Luca D'Ambrosio on Daniel Harrwitz' track

It's due to our member Luca D'Ambrosio that the chess encyclopaedia have to be corrected once again: in his home town Bolzano Luca has discovered the grave of Daniel Harrwitz, the life data of Harrwitz engraved there differ from those previously published, but they are correct with a high probability as to the date of birth and definitely as to the date of death, the latter has been verified by the "Totenbuch" as well as by a mention in the Bozner Zeitung. The new data are:

* 22/02/1821 (Wrocław)
† 02/01/1884 (Bolzano)

You will find a summary of the research results at Edward Winter's Chess Notes No. 6286.

The (German) Wikipedia page on Harrwitz already includes the new life data - see http://de.wikipedia.org/...

Moreover Luca D'Ambrosio has provided us with an article from the Südtiroler SportMagazin (November 2009, p. 28f.): Ein gelüftetes Schachrätsel as well as with a contribution in Italian from Alto Adige: Lo scacco matto allo scacchista (pdf files); additionally a note from the Dolomiten, 28/09/2009, p. 8: Schachgenie ist in Bozen begraben (see image).

It's an interesting detail that Harrwitz lived at that time in rented accomodation in an inn (address: Zollstange 173), in the commune of Zwölfmalgreien. The picture below from the year 1914 shows the building where Harrwitz had lived. In Harrwitz' times however the inn had a different name: from a postcard of 1887 we take the name "Gasthof Rainer" [Rainer Inn], probably the name was identical three years before.
The a.m. commune was incorporated into the town of Bolzano in 1911 and the street names were changed.

G. Sessa: Die Stadt Bozen in den Ansichtskarten 1890-1940.
Gardolo: edizioni ARCA, 1989, p. 135
Gasthof Rosengarten, Mühlgasse, 1914 (Ansicht A)

The building was located near by the railway station and has been severely damaged by bombings in World War II. Nevertheless some parts of the house have remained and about midyear 1984 were classified as an historical monument. The picture of the "Raiffeisenkasse" in the SportMagazin shows the former outside wall of the inn with the four square windows and the green shutters.

We congratulate Luca D'Ambrosio to this remarkable success, and we wish him all the best for the Harrwitz book planned by him later on!