Franz Kafka – First Edition of "The Great Wall of China" / Three Volumes from the First Edition of His Collected ...

Franz Kafka – First Edition of "The Great Wall of China" / Three Volumes from the First Edition of His Collected Works – Berlin, 1931-1935
Four books by Franz Kafka – first editions. Berlin, 1931-1935.
1. Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, ungedruckte Erzählungen und Prosa aus dem Nachlaß [The Great Wall of China, unpublished stories and prose, from the estate], edited by Max Brod and Joachim Schoeps. Berlin: Gustav Kiepenheuer, 1931.
266 pp, [3] leaves, 19 cm. Good condition. Stains. Blue cloth covered boards, faded at the spine, with minor stains. Tears along the spine. Inked stamps and pen notations to front endpaper and first page.
2-4. Franz Kafka / Gesammelte Schriften [Franz Kafka, Collected Works]. Edited by Max Brod. Berlin: Schocken, 1935. Volumes 1, 2 and 4 (of a series of seven volumes).
Three volumes from the first edition of the collected works of Franz Kafka, edited by Max Brod. Volume 1 contains short stories and passages of prose, volume 2, the novel "Amerika" ("The Man Who Disappeared") and volume 4, the novel "The Castle".
Max Brod and Franz Kafka were long-time close friends. In his will, Kafka instructed Brod to destroy his works. Brod, who was appointed as executor of Kafka's will, ignored the request and published Kafka's writings after his death, including the three novels "The Trial", "The Castle" and "The Man who Disappeared". Brod also published Kafka's diaries and wrote his biography. In 1933, publication of works by Jewish writers was forbidden in Germany. Schocken, as a Jewish publishing house, was the only press permitted to publish Jewish writers, on condition that their books be sold only to Jews. At the time, Max Brod, through Dr. Moshe Spitzer, granted Schocken the copyrights to Kafka’s writings. The first four volumes, published by Schocken, were printed in Germany in 1935. Later, Kafka and Brod’s names were added by the Nazi regime to the list of banned authors. As a result, the publishing house transferred part of its operation to Prague where the last three volumes were printed.
Volume 1: 280 pp, Volume 2: 315 pp; Volume 4: 425 pp, approx. 19 cm. Good condition. Stains. Inked stamps and pen notations to endpapers. Minor blemishes to bindings. Tears to spines (open tear to one spine. One spine partly detached).