"The Village Schoolmaster" also known as "The Giant Mole" was written in December 18, 1924 through January 1915.  It was also called "Der Dorfschullehrer" and "Der Riesenmaulwurf" in German.  The story has remained unfinished and first appeared in Biem Bau der Chinesischen Mauer (Berlin 1931) on pages 131-153.  The story was written during World War I right after the publication of "The Metamorphosis."  In his diaries, Kafka wrote on December 19, 1914:

Yesterday wrote "The Village Schoolmaster" almost without knowing it, but was afraid to go on writing later than a quarter or two; the fear was well founded, I hardly slept at all, merely suffered through perhaps three short dreams... Then went home and calmly wrote for three hours.

     While Kafka was writing the story, he took a trip during the Christmas holidays with his friend Max Brod and wife to Kuttenburg.  They went to look at architectural monuments and to have a short rest from the terrors of war that was felt in the city.  Kafka had trouble writing during this time due to complications of insomnia, headaches, and his weak heart.  While he was writing "The Village Schoolmaster," he was also working on other stories such as:  The Trial, Memoirs of the Kalda Railway, The Assistant Attorney, and In the Penal Colony.  Later, in early Feb of 1915 he moved from his parents home in Prague into rented rooms in Bilekgasse and Langengasse.
 

Czech Republic:  Country in central Europe, formerly part of Czechoslovakia.

Official Data:

Name:   Czech Republic
Capital:   Prague
Form of Government: Parliamentary Republic
Head of State:  President
Head of Government: Prime Minister
Flag:    horizontal stripes, white and red, with a blue triangle with its apex in the center     super imposed in the hoist.
National Holiday:  October 28 (Independence Day)
Language:  Czech
Currency:  Kourna (k)

Czechoslovakia
 Former country in central Europe, now the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 from the former Austro-Hungarian territories of Bohemia and Moravia , known collectively as the Czech lands had been part of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria, Slovakia part of Hungary-gave them district cultural, political and economic identities.  This caused friction from the country's birth.  It was dismembered during the Second World War, with Bohemia and Moravia becoming a protectorate of Greater Germany and Slovakia a nominally independent state under German domination.  The communists took control in 1948.  The country was reconstituted as a federation in 1969 to meet Slovak demands for greater autonomy.

Here is a list of significant events that took place during the time that Franz Kafka was alive.

July 1883:  Queen Ramavalona II dies and is succeeded by her cousin who becomes Queen Ramavalona III and also marries the country's prime minister Rainilairivony, himself a widower.

In the world in the year 1883, the first skyscraper was built in Chicago, IL., USA.  F. Nietzche wrote, Thus Spake Zarathustra.   Then in August of 1883 Krakatau [Kratatoa, Malay: Rakata], an Indonesian volcanic island between Kava and Sumatra, began a two day eruption, including (may 27) a tremendous explosion in which an estimated cubic mile of rock was blown away, leaving a hole 600 to 900 feet deep in Sudra Strait where the island was located.  The island was reduced from c.18 to c.16 square miles.  The sound was heard 3,000 miles away as as Turkey and Japan.  Ashes exploded to a height of 17 miles.  The dust in the atmosphere caused the famous red sunsets of 1883 and 1884.  Nearly, 36,000 people were killed in the villages on the island or on nearby shores tidal waves 60 to 130 feet high caused by the eruption.

Bohemia 1884:  The composer Berich Smetana dies in an asylum.  He is the founder of Czech nationalism in music.

Bohemia, May 1, 1904:  The Czech composer Antonin Dvorak dies.

In December of 1914 during the month that Kafka wrote "The Village School Master {The Giant Mole}", Enver Pasha, leader of the Young Turk movement in the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Russian troops at Sarikamis in Russian Armenia, which is present Eastern Turkey.  On December 2, 1914,  The Austrian Army captured Belgrade, capital of Serbia, but the Serbs fought back.  By December 14, they retook their capital.  Then on the 8th of December, there was a naval battle in the Falklen Islands  in the South Atlantic Ocean between Germany and England.

Czechoslovakia, October 15, 1918:  The republic of Czechoslovakia is proclaimed.

Czechoslovakia, November 14, 1918:  Tomas Masaryj is elected the first president of Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia, May 27, 1920:  Tomas Masaryk is elected president; Eduard Benes is Foreign Minister.

Czechoslovakia, September 26, 1921:  Eduard Benes becomes prime minister.