Kafka papers will be published

This is a video of The Trial by Franz Kafka.

From British daily The Guardian:

Franz Kafka papers should be made public, Israeli judge rules

Czech author’s unpublished works, reportedly including handwritten short story, to be revealed for first time

* Kate Connolly in Berlin
* Wednesday 21 July 2010 15.05 BST

An Israeli judge overseeing a battle over papers once belonging to Franz Kafka has ruled that details of the documents should be made public, the Guardian has learned.

The literary world now faces the prospect of previously unpublished works emerging from boxes containing manuscripts, letters and journals written by the Czech author and his adviser and friend Max Brod. According to the daily Haaretz, the items include a handwritten short story by Kafka that has never been seen by the public before. More boxes had yet to be opened, it said.

Brod’s daughters had sought a gagging order over the documents, arguing that their dignity and privacy was threatened if the contents were unsealed.

If we look at the conclusion of this article, and at the Haaretz article, then Ms Hoffe and Ms Wisler are not the daughters of Max Brod, but of Mr Brod’s secretary.

But Talia Koppelman, a judge at Tel Aviv family court, rejected the legal move by Eva Hoffe and Ruti Wisler.

Following Koppelman’s ruling, details of the papers stored in Tel Aviv and Zurich are now due to be published. The decision is a victory for Israel’s national library and for Kafka scholars around the world, who had long pressed to find out what was contained in the boxes.

In a statement today, the library said the ruling was in compliance with Brod’s will. It said it was “pleased that at long last Dr Max Brod’s last known will is beginning to be executed”.

Kafka asked Brod to destroy the papers after his death. But Brod defied his wish, taking them with him to Israel in 1939. They were inherited by his secretary after his death, who then passed them on to her daughters.

Eduard Goldstucker, a champion of Franz Kafka and the first Czechoslovak ambassador to Israel, died recently in Prague at the age of 87: here.

Ode to Franz Kafka – The Castle: here.

Related articles

• Huge Franz Kafka archive to be made public (guardian.co.uk)
• Kafka battle settled in Israel (bbc.co.uk)
• Daughter of the Secretary of Max Brod Must Relinquish Kafka Papers (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
• Israeli Court Rules Library to Get Kafka Papers, Lawyer Says – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Israel National Library to get Kafka manuscripts (cbc.ca)
• Israel: Israeli library wins Kafka papers battle (ionglobaltrends.com)
• Kafka’s writings to go public, Tel Aviv court rules (jta.org)
• Kafka papers must be turned over to National Library, court rules (timesofisrael.com)
• Court ruling issued on Kafka papers (radionz.co.nz)