Esther Hoffe

Ilse Esther Hoffe (also Esther Hope, born May 8, 1906 in Opava, † September 2, 2007 in Tel Aviv) was the secretary and companion of the writer and publisher of Kafka, Max Brod.

Life

Hope met Max Brod after their escape from Prague through France and Germany to Palestine to know in the 1940s.

After Brod's death in 1968 she inherited the literature historically significant estate, including the correspondence of Max Brod and important manuscripts to the work of Franz Kafka. Hoffe handling this estate has been repeatedly criticized, in particular that they repeatedly from parts sold or let auctioned at auctions without that she was willing to cooperate with the literary research. In this way, arrived in 1988 with The Process, the last remaining privately owned manuscript of Kafka's novel after an auction at Sotheby's auction house in a public collection in the German Literature Archive in Marbach. At the auction $ 1,980,000 has been made, the highest price ever paid for a manuscript of modern literature.

Other parts of Brod and Kafka's estate, however, remained inaccessible in their possession. After her death at the age of 101 years, literary scholars do hope to be able to open up the estate.

In early January, 2010, a court in Tel Aviv, that Eva Hoffe and Ruth Wiesler ( 1932-2012 ), two daughters, Esther Hoffe, until January 15, 2010 with the Israeli National Archives and the National Library on access to five bank lockers with manuscripts Kafka must agree, otherwise the safes of the Court would be opened for forcibly.

On 20 January 2010, announced that the opening was arranged. Government agencies in Israel doubt that the daughters of Brod - heiress are entitled to the discount. A court-appointed expert should now review the legality of the deed of gift of Max Brod to the Hope family. The sisters want to sell the estate of Brod and Kafka the remaining documents to the German Literature Archive in Marbach. Israel sees the rightful place in the National Library in Jerusalem.