Before the Law

1915 short story by Franz Kafka
VisualArtwork literary_work Q35714
Before the Law
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Summary

Before the Law is a literary work[1]. It ranks in the top 3% of literary work entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (1,908 views/month).[2]

Key Facts

  • Author: Franz Kafka[3]
  • Genre: fantasy[4]
  • Part of: The Trial[5]
  • Language of work or name: German[6]
  • Country of origin: Austria–Hungary[7]
  • Publication date: 1915[8]
  • Published in: A Country Doctor[9]
  • Title: Vor dem Gesetz[10], Davanti alla legge[11], Before the law[12], Parabole de la Loi[13]
  • First line: Vor dem Gesetz steht ein Türhüter.[14]
  • Last line: Der Türhüter erkennt, daß der Mann schon an seinem Ende ist und, um sein vergehendes Gehör noch zu erreichen, brüllt er ihn an: „Hier konnte niemand sonst Einlaß erhalten, denn dieser Eingang war nur für dich bestimmt. Ich gehe jetzt und schließe ihn.“[15]
  • Form of creative work: Erzählung[16]

Why It Matters

Before the Law has Wikipedia articles in 10 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[17] It is known by 21 alternative names across languages and contexts.[18]

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [3] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  3. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  9. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  12. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [17] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [18] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). Before the Law. Retrieved October 13, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/before-the-law
MLA “Before the Law.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 13 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/before-the-law.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_before-the-law_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{Before the Law}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/before-the-law}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-13}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): Before the Law — https://4ort.xyz/entity/before-the-law (retrieved 2026-10-13)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/before-the-law · Last refreshed:

Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 4d ago · HedgeHog · 2026-10-11 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Wikipedia languages → ['ar', 'ckb', 'de', 'en', 'eo', 'es', 'et', 'fa', 'fr', 'he', 'it', 'la', 'pa',
    Sitelink count → 21
    Bookbrainz work id → 2c849008-8ea9-4b6d-94ea-087347178960
    Claims rich → —
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ Bookbrainz work id: 2c849008-8ea9-4b6d-94ea-087347178960, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/290269|batch #290269]]"
  2. 6w ago · Geagea · 2026-08-30 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    National library of israel j9u id → 987007522590405171
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ National library of israel j9u id: 987007522590405171, #quickstatements; #temporary_batch_1788092355815; updating from the National Library of Israel database"
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