Kafka's Last Trial

by Benjamin Balint

  “I’ve read your play . . .” Gnazim archive, 273/ 98884..

  “King Lear.” See Yair Lipshitz, “Biblical Shakespeare: King Lear as Job on the Hebrew Stage,” New Theatre Quarterly 31:4, November 2015.

  “Three studies on Kafka . . .” Franz Kafkas Glauben und Lehre (Franz Kafka’s Faith and Teaching, 1948); Kafka als wegweisende Gestalt (Kafka as Guide, 1959); and Verzweiflung und Erloesung im Werk Kafkas (Despair and Redemption in Kafka’s Work, 1959).

  “Hans-Joachim Schoeps.” See Schoeps, Der vergessene Gott: Franz Kafka und die tragische Position des modernen Juden, ed. Andreas Krause Landt, Landt Verlag, 2006. See also Schoeps’ memoir, Ja, Nein und Trotzdem: Erinnerungen, Begegnungen, Erfahrungen, Hase & Koehler, 1974. Brod and Schoeps began corresponding in the early 1920s after Schoeps reviewed Brod’s book Paganism, Christianity, Judaism (Heidentum, Christentum, Judentum) in the Christliche Welt, a Protestant magazine founded in 1887, and met in Marienbad in 1929. Brod was by no means the only Zionist to denounce Schoeps. In 1933, Gershom Scholem wrote to Walter Benjamin: “As far as Kafka is concerned, in my estimation you cannot count on seeing the book you are awaiting from Herr Schoeps. The young man—I must have written you that I also made his acquaintance in Berlin and have little interest in its continuation, since he is bursting with vanity and the desire to be on everybody’s lips—is so busy trying to connect up with German fascism in every way, sans phrase [without further ado], that he will not have time for any activities in the foreseeable future. . . . I confess that one did not expect such a spectacle from the editor of Kafka’s papers, even if he is but a lad of 23, who was by no means selected by the deceased.” In his postwar memoir, German-American rabbi and civil-rights leader Joachim Prinz described Schoeps and his followers as “fanatic, super-patriots, passionate anti-Zionists, and in a very real sense anti-Semitic. They were self-hating Jews who thought they could save themselves by making common cause with the Nazis” (Rebellious Rabbi: An Autobiography, ed. Michael A. Meyer, Indiana University Press, 2008). See also Scholem’s denunciation of Schoeps’ book Jewish Belief in This Epoch, reprinted in Scholem, Briefe, I:466–71, C.H. Beck, 1994–99.

  “Bialik’s essay ‘The Hebrew Book’ . . .” Bialik delivered his talk “The Hebrew Book” at the Conference of Hebrew Language and Culture, held in Vienna in 1913, and published it in 1914 in the monthly review Hashiloah. The essay was included in the Jubilee edition of Bialik’s Collected Works (1923) and appeared in the English translation of Minnie Halkin in 1951.

  Brod’s Last Love

  “They had volunteered together . . .” See Max Brod, “Erzgebirge schreit um Hilfe,” Prager Tagblatt, April 8, 1932; and Hilfe für das Erzgebirge,” Prager Tagblatt, April 14, 1932.

  “Book of poems in German, Gedichte aus Israel (Poems from Israel) . . .” Published with illustrations by Felix Gluck, Starczewski Verlag, 1967, reprinted 2004.

  “The Tel Aviv District Court granted probate to Brod’s last will . . .” Tel Aviv District Court, file 245/69.

  “The Israeli Archives Law of 1955 . . .” For a detailed review of the drafting and history of the archives law, see Paul Alsberg, “The Israel Archives Law, History and Implementation,” Arkhyon: Reader in Archives Studies and Documentation 1 (1987), pp. 7–29 [Hebrew].

  Epilogue

  “Had one to name the artist who comes nearest . . .” W. H. Auden, “The Wandering Jew,” in The Complete Works of W.H. Auden. Prose: Volume II, 1939–1948, ed. Edward Mendelson, Princeton University Press, 2002, 2:110.

  Bibliography

  Works by Max Brod

  Arnold Beer: Das Schicksal eines Juden. Axel Juncker, 1912 [reprinted Wallstein, 2013].

  “Axiome über das Drama.” Schaubühne, September 21, 1911.

  Beinahe ein Vorzugsschüler oder Pièce touchée. Manesse, 1952.

