One Hundred Years Since the Death of Franz Kafka: The Insurance Agent Who Became One of the Greatest Writers in Human History
Jun 19, 2024
By: Itzik Simon, CEO / Leading Agency for Construction Insurance
Less than a year passed from the moment two agents appeared at the apartment of Citizen K., a senior bank clerk in Prague, until he was executed in the streets of the city, his last words being “like a dog.” All this happened without him knowing the charges against him or even the nature of the judicial system judging him, which was not the country’s regular court system.
The novel The Trial, one of the most important works of the 20th century, is the classic Kafkaesque story, centered on the powerless individual facing systems he has no real chance of overcoming.
Citizen K. tried to resist, but despite warnings from people he encountered along the way, his only chance was to “buy time,” because defeat against the bureaucratic machinery was inevitable.
Who was Franz Kafka, and how did he lead a dual life as an insurance agent by day and a celebrated writer by night?
This week, the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv hosted a conference marking 100 years since the death of the revered Czech-Jewish author.
With your permission, I will use the platform granted to me in Polisa magazine to shed light on one of the elements that, in my view, shaped Kafka’s brilliant yet somber writing: his work as a gray insurance agent.
Franz Kafka, a man with an Oedipal complex, without a wife or children, requested in his will that his close friend Max Brod burn all of his writings. Fortunately for us, Brod did exactly the opposite. Against Kafka’s explicit instructions, he chose to publish them and reveal Kafka to the world. “He knew very well that I would not follow his will,” Brod later explained.
Work accidents in quarries because workers drink brandy?
Kafka was born into a secular Jewish family at the end of the 19th century. After completing his law studies at university, he began working at the well-known Italian insurance company Assicurazioni Generali. The company, which still exists today, preserves Kafka’s résumé in its archives, but not only that—it also keeps the resignation letter in which Kafka announced that he was leaving due to illness. This decision displeased the head of the company’s Human Resources Department, who was outraged by Kafka’s resignation and questioned the reason he gave for leaving his post.
Kafka’s next professional station was the position he held for about 20 years until his death (from tuberculosis at the young age of 40), at a governmental company focused on workers’ compensation for occupational accidents. It appears that during his work there, Kafka implemented the concept of the preventive insurance agent, inventing a safety helmet for civilian workers (according to Professor of Management Peter Drucker). Another interesting curiosity is that Kafka was one of only two Jewish employees in the company, and thanks to his exceptional abilities, he received multiple promotions and honors.
Alongside his revolutionary books published posthumously, many researchers have also examined Kafka’s professional work to shed light on his personality. Numerous studies highlight that Kafka’s sense of justice accompanied him in his work at the governmental company. In the documents he signed, his criticism of employers who harmed insured workers stood out—sometimes by misclassifying risk or attempting to conceal fraudulent acts by employees injured in accidents. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)
There is no doubt that the motifs behind every “Kafkaesque story,” a phrase now used not only for Kafka’s own works but also for those of others, were in part born during his long hours in the oppressive world of insurance. Just as in a Kafkaesque story, in the insurance world, the individual often finds themselves facing bureaucratic systems heavy with teeth and money—systems that seem impossible to beat, and in the “best case,” are only willing to negotiate a settlement of surrender.
It is fascinating to see the dual life of the artist, who at night would write about flying Dutchmen lost at sea or the endless, eternal construction of the Great Wall of China, and by day was “forced” to produce dry documents dealing with topics such as: quarry owners who paid their workers in alcohol, resulting in occupational accidents while cleaning chimneys intoxicated. A true story.
Some, myself included, would argue that cross-referencing this material with Kafka’s iconic books, such as The Castle or The Trial, helps to understand the nature of the “Kafkaesque story”: the human act lost in a world of gray bureaucracy and despair.
Another good example of the difficulty of the little man in the face of great forces is given in Kafka's last book, "The Castle." Again, it's a hero named K., but this time we get a "land surveyor" who is invited to a small village that is constantly enveloped in a dark fog.
The problem is that no one knows why K. was invited to the place because the village has no need for land surveyors. Instead of earning a decent living in the job for which he was called, K. finds himself facing an obscure and meaningless bureaucracy that places him in the role of assistant custodian of the local school, without him understanding anything in the field.
The local bureaucracy that exists in that "castle" is run by a hidden count who lives on a hill above the village. The villagers who meet K. feel awe for the castle's inhabitants, although they have no idea what the roles of these disappeared noblemen are. The actions of the government remain shrouded in darkness and the villagers try to explain them in long monologues that contradict each other.
An interesting thing about "The Castle" is that it is a book in which not only K. is immersed in the Kafkaesque atmosphere, but also the reader himself. This is in light of the fact that the author did not have time to write the ending, but only told his good friend Max Brod, who inherited his writings, that Mr. K. would accept the appointment from the castle only after he died of exhaustion. Kafka at his best.
The bureaucracy will only approve the appointment after the person dies.
Between Kafka and the world of insurance
From Prague at the beginning of the 20th century to Israel in the 21st century, the world has progressed, and the insurance industry is far more transparent and understandable. Yet, there are still sometimes parallels between insurance files and Kafkaesque stories.
Even today, the average policyholder has almost no ability to navigate alone through the clauses and sub-clauses of insurance policies, which frequently conflict with dynamic and flexible case law.
In our insurance agency, which specializes in construction insurance, we can speak to this from firsthand experience. Often, our role is to guide the insured through the policies and transform a “Kafkaesque” story into a simple, clear text with a beginning, middle, and end.
Kafka, who saw the difficulty of the insured in facing the power and complexity of the insurance industry, and who was himself an outstanding employee, reflected this experience in the novels and short stories he wrote. These iconic texts, published posthumously, became cornerstones of literature and influenced Western thought profoundly.
It is certainly a source of pride for us as insurance agents, and it is intriguing to wonder if among us walks the next Kafka—an insurance agent by day, a writer in the shadows of the night.
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