castle officials make use of the women's love services. With the exception of Amalia, this happens with consent (Frieda), sometimes with longing (landlady, Pepi), as it is a possibility to approach the castle. For K. himself, the women are only interesting as a hope of access to the castle.

The women are described more or less like prostitutes , but appear in a modern perspective. They fascinate their surroundings not with beauty, but with mental strength. In this way the matronly and impressive bridge landlady Gardena, K. tries to give an idea of ​​the village connections with the castle; but he is - at least initially - unwilling to open up to her explanations.

The women appear superior and react individually to the offers of the officials. Reiner Stach puts it this way: "In the reflection of power they gain their own mysterious dignity that makes them irresistible for the surveyor".

Amalia, however, eludes this erotic atmosphere and rejects the suggestion of the official Sortini. The village is appalled by Amalia's refusal. Without the castle intervening in any way, the village community, in advance and vicarious obedience, executes the punishment of isolation on Amalia and her family. Amalia, however, is unbroken in her introspective manner.

The assistants, the messenger Barnabas and the village chief are people from the village who have access to the castle. The assistants are useless, Chaplinesque appearances that K. finally drives away. He later learns that the official Galatians on behalf of Klamm had sent him these assistants " to amuse him a little ". The reader may wonder if that was their only function. Or should you keep an eye on K.? In the further course, Frieda turns to one of the assistants, disappointed by K.

The village chief and the messenger describe the processes in the castle from their point of view. The images offered by this gigantic administration are oppressive. At the same time, however, the bizarre civil servants and absurd, not logically explainable processes are described, so that a picture of ridiculousness emerges. The people who act between the village and the castle are characterized by honest efforts in the performance of their service. The overly extensive system of the lock, which pervades everything and is at the same time inaccessible, means that their restless activity remains ineffective.

It is significant how K's view of these people (Frieda, Barnabas, the assistants) changes. At first they appear young, agile and appealing to him, but since they cannot help him get closer to the castle, they also become visually unattractive for him.

The castle and its representatives

The castle as a building is by no means described as representative and castle-like, but rather as ancient and shabby. It consists of numerous individual structures and contains an incalculable number of corridors and rooms that are teeming with people and seem to be narrow rather than grand. K. feels it as something insane. To him, the tower looks like a housemate breaking out of the roof, otherwise hidden.

While the villagers constantly fear reprisals from the castle, no unfriendly measures are taken from there in the course of the story. Except for Sortini's failure, the representatives of the castle are not even portrayed as malicious, but rather as trying. A control is carried out in the most intimate way (interrogation, the assistants), but this does not reveal any negative consequences. The two letters from the castle to K. remain indefinite, only Erlanger's instructions are specific.

Although it is envisaged that residents can raise their concerns in the “party”, it is not clear how this should be done as the responsibilities are unknown. Barnabas and his parents, like K., wear themselves down by trying to bring their concerns to the authorities without knowing where to turn. It is precisely this inaccessibility that seems to turn the castle and its representatives into objects of desire. Alfred Schmidt formulates as follows: "It is the fascination of the dependent, unfree, surrendered in relation to the superior power that keeps itself at a distant distance, but renounces the exercise of its power and destruction."

The bureaucratic processes that emanate from the castle appear like an out of control, self-contained, huge maelstrom that does not perceive the outside world. The u. a. through the unsuccessful search for the decision to order a surveyor from the village chief, which leads to grotesque chaos.

K. cannot get closer to the castle because the path is not where it should be. The officials constantly use different routes to travel between the castle and the village according to unrecognizable rules. Telephone lines between the castle and the village are only maintained in appearance. Usually you only hear a mysterious hum when you call the lock, which is explained as the mixture of all the official voices on the phone. If someone picks up the phone and gives answers, it is just a joke.

