Esther Hoffe
Encyclopedia
Ilse Esther Hoffe was a Jewish woman known for being the secretary and presumed mistress of Max Brod
. Upon his death in 1968, she received a large trove of materials relating to Franz Kafka
. Some of these were sold but most were controversially passed, unreleased to the public, to her two daughters after her own death.
soon after he had escaped Prague
ahead of the Nazi invasion in 1939. After the death of Brod's wife in 1942, he grew very close to the Hoffes. The three took vacations together and Esther became Brod's secretary, with an office in his apartment. The relationship has been described by many who knew them as "ménage à trois
", although romantic connections were never publicly acknowledged and to this day Esther's daughter Eva maintains that no such relationship existed.
Esther was Brod's caretaker as his health declined, and upon his death in 1968 stewardship of his trove of Kafka materials and his own papers passed to her. Because of differing interpretations of Brod's final wishes, it is not clear if she was a beneficiary who gained ownership of the papers, or an executor responsible for eventually fulfilling Brod's intent to hand the papers over to the National Library of Israel.
The unclear nature of Esther's rights did not preclude her from selling some of Kafka's papers. In 1974, approximately 22 letters and 10 postcards from Kafka to Brod were sold in private sales, it is presumed by Hoffe, to buyers in Germany. The next year, she was arrested at the Tel Aviv airport
on suspicion that she was attempting to remove original manuscripts without first filing photocopies with the National Archives, as required by law. Upon search, photocopies of Kafka's letters and purportedly an original diary by Brod were found in her luggage. In 1988, she auctioned at least one more item from the Kafka papers: an original manuscript of The Trial
, which brought approximately $2 million dollars.
The rare sales notwithstanding, in the 40 years between Brod's death and her own, Hoffe maintained a close hold on the papers. They were inventoried by an official archivist in the aftermath of her arrest, but this inventory is believed to be very incomplete, especially as many of the papers were out of the country in Swiss bank deposit boxes. A philologist named Bernhard Echte worked with Hoffe in the 1980s and may have produced the most complete inventory, but copies of this are difficult to obtain. After her Hoffe's death in 2007, the papers and an estimated $1 million dollars in cash passed to her daughters Eva and Ruth. Eva, who lived with her mother for 40 years and now controls the papers, has taken the lead in litigation resulting from the estate, the probate of wish remains contested by the Israeli National Library.
Max Brod
Max Brod was a German-speaking Czech Jewish, later Israeli, author, composer, and journalist. Although he was a prolific writer in his own right, he is most famous as the friend and biographer of Franz Kafka...
. Upon his death in 1968, she received a large trove of materials relating to Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
. Some of these were sold but most were controversially passed, unreleased to the public, to her two daughters after her own death.
Biography
Esther Hoffe and her husband Otto met Max Brod in IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
soon after he had escaped Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
ahead of the Nazi invasion in 1939. After the death of Brod's wife in 1942, he grew very close to the Hoffes. The three took vacations together and Esther became Brod's secretary, with an office in his apartment. The relationship has been described by many who knew them as "ménage à trois
Ménage à trois
Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...
", although romantic connections were never publicly acknowledged and to this day Esther's daughter Eva maintains that no such relationship existed.
Esther was Brod's caretaker as his health declined, and upon his death in 1968 stewardship of his trove of Kafka materials and his own papers passed to her. Because of differing interpretations of Brod's final wishes, it is not clear if she was a beneficiary who gained ownership of the papers, or an executor responsible for eventually fulfilling Brod's intent to hand the papers over to the National Library of Israel.
The unclear nature of Esther's rights did not preclude her from selling some of Kafka's papers. In 1974, approximately 22 letters and 10 postcards from Kafka to Brod were sold in private sales, it is presumed by Hoffe, to buyers in Germany. The next year, she was arrested at the Tel Aviv airport
Ben Gurion International Airport
Ben Gurion International Airport , also referred to by its Hebrew acronym Natbag , is the largest and busiest international airport in Israel, handling 12,160,339 passengers in 2010...
on suspicion that she was attempting to remove original manuscripts without first filing photocopies with the National Archives, as required by law. Upon search, photocopies of Kafka's letters and purportedly an original diary by Brod were found in her luggage. In 1988, she auctioned at least one more item from the Kafka papers: an original manuscript of The Trial
The Trial
The Trial is a novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1925. One of Kafka's best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor the reader.Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never...
, which brought approximately $2 million dollars.
The rare sales notwithstanding, in the 40 years between Brod's death and her own, Hoffe maintained a close hold on the papers. They were inventoried by an official archivist in the aftermath of her arrest, but this inventory is believed to be very incomplete, especially as many of the papers were out of the country in Swiss bank deposit boxes. A philologist named Bernhard Echte worked with Hoffe in the 1980s and may have produced the most complete inventory, but copies of this are difficult to obtain. After her Hoffe's death in 2007, the papers and an estimated $1 million dollars in cash passed to her daughters Eva and Ruth. Eva, who lived with her mother for 40 years and now controls the papers, has taken the lead in litigation resulting from the estate, the probate of wish remains contested by the Israeli National Library.