Die Sorge des Hausvaters

by Franz Kafka

Die Sorge des Hausvaters ist eine kurze Erzählung von Franz Kafka, die 1920 im Band Ein Landarzt erschien.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, German Literature

4 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.

Reviews

[Jesica Sabrina Canto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es interesante, genera curiosidad, lo entiendo como una metáfora del sentimiento de inquietud que a veces está presente sin que sepamos el motivo.

[Mateo R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuento corto críptico y atmosférico. Leído para poder entender el capítulo final de Nadie muere del todo en Praga de Susana Tampieri. Ahora tengo curiosidad por conocer la versión borgeana en El libro de los seres imaginarios.

[Jenny B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Angst, etwas ohne erkennbaren Sinn könnte etwas Sinnhaftes überdauern, was widerum die Sinnhaftigkeit des Sinnhaften in Frage stellt. Wie Wertigkeit und Dauerhaftigkeit in Verbindung stehen, wird nicht plausibel gemacht.

Aber der Name "Odradek" ist ein echter Banger.

[Emi · Rating 4 out of 5]

what. the. hell.

[Nicté Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mmmm, pareciera que es sobre la cosificación... para cosificar algo antes tuvo que tener la cualidad de ser vivo y cierta relevancia, por eso siento que es sobre "algo" que ya no la tiene del todo, no sé! Pero Kafka.... Uf! tan pocas lineas e imaginarse uno tanto! Qué lujo!

[Johanna Encke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eine kurze Geschichte, die wie ein blitzartiger Albtraum wirkt.

Odradek: rätselhafte und dingartige Figur mit Charakter eines kleinen Jungen (aus dem Prosatext die Sorge des Hausvaters)
Aussehen: sternartige Zwirnspule
Die Figur hat keinen Zweck, sie ist sinnlos, aber in sich abgeschlossen.
Sie hält sich im Dachboden, in Fluren, in Treppenhäusern auf.
Eine Unterhaltung mit ihm ist wie eine Unterhaltung mit einem Kind. Er lacht ein raschelhaftes Lachen.
Kafka fragt sich: kann die Figur sterben? Alles was stirbt, hat vorher eine Tätigkeit gehabt, Odradek nicht. Wird er noch anwesend sein bei seinen Kindern und seinen Kindeskindern?
Schmerzliche Vorstellung, dass Odradek Kafka überleben wird.

Meine Interpretation: Man versucht ein Leben mit Sinn zu führen, damit es sich gelohnt hat zu leben und man beispielsweise durch seine Kunst weiterlebt. Man ist darüber frustriert, wenn etwas ohne Zweck schafft zu überleben, wenn man selber daran scheitert.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

"En vano me pregunto qué será de él. ¿Acaso puede morir? Todo lo que muere debe haber tenido alguna razón de ser, alguna clase de actividad que lo ha desgastado. Y éste no es el caso de Odradek. ¿Acaso rodará algún día por la escalera, arrastrando unos hilos ante los pies de mis hijos y de los hijos de mis hijos? No parece que haga mal a nadie; pero casi me resulta dolorosa la idea de que me pueda sobrevivir."

[dary10 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Describe a Odradek como algo incomprensible, ilógico, que no encaja en ninguna categoría conocida. Refleja la angustia humana ante lo absurdo, ante lo que no podemos controlar o entender, pero que sigue existiendo.

[Mohammed Algarawi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is legitimately terrifying.

[Mikah · Rating 5 out of 5]

cant even articulate myself properly on how i feel about this

[Elif · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kafka spielt hier interessant mit den Leser*innen

[Juana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y once hijos

[Sofía Casal · Rating 3 out of 5]

no entendí la mitad pero estuvo lindo. tuve que buscar una imagen del Odradek porque me costó imaginarme lo que describía; ya con eso en mente le ví otro sentido y me gustó más.

[Slambus · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4/5

[Pedro Ovejero · Rating 4 out of 5]

kafka será un gran amigo

[oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

love that guy

[Fernanda M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las preocupaciones que a veces alguien siente sin razón alguna.

[Absrobust · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most impressive short story of Franz Kafka. The haunting thought of the "thing" Odradek to outlive a human being is reflecting our deepest fears...

[Fer Merced · Rating 2 out of 5]

"La idea de que me sobreviva, casi me resulta dolorosa"

[Lennart Albrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

beste kafka jemals