The officials, in their tiredness caused by day and night work, which partly compels them to receive the parties in bed, and their simultaneous penetration by their great task are ultimately ridiculous phenomena. On the one hand, you make an effort, want to be allocated a large number of files, but, on the other hand, avoid reality. They hide and shy away from contact with the villagers. They cannot articulate their private needs other than foully (Sortini) and satisfy them by taking advantage of the villagers (Klamm). But since it surrounds the aura of the castle, it lifts it far beyond this mundane classification. They appear fascinating and their actual appearance is hardly tangible. This is especially true for Klamm, the name of which is associated with "gorge", "abyss", but also "cling" or "anxious".

The nightly party traffic of the officials is also known as "night interrogation". This always takes place in the Herrenhof and has "the purpose of eavesdropping on parties, the sight of which would be unbearable for the gentlemen by day, quickly, at night, with artificial light, with the possibility of forgetting all ugliness in sleep immediately after the interrogation" . However, one may only appear for the night interrogation after a summons and must leave the place immediately after the hearing. However, it is not clear what the purpose of these night interrogations is or whether they are effective at all.

The lord of the castle is also surrounded by a mysterious aura. At first he is only referred to as "Graf" or "Graf Westwest". In the further course of the novel, however, he is no longer discussed.

Interpretative approaches

Biographical references

A real example of the castle could be the Hradschin in Prague, in the immediate vicinity of which Kafka himself lived for some time. Other models are seen in Nosferatu Castle in the High Tatras, in Wallensteins Castle in Friedland, or in the one in the village of Wossek, from which Kafka's father came. The palatial building of Kafka's employer, the Prague workers' accident insurance, in which hundreds of thousands of files had to be processed, is said to have been the godfather.

Personal connections are seen between the fictional character Frieda and Kafka's former girlfriend Milena Jesenská . The Inn "manor" is simultaneously (called by the literati as "Hurenhof") a cafe in Vienna, in which Milena's husband Ernst Polak with Franz Werfel , Otto Pick , Egon Erwin Kisch and Otto Gross used to meet. Kafka's favorite sister Ottla can be discovered in Barnabas' sister Olga. The simple, depressed family of Barnabas points to Kafka's second fiancée Julie Wohryzek and her poor family.

According to Reiner Stach, however, it is questionable "whether one can really see the land surveyor K. as Kafka's deputy, so to speak as a Kafka doll on which the fate of its inventor is being drilled in a morality-like manner".

Professionally, Kafka cannot be compared with K., on the contrary, his secure job as a lawyer in a high position in the workers' accident insurance is similar to the position of the higher officials at the castle. Significantly, this huge insurance also resided in a palatial building in Prague. Determination and practical directional guidance emerge in Kafka's surviving working texts. He has obviously mastered the bureaucracy on a high level, in contrast to his novel heroes, who, as Peter-André Alt puts it, “stand with resigned passivity in front of the organizational labyrinths of the bureaucracy”.

Nevertheless, K.'s unsettling situation reflects Kafka's own point of view, which only partially or completely disagreed with his reality.

Interpretative approaches

A fundamental overall interpretation cannot be made, so only individual aspects are presented here.

K's view of the invisible castle “into the apparent emptiness”, already described in the first section of the text of the novel, is unfolded, varied and interpreted in the course of the further novel. All further efforts by K are in vain. Nobody gets through the walls of the castle, neither by persistent waiting nor by challenge to battle, as the surveyor tried - at least at the beginning. The final instance exists, but it remains relentlessly remote, and so the crucial question of whether it is also hostile or even evil is pure conjecture. In the existentialist interpretation of Albert Camus , K.'s unsuccessful attempt to approach the castle stands for the legitimate but unsuccessful search for meaning (or the search for any transcendence) in a meaningless world.

The castle appears like a changeable psychic system. The administration has taken on features of a mysterious landscape of the soul, the labyrinthine structure of which is both attractive and frightening. With Kafka, the bureaucracy issue can also be seen as a metaphor for the impossibility of a rational-empirical mastery of reality.

The owner of the castle, Count Westwest, who is only briefly mentioned at the beginning and then not discussed further, has a special power of association in his name (complete end, beyond the end). It is interpreted as a representative of the death sphere or as the hereafter and overcoming the death sphere.

