Franz Kafka’s papers metamorphose into National Library exhibit
Wide-ranging exhibition ‘Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author’ features the institution’s singular archives and marks 100 years since the Czech author’s death
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
It took some 60 years for the National Library of Israel to exhibit its collection of Franz Kafka’s letters, books, drawings and notebooks, due to a Kafkaesque journey reminiscent of the writer’s hair-raising fictional world.
“Kafka: Metamorphosis of an Author,” opened on December 1 at the National Library of Israel as the literary world marks 100 years since the passing of the Czech author. The exhibit is on display through June 2025.
It’s the first time the national library is displaying some 89 original items from its archives of the 20th-century writer, as one of only three institutions worldwide that hold items from Kafka’s personal and literary archive.
“I started thinking about this exhibit six years ago,” said Stefan Litt, one of the exhibit’s three curators, adding that the library delayed opening the exhibit last June because of the ongoing war.
The devotion and time spent on designing and organizing the collection are clear in this wide-ranging, multi-subject exhibition curated by Litt, Netta Assaf and Karine Shabtai.
On view are original and related items that illuminate Kafka’s life story, his works, his relationships and his attitudes toward Judaism, Yiddish and Zionism.
The first section of the exhibit was designed as a kind of loose maze by exhibition designer and partner curator Hadas Efrat, with several parallel sections. One looks at Kafka’s early family life; another is about his Jewish roots and how he began exploring his Judaism and learning Hebrew while in his early 20s.
There are enlarged versions of his sketches and artworks, some of which preceded his writing, and original pieces commissioned from Israeli artists who were inspired by Kafka’s style.
Another section looks at cultural works, including theater performances, animation and other reenactments of Kafka’s stories.
A castle structure in the middle of one of the galleries pays homage to Kafka’s “The Castle,” his last novel, with more of his original manuscripts and personal letters.
His famous will, in which Kafka asked to burn all his writings after his death, as well as his 100-page “Letter to His Father,” are also on display, as well as Hebrew writing exercises and photos of Kafka with his family and friends.
There are accounts of the women in his life — he was engaged several times but never married — and a mention that Kafka and his last partner dreamed of moving to Tel Aviv and opening a restaurant.
It’s a mix of materials, with first editions of some of his stories, a touching obituary written for Kafka, and scribbled dark jokes that he and his friends shared during World War I. There are even conversation sheets from Kafka’s final days, when he didn’t have the strength to speak any longer.
“It’s designed in order to understand Kafka through his narratives and his life,” said curator Assaf.
The library’s relationship with Kafka began long after the writer’s 1924 death at age 40 from tuberculosis, when Kafka’s best friend, his literary executor Max Brod, flouted his friend’s last wish to burn his unpublished works and instead had them published.
Then, in 1939, as the Nazis occupied Prague, Brod left the Czech Republic on the last train with a suitcase of Kafka’s writings and got on a ship to Israel.
Once in pre-state Israel, Brod was concerned about having Kafka’s writings in his house and handed them to German-Jewish publisher Shlomo Schocken, who had a safe in his basement.
When Brod died in 1969, the treasure trove of materials was passed to Esther Hoffe, a friend of Brod’s who also acted as his secretary and was possibly his lover. Hoffe maintained most of the materials until her own death in 2007, although she did sell one original manuscript of “The Trial,” which was auctioned in 1988 for $2 million.
But the final destination of the materials was ambiguous. The National Library of Israel argued that Kafka’s papers were intended to be donated to the institution, and Hoffe’s daughters claimed that the papers were theirs to sell.
Israel’s Supreme Court decided in 2016 that Kafka’s archive was a cultural asset that was to be deposited at the National Library of Israel, and it arrived there three years later.
There have been several delays in exhibiting the material, including awaiting the opening of the library’s new NIS 860 million ($225 million) building in October 2023.
The exhibit comprises about half of the library’s holdings of Kafka, said Litt, with labels for each item in Hebrew, English and Arabic.
“I asked myself, ‘Who is this guy?'” said Litt, who acknowledged that he sometimes finds Kafka’s works incomprehensible. “That’s the idea of the exhibit. You can leave with more questions than when you arrived, and that’s okay with Kafka.”
