Journal Article — Franz Kafka’s Trial and the Anti-Semitic Trials of His Time — by Michael Löwy

Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial–one of the most famous literary works of the 20th century–was, at least to some extent, inspired by contemporary historical events. The great antisemitic trials of his time were a blatant example of state injustice. The most (in)famous were the Tisza trial (Hungary 1882), the Dreyfus trial (France 1894-1899), the Hilsner trial (Czechoslovaquia, 1899-1900) and the Beiliss trial (Russia, 1912-13). Despite the differences between the various State regimes–absolutism, constitutional monarchy, republic–the judicial system condemned, sometimes to capital punishment, innocent victims whose only crime was to be Jews.