Accusations against one of Germany's leading authors have caused a major literary scandal and fuelled political debate about anti-Semitism, writes Derek Scally in Berlin

Martin Walser is definitely not the first author to wish a literary critic dead. But when Walser, one of Germany's leading authors, realised his fantasy in his latest novel, Tod eines Kritikders (Death of a Critic), he found himself at the centre of Germany's biggest literary scandal in years.

The controversy has fed into a running debate in Germany that has seen leading politicians defending themselves against charges of anti-Semitism. Walser's novel and the anti-Semitism debate have proved to be volatile fuel for what until now was a slow-burning debate.

The fuse was lit when the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper (FAZ), cancelled its planned serialisation of Walser's book.

Frank Schirmacher, one of the newspaper's publishers and its literary editor, explained his decision in an open letter to his readers. He said the book was a "document of hate . . . toying with the full repertoire of anti-Semitic cliches".

The book depicts an author seething with anger after an attack from a famous literary critic who happens to be Jewish. The fictional critic is a thinly-veiled version of Marcel Reich-Ranicki, one of Germany's most feted critics, famous for his Literary Circle television programme and his brutal critiques of even his favourite authors. He is also Schirrmacher's predecessor as literary editor at the FAZ.

Reich-Ranicki recently published a best-selling autobiography, telling how he was the only member of his immediate family to survive the Holocaust in the Warsaw Ghetto.

When, at the end of Death of a Critic, Walser's fictional critic turns out not to be dead at all, his wife remarks that "getting himself killed would be out of character".

"This is the sentence that left me speechless", said Schirrmacher in the FAZ. "I cannot help finding this sentence, which turns the knack for either surviving or 'getting oneself killed' into a personality trait, nothing short of horrifying".

Schirrmacher's letter concluded: "We will not print a novel that toys with the idea of finishing off what the Nazis did not accomplish". Walser, 75, is rated with Günter Grass as one of Germany greatest living authors. But in recent years his outbursts have overshadowed his 50-year writing career.

He stirred up controversy in 1998 after winning the German book industry's Peace Prize, one of the country's highest honours. He used his acceptance speech to call for an end to Jews using Auschwitz as a "moral club" to keep punishing the Germans.

He fanned the flames later by adding that the punishing terms of the Versailles Treaty created Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.

Two of his staunchest defenders against charges of anti-Semitism at the time were Schirrmacher and Reich-Ranicki himself. Last week the critic said he had been wrong to defend the author. Death of a Critic was "atrocious literature", he said, adding that, in his opinion, "Walser has never written such a dreadful book".

"The fantasies of murder in this book seriously upset both my wife and me," he said. "In our long lives - we are now 82 years old - we have met often enough with the intention to murder us. But we never expected that such a book could be written by a well-known and highly-regarded German author in the year 2002."

Nevertheless, he urged that the book be published, so that "every reader has a chance to read what Walser has written and how he has written it".

Walser attacked the decision to cancel the serialisation as a "public execution" of his work.

He has threatened to sue the FAZ publisher for libel and is considering leaving Germany and moving to Austria.

Several newspapers have come to Walser's defence, including the influential weekly newspaper Die Zeit.

It dismissed the central accusation that the book and its author are anti-Semitic as "moral correctness" and attacked the decision of the FAZ to pass judgment on the book before it was published.

"At the end of the day, this is not about facts or the truth but about winning territory in the war of opinions," the newspaper wrote, suggesting the FAZ made a calculated decision with an eye on another running controversy in Germany.

A politican from the small Free Democratic Party has been labelled an anti-Semite after saying a leader of Germany's Jewish community fuelled the spread of anti-Semitism in Germany with his "intolerant, hateful style".

The two controversies have now intermingled into a confusing and devisive debate about Germany's relationship with Israel and its growing Jewish community.

Following the rise of Le Pen in France and Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands, Germany is "playing with fire", warned Der Spiegel magazine on its cover last week.

Walser told German gossip magazine Bunte last February that he was working on "a scandalous novel" that would "be the media's theme of the season".

But now Walser, a far from publicity-shy author, has found himself caught up in a controversy that has taken even him by surprise.

He maintains that his book is a "comedy about critics exercising their power in the culture industry".

The current controversy over the FAZ decision and Reich-Ranicki's reaction to the book prove his point, he says.

"This man is so used to using his power that he cannot resist this opportunity," he said.

But this time, Marcel Reich-Ranicki's damnation of a book has had the opposite effect. Death of a Critic will be published ahead of schedule in two weeks and is already a guaranteed best-seller.