On October 23, 1902, they met at a lecture on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in the reading and speaking hall of German students in Prague: Max Brod and the one-year-older Franz Kafka. Although both studied law in their hometown and therefore frequently encountered each other, their friendship only developed into a close bond in November 1908. The following year, from September 4 to 14, 1909, they took their first trip together to Riva on Lake Garda with Brod's brother Otto. From there, the three of them made an excursion, presumably on September 10, to an aviation meeting in Brescia. They had never seen an airplane before. Max Brod suggested that each of them should describe this experience. Max Brod titled his text "Flight Week in Brescia," while Kafka named his "The Aeroplane in Brescia"; together, they form the first two documents of this volume.