  “Der Dichter Franz Kafka.” Die neue Rundschau 32, 1921; reprinted in Juden in der deutschen Literatur: Essays über zeitgenössische Schriftsteller, ed. Gustav Krojanker. Welt Verlag, 1922, 55–62.

  Diesseits und Jenseits. Mondial Verlag, 1947 (2 volumes).

  “Die Dritte Phase des Zionismus.” Die Zukunft, January 20, 1917.

  Franz Kafka. Eine Biographie. Mercy Verlag, 1937 [English translation by G. Humphreys Roberts and Richard Winston, Schocken, 1960; Hebrew translation by Edna Kornfeld, Am Oved, 1955].

  “Franz Kafkas Grunderlebnis.” Die Weltbühne, May 15, 1931.

  Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt. Paul Zsolnay, 1927 [Three Loves, trans. Jacob Wittner. Knopf, 1929].

  Das gelobte Land (Promised Land: Poems). Kurt Wolff, Leipzig, 1917.

  Gustav Mahler: Beispiel einer deutsch-jüdischen Symbiose. Ner Tamid, 1961.

  Heinrich Heine: The Artist in Revolt, 1934 [trans. Joseph Witriol, New York University Press, Valentine Mitchell 1956; Collier, 1962].

  Jüdinnen. Axel Juncker, 1911 [reprinted Kurt Wolff, 1915; Wallstein, 2013].

  “Der jüdische Dichter deutscher Zunge.” In Vom Judentum: Ein Sammelbuch. Verein Jüdischer Hochschüler Bar Kochba in Prag, 1913.

  “Die jüdische Kolonisation in Palästina.” Die Neue Rundschau 28, 1917.

  Eine Königin Esther. Drama in einem Vorspiel und drei Akten. Kurt Wolff, 1918.

  “Macbeth through the Ages.” Davar, May 21, 1954 [Hebrew].

  Der Meister. Bertelsmann, 1952 [The Master, trans. Heinz Nordau. Philosophical Library, 1951].

  Die Musik Israels. Sefer, 1951 [reprinted Kassel, 1976].

  “Nachwort zur ersten Ausgabe.” In Franz Kafka, Das Schloß. S. Fischer, 1951.

  Paganism, Christianity, Judaism: A Confession of Faith, trans. William Wolf. University of Alabama Press, 2010 [Heidentum, Christentum, Judentum: Ein Bekenntnisbuch. Kurt Wolff, 1921].

  Der Prager Kreis. Kohlhammer, 1966 [reprinted Suhrkamp, 1979; Wallstein, 2016].

  Rassentheorie und Judentum. Barissia, 1934 [republished with an afterword by Felix Weltsch, R. Löwit, 1936].

  Rebellische Herzen. Herbig, 1957.

  Rëubeni, Fürst der Juden. Ein Renaissanceroman. Kurt Wolff, 1925 [Reubeni: Prince of the Jews, trans. Hannah Wallter. Knopf, 1928].

  Die Rosenkoralle. Eckart, 1961.

  Schloss Nornepygge: Der Roman des Indifferenten. Juncker, 1908.

  Sozialismus im Zionismus. R. Löwit, 1920.

  Streitbares Leben (A Contentious Life). Kindler, 1960 [expanded edition, F.A. Herbig, 1969; Insel, 1979; Hebrew: Chayei Meriva, trans. Y. Slaee. Ha-sifriya Ha-tzionit, 1967].

  Tod und Parodies: Chamber Works. Supraphon Records CD 1121882931, 1994.

  Tycho Brahes Weg zu Gott. Wallstein, 2013 [The Redemption of Tycho Brahe, trans. Felix Warren Crosse. Knopf, 1928; reissued as Tycho Brahe’s Path to God. Northwestern University Press, 2007].

  Über Franz Kafka. S. Fischer, 1974.

  Unambo: Roman aus dem jüdisch-arabischen Krieg. Steinberg, 1949 [English translation by Ludwig Lewisohn, Farrar, Straus & Young, 1952].

  “Unsere Literaten und die Gemeinschaft.” Der Jude 1, 1916.

  “Ungedrucktes zu Franz Kafka.” Die Zeit, October 22, 1965.

  Die verkaufte Braut: Der abenteuerliche Lebensroman des Textdichters Karel Sabina. Bechtle, 1962.

