The literary estates of renowned author Franz Kafka and his friend Max Brod are the property of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, Israel's Supreme Court ruled Monday. The court was rejecting a second appeal by the heirs of the woman to whom Brod, the executor of Kafka's estate, left the material. The Kafka manuscripts were not supposed to have survived to become the subject of a lawsuit. Kafka had instructed Brod to burn all his manuscripts when he died, but after Kafka died of tuberculosis in 1924, Brod ignored his request, and brought the manuscripts with him to Mandatory Palestine when he fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939. When Brod died in 1969, his secretary, Esther Hoffe, inherited both Brod's and Kafka's manuscripts. In his will, Brod instructed Hoffe to give the manuscripts to "the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the municipal library in Tel Aviv, or another organization in Israel or abroad." However, Hoffe kept them in safe deposit boxes in Israel and Switzerland for decades. Over the years, she sold some of the documents, including the original manuscript of one of Kafka's best-known works, "The Trial," which was auctioned for $2 million. Upon Hoffe's death in 2007, her daughters, Eva and Ruth, inherited the remaining manuscripts, which include unpublished works. In 2009, the State of Israel demanded that the daughters hand the Kafka manuscripts over to the state, launching a lengthy legal battle. The daughters argued that they were the rightful owners of the manuscripts, as Brod had given them to their mother, who had been free to do with them as she pleased. This was the second time Hoffe's heirs appealed to the Supreme Court. The three-judge panel, consisting of Supreme Court Vice President Elyakim Rubinstein and Justices Yoram Danziger and Zvi Zilbertal, ruled that the documents should be transferred to Israel. According to Britain's Guardian newspaper, the court reached the conclusion that "Max Brod did not want his property to be sold at the best price, but for them to find an appropriate place in a literary and cultural institution." David Blumberg, chairman of the National Library of Israel, said, "This is a festive day for people of culture, in Israel and throughout the world. The Supreme Court asked the National Library to do its utmost to expose the public at large to Brod's works, and the National Library will fulfill its obligation to the court and ensure the preservation of national and cultural assets. We will ensure they remain in the country and are available to the general public."
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Supreme Court rules Kafka manuscripts are Israel's property
Supreme Court rejects second appeal by heirs holding renowned author Franz Kafka's manuscripts and orders their transfer to National Library of Israel • "This is a festive day for people of culture, in Israel and throughout the world," says library head.