Novel branded as anti-Semitic will go on sale this month

BERLIN -- The publisher of a novel by one of Germany's best-known authors -- whose book was branded anti-Semitic by prominent reviewers -- said the work will go on sale this month so the public can make up its own mind.

Last week a leading German newspaper refused to serialize the book, "Death of a Critic" by Martin Walser, calling it a "document of hate" that panders to Jewish stereotypes.

But Suhrkamp Verlag, one of Germany's most famous literary publishers, decided to issue the book June 26. A statement by Suhrkamp head Guenter Berg said Walser was "an important author" and that reviewers' criticism, based on manuscripts of the book, was "excessive."

"Under those circumstances, the publishing house is doing what it owes to the author and the public: It is publishing the novel, in the version authorized by Martin Walser," Berg said.

Reviewers say the book's main character is modeled on German literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki, a Polish-born Jew and Holocaust survivor. The book's narrator, a writer, comes under suspicion of killing the critic, but at the end the critic is found to have faked his death. Walser denies his book is anti-Semitic and has called it a "comedy" that lambasts the power of television and literary critics.

Reich-Ranicki, speaking on his own TV show Tuesday night, called the book "highly anti-Semitic" but said it should be published nonetheless.

He said he and his wife were shocked by the hate and "murder fantasies" directed against the apparently Jewish main character.

"We are very pained that such a book could be written in Germany in 2002," said Reich-Ranicki, 82.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a newspaper that often serves as a forum for major intellectual debates, announced on its front page May 29 that it would not serialize Walser's new work. Co-publisher Frank Schirrmacher called it a "document of hate" aimed explicitly against a Jew.

The cultural spat coincides with a festering political fight between German Jewish leaders and an opposition party they accuse of condoning anti-Semitism.

Juergen Moellemann, a deputy head of the small Free Democratic Party, stoked the harsh controversy last month by saying that Michel Friedman, a German Jewish representative and sharp-tongued talk show host, could fuel anti-Semitism with his "intolerant, spiteful style."

Germany's Central Council of Jews -- Friedman is its deputy head -- has condemned the remark as anti-Semitic and the worst insult against German Jews since World War II.

The council has refused the party's offer of talks to clear the air unless Moellemann apologizes, which he has made plain he would not.

Council president Paul Spiegel accused Moellemann of trying to win far-right voters for his party in Sept. 22 parliamentary elections.

"He is playing a particular card ... the Sept. 22 election," he said on German TV Tuesday night.

Berlin's Jewish community called a protest in front of the Free Democrats' national headquarters in the capital Wednesday, while the lower house of parliament was to debate anti-Semitism in the election campaign.