# Is "The Castle" by Franz Kafka a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Castle by Franz Kafka (Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1926) is identified by: First printing of the German true first: 'Das Schloss', Kurt Wolff Verlag, Munich, 1926, with Max Brod's afterword. The German 'Das Schloss' (Kurt Wolff Verlag, Munich, 1926) is the true first edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing of the German true first: 'Das Schloss', Kurt Wolff Verlag, Munich, 1926, with Max Brod's afterword
- Octavo, [vi] + 504 pp
- Publisher's blue cloth with printed paper labels to the spine and front board (labels are characteristically age-toned; spine label lettered in red); a scarcer issue in blue printed wrappers with a typographic cover label designed by Georg Salter is also recorded — both are publisher's issues and no priority between them is established
- About 1,500 copies were printed and the edition sold well short of that, which accounts for its scarcity
- The rare printed dust jacket carries Hermann Hesse's description of Kafka as 'König der deutschen Sprache'
- No printing statement or number line: identify by the Kurt Wolff Verlag imprint and the 1926 date
- Publisher imprint reads Kurt Wolff Verlag

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Franz Kafka |
| Publisher | Kurt Wolff Verlag |
| Year | 1926 |
| True first | British edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First printing of the German true first: 'Das Schloss', Kurt Wolff Verlag, Munich, 1926, with Max Brod's afterword |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First printing of the German true first: 'Das Schloss', Kurt Wolff Verlag, Munich, 1926, with Max Brod's afterword. Octavo, [vi] + 504 pp. Publisher's blue cloth with printed paper labels to the spine and front board (labels are characteristically age-toned; spine label lettered in red); a scarcer issue in blue printed wrappers with a typographic cover label designed by Georg Salter is also recorded — both are publisher's issues and no priority between them is established. About 1,500 copies were printed and the edition sold well short of that, which accounts for its scarcity. The rare printed dust jacket carries Hermann Hesse's description of Kafka as 'König der deutschen Sprache'. No printing statement or number line: identify by the Kurt Wolff Verlag imprint and the 1926 date. Two independent ABAA/specialist descriptions agree on the blue cloth, paper labels, collation and Hesse jacket.

## Is this the true first?
The German 'Das Schloss' (Kurt Wolff Verlag, Munich, 1926) is the true first edition. The census claim that Secker, London, 1930 PRECEDES Knopf, New York, 1930 is NOT confirmed and is corrected here: dealers citing the standard Kafka bibliography (Angel Flores, cited as 'Flores, 15') record the Knopf first English translation as 'published simultaneously with the British edition'. Both 1930 English firsts carry the Willa and Edwin Muir translation with an introduction by Edwin Muir, and both are collected: Martin Secker, London, 1930 (note the imprint is Martin Secker — not Secker & Warburg, which did not exist until 1936; the frequent 'Secker & Warburg 1930' attribution, including on Wikipedia, is an anachronism) and Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1930, in publisher's grey cloth stamped in black and blue with a grey top-edge stain. No precedence should be asserted between the two English editions.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue of the 1926 Kurt Wolff first is documented; the cloth-with-labels and printed-wrappers states are publisher's issues, not club issues. For the English text the traps are 'first thus': later Secker, Secker & Warburg, Knopf, Modern Library and Schocken printings of the Muir translation, editions incorporating Brod's additional material, and the later re-translations (Harman, Underwood, Bell) are separate editions rather than printings of the 1930 firsts. A rebound copy lacking the original cloth and labels cannot be authenticated on binding evidence and must be identified from the imprint and date alone.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Castle* by Franz Kafka a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-castle
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.