Editing Max Brod (section)

== Biography ==
Max Brod was born in Prague, then part of the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] in [[Austria-Hungary]], now the capital of the Czech Republic.  At the age of four, Brod was diagnosed with a severe spinal curvature and spent a year in corrective harness; despite this he would be a hunchback his entire life.<ref name="NYT"/>  A German-speaking Jew, he attended the [[Piarist]] school together with his lifelong friend [[Felix Weltsch]], later attended the [[Stephans Gymnasium]], then studied law at the [[Karl-Ferdinands-Universität|German Charles-Ferdinand University]] (which at the time was divided into a German and a [[Czech language]] university; he attended the German-speaking institution) and graduated in 1907 to work in the civil service. From 1912, he was a pronounced [[Zionism|Zionist]] (which he attributed to the influence of [[Martin Buber]]) and when Czechoslovakia became independent in 1918, he briefly served as vice-president of the ''Jüdischer Nationalrat''. From 1924, already an established writer, he worked as a critic for the ''[[Prager Tagblatt]]''.

In 1939, as the [[Nazism|Nazis]] took over Prague, Brod and his wife Elsa Taussig fled to [[Mandatory Palestine]]. He settled in Tel Aviv, where he continued to write and worked as a [[dramaturg]] for ''[[Habima Theatre|Habimah]]'', later the Israeli national theatre, for 30 years. For a period following the death of his wife in 1942, Brod published very few works. He became very close to a couple named Otto and [[Esther Hoffe]], regularly taking vacations with the couple and employed Esther as a secretary for many years; it is often presumed that their relationship had a romantic dimension.<ref name="NYT">{{Citation| last=Batuman| first=Elif| author-link=Elif Batuman| title=Kafka's Last Trial| newspaper=New York Times Magazine| date=September 22, 2010| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?ref=magazine}}</ref> He would later pass stewardship of the Kafka materials in his possession to Esther in his will.

Another close companion was [[Felix Weltsch]]. Their friendship lasted 75 years, from the elementary school of the Piarists in Prague to Weltsch's death in 1964.<ref>{{cite news|url = http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/where-are-the-missing-index-cards-1.254375 |title = Where are the missing index cards|first= Ofer|last = Aderet|newspaper = Haaretz|date = 22 September 2008|url-status = live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150328082902/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/where-are-the-missing-index-cards-1.254375|archive-date = 28 March 2015}}</ref> He increasingly devoted himself to music, traveling to Europe to give lectures and to encourage young artists.  Brod was also close to Israeli author [[Aharon Megged]], with whom he had many philosophical discussions as they walked along the beachfront in Tel Aviv.<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/2010-09-08/ty-article/friend-of-a-friend/0000017f-efaf-dc28-a17f-ffbf81f60000 A friend of a friend], [[Jerusalem Post]]</ref>

Brod died on 20 December 1968 in Tel Aviv; his final resting place is the [[Trumpeldor Cemetery]] in Tel Aviv.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://kulturstiftung.org/biographien/brod-max | title=Brod, Max – Kulturstiftung }}</ref>