  Zauberreich der Liebe. Paul Szolnay, 1928 [The Kingdom of Love, trans. Eric Sutton, Secker, 1930].

  Max Brod, ed. Arkadia. Ein Jahrbuch für Dichtkunst. Kurt Wolff, 1913.

  Works by Franz Kafka

  Abandoned Fragments: The Unedited Works of Franz Kafka 1897–1917, trans. Ina Pfitzner. Sun Vision Press, 2012.

  Amerika. Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1927 [trans. Willa and Edwin Muir. Schocken, 1962].

  Amtliche Schriften, ed. Klaus Hermsdorf and Benno Wagner. S. Fischer, 2004.

  Beim Bau der chinesischen Mauer. Gustav Kiepenhauer Verlag, 1931.

  Betrachtung. Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1915.

  The Blue Octavo Notebooks, ed. Max Brod, trans. Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins. Exact Change, 1991.

  Briefe, 1902–1924, ed. Max Brod. Schocken, 1959.

 
; Briefe an Felice und andere Korrespondenz aus der Verlobungszeit, ed. Erich Heller and Jürgen Born. Fischer, 1967 [Letters to Felice, trans. James Stern and Elisabeth Duckworth. Schocken, 1988].

  Briefe an Milena, ed. Jürgen Born and Michael Müller. S. Fischer, 1986 [Letters to Milena, trans. Philip Boehm. Schocken, 1990].

  The Complete Stories, trans. Willa and Edwin Muir, ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. Schocken, 1976. The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1910–1913, ed. Max Brod, trans. Joseph Kresh. Schocken, 1948.

  The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1914–1923, ed. Max Brod, trans. Martin Greenberg and Hannah Arendt. Schocken, 1949.

  Franz Kafka: Briefe. 1900–1912, ed. Hans-Gerd Koch. S. Fischer Verlag, 1999.

  Franz Kafka: Briefe. 1913–1914, ed. Hans-Gerd Koch. S. Fischer Verlag, 2001.

  Franz Kafka: Briefe. 1914–1917, ed. Hans-Gerd Koch. S. Fischer Verlag, 2005

  Franz Kafka: Briefe. 1918–1920, ed. Hans-Gerd Koch. S. Fischer Verlag, 2013.

  Franz Kafka: The Office Writings, eds. Stanley Corngold, Jack Greenberg, and Benno Wagner. Princeton University Press, 2009.

  Hebrew letter to Puah Ben-Tovim, June 1923, reprinted in Hayim U-Ma’As B’Mifalenu Ha-Khinukhim: Sefer Zikaron L’Dr. Yosef Shomo Menzel Zikhrono Livrakha, Leben und Wirken: Unser Erzieherisches Werk: In Memoriam Dr. Josef Schlomo Menczel 1903–1953, ed. Puah Menczel-Ben-Tovim. Menczel Memorial Foundation, 1981.

  I Am a Memory Come Alive: Autobiographical Writings, ed. Nahum Glatzer. Schocken, 1974.

  Kafka Kritische Ausgabe, eds. Jürgen Born et al. S. Fischer, ongoing.

  Ein Landarzt und andere Drucke zu Lebzeiten, ed. Hans-Gerd Koch. S. Fischer Taschenbuch, 1994.

  Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors, trans. Richard and Clara Winston. Schocken, 1977.

  Letter to His Father, trans. Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins. Schocken, 1953.

  “The Metamorphosis,” trans. Susan Bernofsky. W. W. Norton, 2014.

  Nachgelassene Schriften und Fragmente I, ed. Malcolm Pasley. S. Fischer, 1993.

  Nachgelassene Schriften und Fragmente II, ed. Jost Schillemeit. S. Fischer, 1992.

  Parables and Paradoxes, ed. Nahum N. Glatzer. Schocken, 1961.

  Der Prozess. Die Schmiede, 1925.

  Der Prozess, trans. Melech Ravitch. Der Kval, 1966 [Yiddish].

  Das Schloss. Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1926.

  Selected Stories, ed. and trans. Stanley Corngold. W. W. Norton, 2007.

  Tagebücher, eds. Hans-Gerd Koch, Michael Müller, and Malcolm Pasley. S. Fischer, 1990.

  The Trial: A New Translation Based on the Restored Text, trans. Breon Mitchell. Schocken, 1998.

  Vor dem Gesetz. Schocken, 1934.

