Israel demands Germany return manuscript of Kafka's The Trial

Oct 16, 2009, 8:26 GMT

Jerusalem - Israel is demanding that Germany's Museum of Modern Literature return the original manuscript of Frank Kafka's novel The Trial, accusing the German archive of 'duplicity' in the way it obtained the manuscript.

The Israeli Ha'aretz daily reported Friday that Israel's National Library, which claims to be the sole rightful heir to the manuscript, will send its demand to the German archive in Marbach next week.

The manuscript, which was brought to Tel Aviv from Prague in 1939, was sold to Germany in 1988 for about 2 million dollars, the highest sum ever paid for a contemporary manuscript.

The National Library's demand is part of a lengthy dispute over the literary estate of Max Brod, a close friend of the Czech author, and the executor of his will.

Brod ignored Kafka's instructions to destroy his papers and took them with him when he fled Czechoslovakia ahead of the Nazis in 1939. When he died in Tel Aviv in 1968, the papers were part of the inheritance he left to his secretary, Esther Hoffa.

The National Library filed suit against Ester Hoffa's daughter Eva, claiming that Brod wanted his archive made available to libraries in Israel and Germany. Instead, she and her sister are accused of continuing to hoard and sell the texts.

The National Library claims that Eva Hoffa sold the manuscript of The Trial, contrary to Brod's will and against the law, which requires that important manuscripts be kept in Israel.

Meir Heller, the National Linbrary's attorney in the trial over the Brod estate, was quoted in Ha'aretz as accusing the German archive of 'duplicity in claiming to have obtained the manuscript legally.'

According to Heller, 'the German archive knew there was a problem with this manuscript when it received it more than 20 years ago, but continues holding it sanctimoniously, claiming to have acquired it legally.'

Hoffa's lawyers, on the other hand, say the National Library is acting 'greedily to get illegal access to property it does not own,' Ha'aretz reported.