Cultural Salon: Edison invites you to Sunday Brunch

Franz Kafka: MILENA!
Tamara Metelka, Nicholas Ofczarek, and Nikolai Tunkowitsch

"I somehow can’t write you anything more than what concerns only us, us in the crowd of the world, only us."

At the beginning of the year 1920, the then 23-year-old Milena Jesenská approaches the older, until then unknown writer Franz Kafka at the Prague artist café Arco and asks him if she can translate his stories into Czech. From this encounter, an intimate love affair unfolds over the course of the year, primarily taking place through an intense exchange of letters. During this time, there are only two personal meetings – four days in Vienna and two days in Gmünd (Lower Austria). Milena's letters to Franz are lost, presumably destroyed at her request by Max Brod, a close friend of Kafka's, after Kafka's death. Kafka's letters to Milena were published in 1952 (after Milena's death and against the wishes of her family) first in English in New York. Overnight, the recipient becomes famous, even though her last name is not mentioned in the first edition. It is only after the end of the Cold War, in the early 1990s, that the literary engagement with the gifted author, journalist, and political activist Milena Jesenská begins.

Tamara Metelka and Nicholas Ofczarek transport the audience in this reading into the witty, humorous, desperate, profound, poetic, and grotesque exchange between the two lovers. Kafka's letters are juxtaposed with Milena's letters to Max Brod, her journalistic works, as well as Kafka's short stories and her touching and insightful obituary for Franz Kafka, which appeared three days after his death on June 3, 1924.

Franz Kafka (July 3, 1883, in Prague, Austria-Hungary; June 3, 1924, in Kierling, Klosterneuburg) was a German-speaking writer. Kafka's works were mostly published posthumously by Max Brod, a close friend and confidant whom Kafka had designated as his literary executor. Kafka's works are considered part of the canon of world literature. His way of depicting unfathomably threatening and absurd situations has led to the formation of the adjective "kafkaesque."

Milena Jesenská (born August 10, 1896, in Prague, Austria-Hungary; died May 17, 1944, in Ravensbrück concentration camp) was a Czech journalist, writer, translator, and political activist. When the German Wehrmacht occupied the Sudetenland in 1938 and the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939, Milena Jesenská helped those persecuted to flee from the Nazis. Milena Jesenská died on May 17, 1944, in Ravensbrück concentration camp. She was only 47 years old. The Yad Vashem memorial designated Milena Jesenská as "Righteous Among the Nations" in 1994.

SCHEDULE:
Brunch from 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Program from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Brunch:
Brunch buffet with the usual fine delicacies from edison Catering. Want a little taste? You can expect oysters, sparkling wine, Viennese specialties, and many more moments of enjoyment.

Price:
Early Bird Ticket: €119 (until December 23, 2025; or while supplies last)
Regular Price: €135

Price includes cultural program, brunch, hot beverages, mineral water, and Schlumberger sparkling wine. Excludes cold drinks.