Trial over "The Trial": Kafka's Letters Headed to Israeli Court

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Oct 20th 2009 at 8:01AM

Academics are desperate to get their hands on a collection of letters that once belonged to author Franz Kafka, the genius behind "The Metamorphosis" and "The Trial." But, their efforts have been stymied by Have Hoffe and her sister, Ruth Wisler. The two ladies received the documents from their mother two years ago (when she died at the age of 101). Previously, the materials belonged to Max Brod, a German author who wrote a biography of Kafka. Brod died in 1968 and left the letters to Hoffe's and Wisler's mother, Esther.

The battle over the literary booty is on its way to Tel Aviv Family Court. The letters currently sit in two bank vaults, though scholars are worried that they aren't being stored properly. They see in the letters a potential treasure map: they may indicate the location of some notebooks confiscated from Kafka by the Gestapo. The issue became a legal matter when the sisters sought to ratify their mother's will, at which point the Israeli government became involved. Esther Hoffe only allowed a handful of researchers to view the letters and didn't make them available to the public -- a sore spot for interested scholars.

Had Kafka's wishes been respected, there would be no problem right now. The letters would have been burned.

The issue for the court to decide involves whose will to respect: Hoffe's or Brod's. Israel's National Library claims that Brod indicated that Hoffe should turn the letters over to the library during her lifetime. Yet, not only did this not happen, but Hoffe sold one of the documents, a handwritten manuscript of "The Trial" via Sotheby's in 1988 (for $1.98 million). The daughters side with their mother's will, which gives them ownership of the documents.

We won't know how this turns out until January, which is when the court will convene. Needless to say, if Kafka were alive to sit in the gallery, he'd get a chuckle at the irony.

Tags: antique, antiques, franz kafka, FranzKafka, israel, kafka, tel aviv, TelAviv