Felice Bauer

Felice Bauer (18 November 1887 – 15 October 1960) was a fiancée of Franz Kafka, whose letters to her were published as Letters to Felice.

Early life

Felice Bauer was born in Neustadt in Upper Silesia (today Prudnik), into a Jewish family. Her father Carl Bauer was an insurance agent, her mother Anna, née Danziger was the daughter of a local dyer. Felice had four siblings: Else (1883–1952), Ferdinand (called Ferri, 1884–1952), Erna (1885–1978) and Antonie (called Toni, 1892–1918). In 1899 the family moved to Berlin. performance artist Claudia Stevens portrays Felice as she responds to Kafka's letters. The play's text recreates the letters Felice might have written to Franz.

In the 2011 BBC radio play Kafka the Musical, written by Murray Gold, the character Felice was played by Jessica Raine.

In 2022, Czech author Magdaléna Platzová published Život po Kafkovi ("Life after Kafka"), a biographical novel about Bauer's life in the United States.

Literature

Elias Canetti: , Leipzig, Reclam 1985. Louis Begley: . , Munich 2008, , p. 125 Unda Hörner: Kafka und Felice. Roman. Berlin, ebersbach & simon 2017.