April 2019 The German Times – Life 21

The metamorphosis of ownership Benjamin Balint has written a book about the long-running “custody battle” over Franz Kafka’s legacy

When Hoffe’s daughter inher- BY THOMAS SCHULER ited the remaining manuscripts and notes in 2007, the state of his story begins and Israel went to trial again. On June ends with betrayal – or 27, 2016, Eva Hoffe stood before Tperhaps redemption, the Israeli Supreme Court and, depending on whose perspective comparing her situation to that you take. For years, the literary of Kafka’s protagonist in The Trial, legacy of one of the world’s most argued that she felt “like an animal celebrated writers was stored being led to slaughter.” She could in a three-room apartment in not fathom the fact that, after all Tel Aviv and in two bank safety these years, everything should deposit boxes, one in Israel, the be handed over to the National other in Switzerland. All the Library in Jerusalem without while, archivists worried about financial compensation. But in the the condition of the papers, fear- end, that’s exactly what the court ing the damage that could be ruled. For its part, the German done by heat, humidity, cats and Literature Archive in Marbach cockroaches. The papers have had already withdrawn from the been the subject of a lengthy trial so as not to be accused of legal battle. appropriating Jewish national It's a battle over Franz Kafka's heritage. legacy and the question of who The author of any other book “owns” his work. Is it the state of might be criticized for not taking Israel, the country his friend Max a more definitive stand on a com- Brod fled to from Prague in 1939, plex issue. Not so with Balint – carrying Kafka’s estate in a suit- his restraint is one of the book’s case? Is it Germany, because Kafka strengths. He describes the case wrote in German and felt a deep in its Kafkaesque twists and turns. connection to the literary canon This includes the story of Hanser of German authors? Or is it Eva publisher Michael Krüger, who, in Hoffe, the heiress to the woman an effort to obtain Kafka’s papers, to whom Brod had bequeathed the SHUTTERSTOCK allegedly sought to pay a lawyer in papers? It is a complicated story Zurich a sum of DM 100,000 just with many grotesque – even Kaf- to get a glimpse of the texts. While kaesque – twists. Balint clearly expresses sympathy The journalist Benjamin Balint for Eva Hoffe, he also seeks to has written a book, Kafka’s Last appreciate the arguments demon- Trial, about what he refers to strated by the state of Israel. as the “custody battle” over the Following the court’s verdict estate. On June 27, 2016, Balint against her, Eva Hoffe was awash accompanied 82-year-old Eva in despair. She then sued – in Hoffe (“a pale but alert woman”) vain – Israel’s Ministry of Justice. and, as he writes, he was the only Feeling as though she had been journalist to observe the outcome betrayed and deceived, she told of a trial before Israel’s highest Balint it felt “as though I’d been court, a dispute that had begun raped.” Retiring from the lime- in 1973. light, Eva Hoffe fell ill with cancer Franz Kafka died shortly before and died in August 2018 at the age his 41st birthday in Prague, where of 84. In September, employees he was also buried. Although a pro- of the National Library entered lific writer, he had not finished a her apartment and, according to single novel and his stories failed Balint, were horrified by the “bio- to attract much attention during hazard” they found. They secured his lifetime. But he didn’t seem to ever written. In a second note as executor of the will, as Brod In 1939, Brod had to flee from manuscripts to do with as she 60 boxes of papers and brought 35 mind. His publisher Kurt Wolff with an earlier date, Kafka speci- later emphasized. the Nazis. He asked Thomas Mann pleased. As she pleased? The state to the library. In December, they once accused him of being the fied a few works that he did not At the time of Kafka’s death, Max for help and offered to come to had its own demands. also opened six cash boxes at a most indifferent author to the fate want trashed. Brod was a successful author, but the United States with the estate Brod died in 1968; five years bank in Tel Aviv. An assessment of of his writing. Wolff asked for man- However, Brod neglected to has since become nearly forgot- and continue looking after the after that, according to Balint, its contents is still ongoing. uscripts – yet never received one. carry out his friend’s wish, thus ten as a writer. Today, he is known papers in California. In return, he the state of Israel took the issue So, who owns Kafka? The estate The musician and author Max marking the first betrayal. He did as the companion, discoverer and requested a residence permit and to court for the first time. Before is now to be made accessible to all Brod had been friends with Kafka not see himself as a traitor, believ- executor of Franz Kafka’s estate. employment. Mann did indeed boarding a plane for a trip abroad, through digital means. For Benja- for 22 years at the time of Kafka’s ing instead that he was acting in Throughout his life, Brod sought secure Brod a job – but the news Esther Hoffe was arrested at the min Balint, this marks a peaceable death. Following his funeral, Kaf- Kafka’s true interest. After all, to get Kafka published and have arrived too late. Brod was already airport in Tel Aviv. Security forces end to the story, his conclusion ka’s parents took Brod to their when Kafka had asked him in 1921 his genius acknowledged. He rec- on the run to Palestine, with his had feared that she would attempt being that Kafka belongs to none apartment to look at the contents to burn everything, Brodt had ognized early on that Kafka was wife and Kafka’s estate. Shortly to take Kafka’s manuscripts out of us – and all of us. of their deceased son’s desk and said that he would not comply a master of modernity and did his thereafter, Brod’s wife died and of the country. However, a court signed a contract with him to with such a request. Brod inter- best to make his friend’s writings he made friends with a married confirmed her claim to the estate, Thomas Schuler is a freelance publish the works. Brod found preted the fact that Kafka nev- accessible to the world. It is diffi- couple named Hoffe. Following the which allowed her to auction off journalist based in Munich. an extensive collection of note- ertheless left him his estate as an cult to say exactly how much Brod death of her husband, Esther Hoffe the most valuable manuscript in Benjamin Balint’s book Kafka’s books, drafts, diaries, manuscripts indication of his deceased friend’s was in Kafka’s works, Balint writes. became Brod’s secretary, lover and the estate. The manuscript for Last Trial. The Case of a Literary Legacy was published and letters – along with a note will to preserve the works. If that It is clear, however, that he edited literary partner over the years. Yet The Trial was purchased by the in the US in 2019 by from his friend requesting that were not the case, Kafka would Kafka’s texts before he published he never paid her a salary, writes German Literature Archive in W.W. Norton & Company. Brod destroy everything he had have had to appoint someone else them. Balint. Instead, he left her Kafka’s Marbach for more than £1 million.