I have never used it myself, but Class has a getSuperclass method - it
sound as if it will do it.

Arne

Start with a java.lang.Class object, obtained either from an instance

   int.getClass()

or a name

   Class.forName(name);

On the Class you'll find methods to get the superclass, the interfaces
implemented, the fields, the methods, etc.  The classes that represent the
other objects used in reflection (Method, Field, etc.) are found in
java.lang.reflect.  Read the documentation carefully to see exactly what
each method returns, for instance

   Class.getFields()
       -- all *public* methods, including those inherited from superclasses
   Class.getDeclaredFields()
       -- all methods declared *by this class*

The facility is quite powerful, and, except for method bytecode, gives you
almost everything you'd get from opening up the classfile and reading it
yourself.  (The one thing I've wanted but couldn't get is whether the field
is a compile-time constant or not.  This information is in the classfile,
but AFAICT not made available via reflection.)