Arthur Kaufmann (chess player)

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Arthur Kaufmann (born April 4, 1872 in Jassy , Romania ; † July 25, 1938 in Vienna ) was an Austrian lawyer and chess master.

Life

Kaufmann was born in Jassy as the second son of a wealthy Jewish merchant family, but at a young age he moved with his mother and siblings to Vienna, where he also attended university . He studied law , but also attended literary-historical and philosophical lectures and was awarded a Dr. jur. PhD. He worked as a legal intern for a short time, but his financial situation allowed him to live as a private citizen .

Kaufmann saw himself primarily as a philosopher. He had a comprehensive philosophical work in mind, on which he worked for decades with a view to Kant and Goethe , but without getting to its publication. His only publication was an essay on the theory of relativity , and he also worked on a philosophical fairy tale, which, like his entire estate, is lost.

Kaufmann regularly attended the Vienna Chess Club and achieved international renown as a chess player. For reasons unknown, he retired from chess in 1917. With his best historical rating of 2637, he was in eighth place in the recalculated world rankings in January 1917. In June 1917, Kaufmann spent a few weeks in the Purkersdorf sanatorium near Vienna because of endangering his mental health.

He had a close friendship with Arthur Schnitzler , who noted encounters with Kaufmann in his diary and repeatedly expressed his respect for Kaufmann's character. In his will, Schnitzler appointed him, alongside Richard Beer-Hofmann , as an advisor to his son Heinrich on estate issues. This estate and the records and letters contained therein represent the most important source on Kaufmann's life and thought.

Impoverished by the First World War , Kaufmann and his younger sister Malwine (1875 Vaslui - 1923 Vienna) first lived in Mariazell in 1918/19 , then in Altaussee from 1920–1922 , as life in the country was cheaper than in the big city. Since 1923 Kaufmann lived for about ten years as a guest of the Gutmann industrial family at their Würting Castle near Offenhausen in Upper Austria (the founder of the Paneuropean Union , Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi also enjoyed such hospitality in Würting for a number of years) before he did another Moved into apartment in Vienna. On July 25, 1938, Kaufmann died of a second heart death, according to a death certificate. According to Urcan / Braunwarth, some circumstances of his demise indicate suicide. He was buried in the Israelite section of the Vienna Central Cemetery; his grave was destroyed by bombs. He appointed his nieces Alice Kaufmann and Sophie Kaufmann (daughters of his brother Ludwig Kaufmann) as heiresses, who at that time (and also after the Second World War ) lived in rue Molitor 56 in Paris. All attempts to locate Kaufmann's written estate or images relating to his life were unsuccessful.

publication

  • Arthur Kaufmann: On the theory of relativity. Epistemological discussions. In: The new Mercury. 3, 1919/20, pp. 587-594.

literature

Monographs

  • Olimpiu G. Urcan, Peter Michael Braunwarth: Arthur Kaufmann. A chess biography 1872–1938. Foreword by Mihail Marin. Jefferson: McFarland 2012.

Essays and lexicon articles

  • Hans Blumenberg: Schnitzler's philosopher . In: Hans Blumenberg, Die Verführbarkeit des Philosophen . Edited by Manfred Sommer. Frankfurt / Main Suhrkamp 2000, pp. 153-162.
  • Michael Ehn : “The most agonizing and noble of all games”. Arthur Kaufmann and Arthur Schnitzler - the story of a friendship. In: KARL 1/2010, pp. 36-39.
  • Jeremy Gaibe: Chess Personalia: A Bio-Bibliography. Jefferson: McFarland 2005, p. 207.
  • Kenneth Whyld, David Hooper: The Oxford Companion to Chess. Oxford: Oxford University Press 1996, p. 195.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See section Publication
  2. ↑ Urcan / Braunwarth 2012, p. 75
  3. ↑ Arthur Kaufmann at chessmetrics.com (English)
  4. ↑ Arthur Schnitzler: Letters 1913-1931 . Ed .: Peter Michael Braunwarth, Richard Miklin, Susanne Pertlik and Heinrich Schnitzler. S. Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 1984, p. 882 .
  5. ↑ Arthur Schnitzler: Diary 1879–1931, ed. from the Commission for literary forms of use of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 10 vols., Vienna 1981-2000.
  6. ↑ And not, as is often found wrong: Vöslau.
  7. ↑ Urcan / Braunwarth, p. 133: “While putting together the existing evidence summarized above is by no means an act devoid of a certain, even if minimal, dose of speculation, it appears that Kaufmann's death was in fact a suicide.”
  8. ↑ On the subject of “images” see Urcan / Braunwarth, pp. 238–241.
personal data
SURNAME Kaufmann, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer, private philosopher and chess master
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH Jassy , Romania
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1938
Place of death Vienna