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EASTERN EUROPEAN RESEARCH YIELDS NEW LEADS

In 2008, the Kafka Project came closer to pinpointing the location of Franz Kafka’s missing notebooks and letters. Through media coverage by Czech and Polish newspapers, magazines and radio, and working with libraries and universities, we promoted the search in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. We learned that if Kafka’s lost writings still exist, they are safely buried among top-secret documents in closed archives in Poland. Time and patience is required, but we knew that. In the meanwhile, in order to build interest and urgency, we are joining with German and Polish scholars, writers, academics, historians and government officials. For more information, read the summary of the Final Report 2008 Eastern European Research.

ARMCHAIR TRAVEL WITH FRANZ KAFKA & DORA DIAMANT

If you missed the Kafka Project’s tour to Eastern Europe this summer, you can still follow the steps of our intrepid travelers, several of whom are terrific writers and photographers who contributed greatly to the Magical Mystery Literary History Blog. The link is available at www.kpbs.org/kafkaproject, or go to KPBS.org, and click on Commentaries. Don’t miss Glenda Winders report From Prague to Krakow; or the Lessons of Auschwitz, written by 14-year old Taylor Peterson. See Steve Schlesinger’s terrific photos. And Byron LaDue shares weird aspects of the trip in The View From Kafka’s Head.

SOLVING A LITERARY MYSTERY

The Kafka Project is the official search to recover the last writings of Franz Kafka, working on behalf of the Kafka Estate of London, England. Under the auspices of San Diego State University's College of Arts and Letters since 1998, the Kafka Project has worked with the German government for the discovery and return of Kafka's unpublished letters and notebooks. Building on the results of the last search conducted by Max Brod and Klaus Wagenbach in the mid-1950s, the Kafka Project is a non-profit volunteer organization, funded by donations, pooling resources, skills and knowledge to resolve a literary mystery.

The missing Kafka material was confiscated from Kafka's last companion, Dora Diamant, in a Gestapo raid of her residence in Berlin in 1933. At Kafka's request, before his death, she burned some of his work. But she saved much more than she burned, including 35 letters and 20 notebooks. Learn more about Dora Diamant.