Max Brod
Bohemian-Israeli author, composer, and journalist (1884-1968) · Israel · Writers · Died at 84
Max Brod is read about 468 times a day, in 53 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?He was told to burn everything. Franz Kafka's literary executor did the opposite - and by refusing that deathbed instruction, Max Brod turned his obscure friend into one of the most read writers of the twentieth century.
A life in dates
Also in Deutsch
Photos 8
Max Brod v roce 1914.jpg?width=1200)
Max Brod (1965)_op_Schiphol%2C_Bestanddeelnr_918-1629.jpg?width=1200)
Aankomst Max Brod (schrijver) op Schiphol, Bestanddeelnr 918-1629_op_Schiphol%2C_Max_Brod%2C_Bestanddeelnr_918-1630.jpg?width=1200)
Aankomst Max Brod (schrijver) op Schiphol, Max Brod, Bestanddeelnr 918-1630_op_Schiphol%2C_Max_Brod%2C_Bestanddeelnr_918-1631.jpg?width=1200)
Aankomst Max Brod (schrijver) op Schiphol, Max Brod, Bestanddeelnr 918-1631
Bronze plaque commemorating Max Brod, Prague
Bronze plaque which commemorates Max Brod, Prague
Buchdenkmal-marktplatz-bonn-brodIn their own words 1
, After years of trial and error Franz Kafka] has at last found the only diet that suits him, the vegetarian one.
Awards
In their orbit 2
About this person
Born in Prague on 27 May 1884, Brod was a German-speaking Czech who built a career as a novelist, composer, and journalist - prolific, respected, now mostly unread. His real mark came through friendship: when Franz Kafka died and left instructions for Brod to destroy his unpublished manuscripts, Brod ignored him and published the lot instead. In 1939, as the Nazis took Prague, he fled to Mandatory Palestine with a suitcase full of Kafka's papers - notes, diaries, sketches, many never meant for light. He spent the rest of his life in Israel, writing, promoting the composer Leoš Janáček, and serving as Kafka's biographer until his death on 20 December 1968.
In common with Max
Fritz KortnerAlso in The Woman One Longs For (1929)
Curtis BernhardtAlso in The Woman One Longs For (1929)
Oskar SimaAlso in The Woman One Longs For (1929)
Herta MüllerBoth received Honorary Award of the Heinrich Heine Society
Martin WalserBoth received Honorary Award of the Heinrich Heine Society
Marcel Reich-RanickiBoth received Honorary Award of the Heinrich Heine SocietyFame.am measures public visibility signals. It does not measure human value, talent, morality, or credibility.