At the grave of Adolf Anderssen

(*1818-07-06 †1879-03-18)

We could take advantage of our spring holiday in the smallest German low mountain range, the Zittau mountains located in the most southeastern tip of Germany, to go for a day trip to the city of Anderssen, Zukertort and Tarrasch. My Polish friend Tomasz Lissowski from Warsaw had kindly offered to take upon himself the long journey (about 400 km) to the west in order to show us the rich in tradition metropolis on the Oder, together with his acquaintance Ryszard Wieckowski resident in Wrocław and being honorary chairman of the Wrocław Chess Association. It’s true the journey via Görlitz and Bunzlaw (Polish: Boleslawiec) and the – unfortunately only single-lane – autobahn A4 was quite arduous and also the weather was rather lousy but nevertheless the trip to the Silesian metropolis with nearly 700,000 inhabitants was really worthwhile.

A trip to Adolf Anderssen’s grave in the cemetery "Osobowicki" which is exemplarily tended by the Polish chess friends was as well part of it as a tour of the "Dominsel" (Isle of cathedrals) – the oldest part of the city, no more an island for a long time – and of the fantastically restored marketplace (Rynek) and the adjacent salt market – a magnificent backdrop for the historic city hall.

Some further photos of the grave in our slideshow.

Wrocław was destroyed at 70 per cent in World War II, we were impressed by the reconstruction of the historic old town centre. Some pictures of our tour may substantiate this unique backdrop in spite of the bad weather.
(>> picture gallery)

My thanks go to Tomasz Lissowski and Ryszard Wieckowski for their excellent guided tour and for the impressive papers handed over to us, the Wrocław chess friends cared about the latter in memory of the great chess master who spent his whole life in Wrocław. I would like to add to this article a coloured leaflet in Polish and a four-page elaboration in German.

Anderssen’s grave (i.e. the well preserved obelisk and the gravestone of granite) was transferred from the original burial place to the "Allee der Verdienten", a plaque in several languages originally of bronze was recently stolen (nonferrous metals are very sought-after) and immediately replaced from private means by a plaque of granite. You may excuse the very committed Polish chess friends for the grammatically minor inaccuracies. (M.N.)