THE ELEPHANT TALKS TO GOD by Dale Estey

The Elephant is nameless.

$12.95

Paperback

I doubt it was lost on Franz Kafka that he was named after the leader of the whole Empire where he was born, Franz Joseph I. His father named him Franz so he could assimilate into the predominant (and non-Jewish) culture of Prague. Kafka also had a Jewish name. It was Amshel. Both are recorded on his gravestone. The Empire (if not totally the cause of the Emperor) imposed the type of bureaucracy on the Empire which Kafka understood and feared. And wrote about in such a prophetic way. Indeed, Kafka's job for most of his life was as a functionary in this bureaucracy. He was indespencible.
  

The long shadow of Emperor Franz Joseph

 Jan Richter

 August 18 marked the 130th anniversary of the birth of one of the most distinct figures of the old Austrian empire, Emperor Franz Joseph I. He ruled his peoples for nearly seven decades, and although Czechs today don’t seem to identify with this particular period in their history, the legacy of the ‘aged monarch’, as he was semi-officially referred to towards the end of his life, is still apparent in most of his former empire today.

Franz Joseph was 18 when he ascended to the throne and 86 when he died. His reign lasted for over 67 years, which made him one of the longest ruling monarchs in European history.

When he took over the monarchy in 1848, he was hailed as someone who would lead the country from the turmoil and unrest of revolutionary times, and carry out some essential reforms to ensure its modernization and future peaceful development.

But by the end of his long reign, the monarch had lost most of his credit, at least in this part of the empire. He was deemed decrepit and out-of-touch, and was even ridiculed by some of the free thinkers who were soon to become the elites of the new countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Here is an example: Czechs sometimes called Franz Joseph “starej Procházka” or old Procházka. Procházka is a common Czech surname which literally means “walk”. A popular legend has it that when their Emperor opened a new bridge in Prague, the next day a picture appeared in the paper with caption, “Walk on the Bridge”. Since then, Czechs referred to the Emperor as Old Procházka.

But Franz Joseph’s influence over the disloyal Czechs continued long after he passed away in 1916, in the middle of the war that swept away the empire.

 (more)

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131184