  Wedding Preparations in the Country and Other Posthumous Prose Writings, trans. E. Kaiser and E. Wilkins (notes by Max Brod). Secker & Warburg, 1954.

  The Zürau Aphorisms of Franz Kafka, eds. Roberto Calasso, Geoffrey Brock, and Michael Hofmann. Schocken, 2006.

  General Bibliography and Works Cited

  Adorno, Theodor W. “Notes on Kafka.” In Franz Kafka, ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea House, 1986.

  Allemann, Beda. “Kafka et l’histoire.” In L’endurance de la pensée. Pour saluer Jean Beaufret, eds. René Char et al. Plon, 1968.

  Alt, Peter-André. Franz Kafka: Der ewige Sohn. Beck, 2005.

  Alter, Robert. After the Tradition: Essays on Modern Jewish Writing. Dutton, 1969.

  ———. Canon and Creativity. Yale University Press, 2000.

  ———. “Franz Kafka: Wrenching Scripture.” New England Review 21.3, 2000.

  ———. “Kafka as Kabbalist.” Salmagundi, Spring–Summer 1993.

  ———. Necessary Angels: Tradition and Modernity in Kafka, Benjamin, and Scholem. Harvard University Press, 1991.

  Anderson, Mark. Kafka’s Clothes: Ornament and Aestheticism in the Habsburg Fin de Siècle. Oxford University Press, 1992.

  ———, ed. Reading Kafka: Prague, Politics, and the Fin de Siècle. Schocken, 1989.

  Appelfeld, Aharon. “A Conversation with Philip Roth.” In Beyond Despair: Three Lectures and a Conversation with Philip Roth, trans. Jeffrey M. Green. Fromm International, 1994.

  Arendt, Hannah. “Franz Kafka: A Revaluation.” In Essays in Understanding, 1930–1954, ed. Jerome Kohn. Harcourt Brace & Co., 1994 [originally published in Partisan Review 11:4, 1944].

  Arnold, Hannah. “Brod’s Case.” TLS, October 17, 2014.

  Bahr, Ehrhard. “Max Brod as a Novelist: From the Jewish Zeitroman to the Zionist Novel.” In Von Franzos zu Canetti: Jüdische Autoren aus Österreich, ed. Mark H. Gelber. Niemeyer, 1996.

  Bahr, Hermann. “Max Brods Bewusstsein vom Judentum: Ethik in der Spannung von Diesseits und Jenseits.” In Messianismus zwischen Mythos und Macht: jüdisches Denken in der europäischen Geistesgeschichte, eds. Eveline Goodman-Thau and Wolfdietrich Schmied-Kowarzik. Akademie Verlag, 1994.

  Baioni, Giuliano. Kafka: Literatur und Judentum. Metzler, 1994.

  Balint, Benjamin. “Kafkas letzter Prozess.” Die Zeit, September 12, 2016.

  ———. “Kafka’s Own Metamorphosis.” Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2016.

  Bärsch, Claus-Ekkehard. Max Brod im Kampf um das Judentum. Zum Leben und Werk eines deutsch-jüdischen Dichters aus Prag. Passagen Verlag, 1992.

  Barzel, Hillel. Agnon and Kafka: A Comparative Study. Bar-Ilan University Press, 1972 [Hebrew].

  Bashan, Refael. “Max Brod.” In I Have an Interview: New and Selected Interviews. Am Oved, 1965 [Hebrew].

  Batuman, Elif. “Kafka’s Last Trial.” New York Times Magazine, September 22, 2012.

  Beck, Evelyn Torton. Kafka and the Yiddish Theater. University of Wisconsin Press, 1971.

  Begley, Louis. The Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head—Franz Kafka: A Biographical Essay. Atlas & Co., 2008.

  Benjamin, Walter. Benjamin über Kafka: Texte, Briefzeugnisse, Aufzeichnungen, ed. Hermann Schweppenhäuser. Suhrkamp, 1981.

  ———. “Franz Kafka: On the Tenth Anniversary of His Death.” Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn, ed. Hannah Arendt. Schocken, 1969.

  ———. “Review of Brod’s Franz Kafka.” In Selected Writings: 1935–1938, eds. Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings. Harvard University Press, 2002.

  Bennett, Alan. Two Kafka Plays. Faber & Faber, 1987.

