Salomon Elkan

In 2015, two volumes of journals from Salomon Elkan's library were handed over to the Akademie der Künste in Berlin at the request of the heirs.

Salomon Elkan, born on March 3, 1851 in Mönchsroth/Franconia, was a tailor and lived for a long time in Dortmund, where he founded the Dortmund Chess Club, which still exists today and has been awarding the Salomon Elkan Prize annually since 2012 for special services to the Sparkassen Chess Meeting. Elkan lived in Stuttgart from the mid 1920s until his death on March 6, 1940.

Like his family, Salomon Elkan was persecuted as Jewish. He was married to Rosalie Oppenheimer, born in Heidelberg in 1861. The only son, Benno Elkan, was born on December 2, 1877 in Dortmund and died on January 10, 1960 in London. Benno Elkan founded Dortmund's oldest football club, Dortmunder FC 1895, and was co-founder of FC Bayern Munich in 1900. Benno Elkan became internationally known as a sculptor, his most famous work being the Knesset Menora in Jerusalem. From 1933 Benno Elkan's works were removed from public space in Germany and he was banned from working by the Reich Chamber of Culture ("Reichskulturkammer"). Benno Elkan emigrated to London around 1934 under the pressure of persecution and thus survived the Holocaust.

No conclusions can be drawn about the accession of the volumes; they were part of unprocessed stock and do not contain any indications of the supplier or intermediate owners.

At the request of Salomon Elkan's heirs, the volumes were handed over to the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, where Benno Elkan's estate is kept.