Existing known interpretations

The associative power of the “castle” can hardly be exhausted. Best known are the interpretative approaches of Max Brod and Theodor W. Adorno . Brod saw it as a theological model, namely the place of divine grace . As a close confidante and administrator of Kafka's estate, he was able to present this with a certain justification. Adorno interpreted the work as a representation of hierarchical and power structures also of future totalitarian systems .

Further interpretations see a black satire on power, arbitrariness and over- bureaucratization of authorities and state apparatus. According to psychoanalytic interpretation, the “castle” could also represent the world of the fathers, which the son tries in vain to conquer.

On the question of what the castle and K's attempts to gain access stand for, various studies have been developed with the help of theoretical approaches that offer valuable insights. But they often suffer from the fact that the authors endeavor to force their insights into an interpretive framework that ultimately lies outside the text of the novel.

reception

  • Kindler's Lexicon (p. 49) on the situation of Barnabas's family: “The innocent ask forgiveness from those who ultimately did them evil. But the request for forgiveness is wisely not echoed: When the authors of evil withdraw, they become the object of servile longing. "
  • Ries (p. 139): "The fascination that emanates from the castle, however, lies not only in the old castle myths, but above all in the emptiness of its identity, its merely mirror-like reality for the viewer."
  • Fingerhut (p. 186): "In the novels The Castle and the Trial , the answer to the (meaning) question of truth and law is subordinate to the question of the language regulations and communication deficits."
  • Alt (p. 594): “The winter landscape becomes a symbol for the amorphous order in which K. gets lost. The space through which the protagonist crosses has no precise lineaments or structural signals. In the snowstorm he staggered through the alleys marked by the 'effort that just walking caused him'. The tumult is the code of a state of slipping in which K. finds himself during his entire stay. "
  • The castle was included in the ZEIT library of 100 books .

expenditure

This first edition was published posthumously by Max Brod. Brod left out extensive parts of the unfinished novel in order to make it appear more complete, especially the last chapters: The castle ends in the first edition where K. Frieda loses. Among other things, the scene at Bürgel, the distribution of files and K.'s conversation with Pepi are missing.
  • The lock. Roman, S. Fischer , Frankfurt a. M. 1951.
It was only with Max Brod's third, supplemented edition from 1951, that the work found wider distribution in its full scope. Highly acclaimed translations into other languages ​​had already been published beforehand, especially into English and French, but they were all based on the greatly abridged first edition. Brod's second edition from 1935, which was published in Berlin and which was also supplemented by the missing chapters in the first edition, had hardly found distribution due to the National Socialist suppression of Jewish publishers and authors.
  • The lock. Roman, in the version of the manuscript, S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1982, ISBN 3-10-038135-1 .
In 1982 a critical edition appeared in the version of the manuscript, edited by Malcolm Pasley . It is divided somewhat differently than in the Brod editions, and the text also shows certain differences, for example, Kafka's punctuation has been changed significantly by Brod. Paperback editions were also published based on this edition.
  • The lock. In: Franz Kafka: writings, diaries. Critical edition. Edited by Malcolm Pasley, Fischer Taschenbücher, 2002, pp. 7-495, ISBN 3-596-15700-5 .
  • The lock. Historical-critical edition of all manuscripts, prints and typescripts. Edited by Roland Reuss and Peter Staengle. Stroemfeld Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Basel 2018, ISBN 978-3-86600-119-0 .
The edition contains all manuscript pages as a facsimile and as a transcription, structured like the manuscript in six booklets. Accordingly, it contains the “prologue”, which comprises the first three and a half pages of the first issue, as well as the back pages of the sixth issue, which, mostly described from back to front, also contain texts without any content related to the castle novel.

Interpretations

  • Maurice Blanchot : Repetition and Doubling. Note on literature and interpretation. In: Neue Rundschau , issue 2/1988, p. 121 ff.

