Kafka's Cat Woes

Franz Kafka stars in his own Kafkaesque story. This time he is the phantom protagonist in an ill-fated legal fight spearheaded by Eva and Ruti Hoffe.

Last week, The New York Times published an article by Elif Batuman (“Kafka’s Last Trial”) documenting her experience in Tel Aviv where the Hoffe sisters continue their two-year custody battle over Kafka’s unpublished manuscripts. Currently it is rumored they are stored in their Tel Aviv flat shared with an “untold number of cats”.

Batuman’s article is the latest coverage to be included detailing the trial regarding Kafka’s lost works.
The Hoffe sisters have caused a literary scandal for attempting to sell the remainder of Kafka’s unpublished works to 
the German Literature Archive in Marbach. Israel claims to control the intellectual property of Kafka after his beneficiary, Max Brod, fled to Israel with a suitcase of Kafka’s manuscripts before the brink of World War II. 


Prior articles published have scrutinized exactly how many cats the Hoffe sisters own (rumors suggest somewhere between 40 to 100). Journalists continue to backhandedly speculate how sane can the Hoffe sisters be to house the lost works of Kafka with a milieu of cats? (“Last week in court, Eva Hoffe’s sweater was covered in animal hairs, possibly originating from a cat or cats,” recounted American writer Avi Steinberg to Batuman.)

Just how the Hoffe sisters came to claim guardianship over the works of one of the most influential writers of the 20th century is a story worthy of Kafka himself. A dying Kafka wrote, “Dearest Max, My last request: Everything I leave behind me [is] to be burned unread.”

Unto which Max then published a few of Kafka's most notable works (“The Trial” and “Amerika”), and in a fit of paranoia imparted the rest to his assistant (rumored to be his lover), who then sold some for a large sum, and finally after succumbing at the ripe age of 101, bequeathed the remainder to her two seventy-something cat-loving daughters. In essence, summing up a long tangled history filled with false promises, legal rebuff, and cat grooming.

The cats seemed to have brought more attention to the handling of Kafka’s texts by highlighting the eccentricity of the elderly sisters’ odd behavior for owning such a large number of cats. Eva Hoffe is regularly referred to by names like “batty old cat lady” by others weighing in on the matter. Even the Israeli National Library is alarmed on the possible affects the cats may have had on the manuscripts.

While approaching the Hoffe’s home, Batuman recounts observing “a large protruding window, enclosed by two layers of metal grillwork, lay an indistinct heap of cats...” Batuman had even taken the time to bring cat toys along for the journey, engaging a kitten with an artificial mouse. At this point, it is possible the cats have taken over the residence of what is left of Kafka’s papers, bringing them no closer to the public’s eager hands.