“Der Jäger Gracchus” is a short story written during the first part of 1917. Like so much of Kafka’s work, it was published posthumously, and in defiance of the writer’s wish that his work be destroyed after his death. It appeared first in 1931 as part of a collection of previously unpublished or incomplete writings with Berlin’s Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag. Kafka’s friend and literary executor, Max Brod, and the academic and historian Hans-Joachim Schoeps, compiled and edited the volume under the title Bein Bau Der Chinesischen: Ungedruckte Erzählungen Und Prosa Aus Dem Nachlaß [The Great Wall of China: Unpublished Stories and Prose from the Literary Estate]. The short story is sometimes presented alongside an additional fragment of text that records an interview between the hunter and an anonymous speaker, possibly the Burgomaster of Riva who greets Gracchus...
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Citation: Armond, Kate. "Der Jäger Gracchus". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 March 2026 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=14608, accessed 09 June 2026.]
