Philosopher and journalist, doctor of law and philosophy. A fellow-pupil of Brod’s at the Piarist elementary school, he then attended the German high school in the Old Town where he was one grade below Kafka’s. He met Brod and Kafka again when they were studying law at the Prague German University. Along with Brod, Kafka and Baum, he was an integral member of the most important group of Prague German writers at the beginning of the 20th century, even though he was not particularly interested in creative writing. After university Weltsch was employed in the Prague University Library’s Philosophy Department. He was active in the German Student Reading and Lecture Hall, attended meetings of the Brentanist Circle in the Café Louvre and Berta Fanta’s salon. For several years he was the moving spirit behind the Zionist journal Selbstwehr, which he ran with broad-mindedness and sensitivity. Brod introduced Kafka to Felix Weltsch some time in 1903.