  Binder, Hartmut. “Franz Kafka and the Weekly Paper Selbstwehr.” Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook 12 (1967).

  ———. Kafka-Kommentar: zu sämtlichen Erzählungen. Winkler Verlag/Patmos, 1975.

  ———. “Kafka’s Hebräischstudien.” In Jahrbuch der deutschen Schillergesellschaft 11. Alfred Kroner Verlag, 1967.

  ———. Motiv und Gestaltung bei Franz Kafka. Bouvier, 1966.

  Blanchot, Maurice. “Kafka and the Work’s Demand.” In The Space of Literature, trans. Ann Smock. University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

  Bloom, Cecil. “Max Brod, Polymath.” Midstream, January 1997.

  Bloom, Harold, ed. Franz Kafka. Bloom’s Literary Criticism/Infobase, 2010.

  Born, Jürgen, ed. Franz Kafka: Kritik und Rezeption 1924–1938. S. Fischer Verlag, 1983.

  ———. Kafkas Bibliothek: Ein beschreibendes Verzeichnis. S. Fischer Verlag, 1990.

  Bornstein, Sagi, writer and director. Kafka’s Last Story. 53 minutes. 2011.

  Botros, Atef. Kafka: Ein jüdischer Schriftsteller aus arabischer Sicht. Reichert Verlag, 2009.

  Brenner, David A. German-Jewish Popular Culture before the Holocaust: Kafka’s Kitsch. Routledge, 2008.

  Brenner, Michael. The Renaissance of Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany. Yale University Press, 1998.

  Brod, Max, and Hans-Joachim Schoeps. Im Streit um Kafka und das Judentum: Der Briefwechsel zwischen Max Brod und Hans-Joachim Schoeps, ed. Julius Schoeps. Jüdischer Verlag bei Athenäum, 1985.

  Bruce, Iris. Kafka and Cultural Zionism. University of Wisconsin Press, 2007.

  Buber, Martin. Drei Reden über das Judentum. Rütten & Loening, 1916.

  Buber, Martin, et al. Das jüdische Prag: eine Sam
melschrift. Verlag der Selbstwehr, 1917 [reissued 1978].

  Butler, Judith. “Who Owns Kafka?” London Review of Books, March 3, 2011.

  Calasso, Roberto. K. Knopf, 2005.

  Canetti, Elias. Kafka’s Other Trial: The Letters to Felice, trans. Christopher Middleton. Schocken, 1974.

  Caputo-Mayr, Marie Luise, and Julius M. Herz, eds. Franz Kafka: International Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Literature. Saur, 2000 [three volumes].

  Carmely, Klara.“Noch Einmal: War Kafka Zionist?” The German Quarterly 52:3, May 1979.

  Carrouges, Michel. Kafka versus Kafka, trans. Emmett Parker. University of Alabama Press, 1968.

  Caygill, Howard. Kafka: In Light of the Accident. Bloomsbury, 2017.

  Cohen, Nili. “The Betrayed(?) Wills of Kafka and Brod.” Law and Literature 27:1, 2015.

  Cools, Arthur, and Vivian Liska, eds. Kafka and the Universal. de Gruyter, 2016.

  Corngold, Stanley. Franz Kafka: The Necessity of Form. Cornell University Press, 1988.

  ———. Lambent Traces: Franz Kafka. Princeton University Press, 2004.

  Cott, Jonathan. “Glenn Gould: The Rolling Stone Interview.” Rolling Stone, August 15, 1974.

  Dahm, Volker. Das jüdische Buch im Dritten Reich (Zweiter Teil: Salman Schocken und sein Verlag). Buchhändler-Vereinigung, 1982.

  Dannof, Brian. “Arendt, Kafka, and the Nature of Totalitarianism.” Perspectives on Political Science 29:4, 2000.

  David, Anthony. The Patron: A Life of Salman Schocken. Metropolitan Books, 2003.

  Dehne, Doris. The Formative Years of Kafka Criticism: Max Brod’s Interpretation of Franz Kafka. PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, 1977.

  Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature. University of Minnesota Press, 1986.

  Demetz, Peter. “Speculations about Prague Yiddish and its Disappearance: From its Origins

  to Kafka and Brod.” In Confrontations/Accommodations: German-Jewish Literary and Cultural Relations from Heine to Wassermann, ed. Mark H. Gelber. Niemeyer Verlag, 2004.