Secondary literature

in order of appearance

Film adaptations

Other edits

Web links

Wikisource: Das Schloß (first edition 1926)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter-André Alt p. 620
  2. ↑ Peter-André Alt p. 588
  3. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p.591
  4. ^ Literature Knowledge Franz Kafka Carsten Schlingmann Reclam p. 52
  5. ^ Peter-André Alt : Kafka and the film. Beck Verlag 2009 ISBN 978-3-406-58748-1 , p. 161 ff.
  6. ^ Note in Carsten Schlingmann, Literaturwissen Franz Kafka , Reclam, p. 51. See also Pasley edition of 2002, pp. 494–495.
  7. ↑ Schloss-Heft 6, Bl. 36 r , Z. 18 ff.
  8. ↑ Klaus Wagenbach , Kafka , rororo, 1964 p. 130
  9. ↑ Carsten Schnlingmann: Literaturwissenschaf Franz Kafka. Reclam, Stuttgart, p. 56.
  10. ↑ a b c Michael Müller in: Bettina von Jagow, Oliver Jahrhaus (ed.): Kafka manual. Life - work - effect. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, pp. 518-529.
  11. ↑ a b Peter-André Alt, p. 596.
  12. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p. 603.
  13. ↑ Reiner Stach : Kafka. The years of knowledge. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2008, p. 461.
  14. ↑ Reiner Stach: Is that Kafka? , P. 140.
  15. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p. 618
  16. ^ Karlheinz Fingerhut: Kafka for the school. Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-06-102822-6 , p. 190.
  17. ^ Literature Knowledge Franz Kafka Reclam Carsten Schlingmann p. 56
  18. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p.613
  19. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p.614
  20. ↑ Reiner Stach, Kafka: The Years of Knowledge , S. Fischer 2008, ISBN 978-3-10-075119-5 , p. 477.
  21. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p.611
  22. ^ Karlheinz Fingerhut, Kafka for School , 1996, Berlin ISBN 3-06-102822-6 , p. 181.
  23. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p. 592.
  24. ↑ From: Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler, Norbert Winkler: The variety in Kafka's life and work. Vitalis, 2005, ISBN 3-89919-066-1 , p. 235.
  25. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p. 607.
  26. ^ Carsten Schlingmann: Literature Knowledge Franz Kafka. Reclam, p. 57.
  27. ^ Carsten Schlingmann, Literaturwissen Franz Kafka , Reclam, p. 59
  28. ^ Cerstin Urban: Franz Kafka. America, The Trial, The Castle , C. Bange-Verlag, ISBN 3-8044-1679-9
  29. ^ Carsten Schlingmann: Franz Kafka , Reclam-Verlag, ISBN 3-15-015204-6 , p. 57.
  30. ↑ Reiner Stach, Kafka: The Years of Knowledge , S. Fischer, ISBN 978-3-10-075119-5 , p. 480.
  31. ↑ Reiner Stach: Kafka. The years of knowledge , S. Fischer, ISBN 978-3-10-075119-5 , p. 463.
  32. ^ Carsten Schlingmann, Literaturwissen Franz Kafka , Reclam, p. 61
  33. ↑ Peter-André Alt, p. 178
  34. ↑ Reiner Stach: Kafka. The years of knowledge. S. Fischer, ISBN 978-3-10-075119-5 , pp. 461/482.
  35. ↑ Albert Camus, The hope and the absurd in the work of Franz Kafka in Albert Camus: Der Mythos des Sisyphus , German by Vincent von Wroblewsky. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2000, ISBN 978-3-499-22765-3
  36. ↑ Peter-André Alt p. 605
  37. ↑ Kindler's New Literature Lexicon . 1990, p. 50.
  38. ^ Reference to Wilhelm Emrich Franz Kafka from Carsten Schlingmann, Franz Kafka , Reclam-Verlag, ISBN 3-15-015204-6 , p. 59/161
  39. ^ Ingeborg Scholz, Analyzes and Reflections, Franz Kafka , pp. 53, 54
  40. ^ Carsten Schlingmann, literary knowledge : Franz Kafka , Reclam, p. 60
  41. ^ A b c Malcolm Pasley, Nachbemerkung , in: Franz Kafka: Die Romane. In the version of the manuscript , Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1997, pp. 987 ff., ISBN 3-596-13544-3 .
  42. ^ BR radio play Pool - Kafka, Das Schloss .