„Der Schach-Verein Bitterfeld“ and much more!

From its beginnings around 1880 to 1945

Konrad Reiß - Der Schach-Verein Bitterfeld - frontcover
Konrad Reiß - Der Schach-Verein Bitterfeld - frontcover

by Siegfried Schönle [Original article in German is here. Translation with DeepL.com (free version)]

Bitterfeld - who doesn't know this place name in East and West Germany and associate it above all with brown coal, the chemical industry, the so-called “Bitterfeld Way” in literature, environmental pollution and now also

- chess on 358 pages!

I would like to contradict a possible reaction to the name Schach-Verein Bitterfeld (Bitterfeld Chess Club) right at the beginning and point out what the reader of this book can expect in terms of “much more”. But first things first!

A wealth and variety of problem chess from the Bitterfelder Tageblatt, expertly explained by Dr. Ralf Jürgen Binnewirtz in his foreword. Ralf J. Binnewirtz also checked the individual “lightweights” for their coherence. In the appendix, p. 333ff, he provides a “historical excursus on the Chinese family” in order to gain “clarity on the development of the Chinese pieces in problem chess”. The reason for his reflections was the discovery of the “Paoma” article by Prof. Dr. P. Seyferth from Bitterfeld in 1936.
Problem chess fans should be delighted.

I would like to emphasize two things from the foreword by the author, Konrad Reiß. He has rightly worked through the life and chess history of the Jewish merchant Max Nussbaum in this chronology (pp. 169-177 and others) and, this should also be emphasized, he has formulated it in an appropriate and source-oriented manner in terms of chess and history. As Konrad Reiß's research has shown, Max Nussbaum was a co-founder of the Bitterfeld chess club, was excluded from the board in 1933 like thousands of other Jews and was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
The reader will be interested!

It is therefore incomprehensible, and in no way comprehensible in terms of content, that the Ministry of the Interior of Saxony-Anhalt felt it had to dispense with an announced foreword because of this balanced portrayal of the fascist era.
Interested readers will be able to form their own opinion!

The names of the club chairmen Dr. Paul Seyferth and Dr. Krahnstöver may be of local significance, club names such as Wolfen, Sandersdorf, Weißenfels, Holzweißig and others may sound strange, but a glance at the double-page “Handkarte des Kreises Bitterfeld” (p.352-353) shows that in this book the chess history of a central German region is historically reconstructed and this alone arouses increased interest.
The reader may form his own picture!

This series of names alone testifies to supra-regional importance: Ranneforths Schachkalender, Max Blümich, Jacques Mieses, Arbeiter-Schach, Kraft durch Freude, Rudolf Spielmann, Schachrakete, Alfred Brinkmann - and “much more” - as the reader can see from the table of contents!

Years of research and hours of searching in archives led Konrad Reiß to interesting discoveries. The newspaper “Bitterfelder-Schach-Rakete”, p. 29f et al. is the only known complete copy of this club publication, which is kept in the German Library in Leipzig. This find was worth a separate publication by the historian Konrad Reiß in 2023: Die Schach-Rakete zur besseren Beleuchtung des Schachspiels und des Schachvereins Bitterfeld. 1924-1927.

The book in the pleasant 170 x 250 format is very reader-friendly. The numerous photos, diagrams, historical illustrations based on preserved postcards, newspaper cuttings, facsimiles, notations and also the map have been printed in high quality and in an appropriate size.
This will invite the reader to leaf through and read!

The magnificent book can be ordered from:

Konrad Reiß / SG 1871 Löberitz
Oskar-Fleischer-Straße 11
D 06780 Zörbig

The price can be obtained from the author: Konrad Reiß

Siegfried Schönle, August 2024

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