Franz Kafka was a major fiction writer of the early 20th century. He was born to a middle-class German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, Bohemia, Austria Hungary. His unique body of writing much of which is incomplete and which was mainly published posthumously is considered to be among the most influential in Western literature. Kafka was born in one of the houses on Prague's Old Town Square, right next to the Church of St. Nicholas. A gallery with a permanent exposition on Kafka's life has been opened in this house.