"Deutsche Bundesform" - I find myself in the situation of having to answer my own post - but here is an interesting answer to it, and a bit of information.
The answer arrives in the first number - english language version - of the excellent german culture-oriented magazine "Karl" - see here. Karl has been around for 8 years, has established a reputation for superbly researched historical and culture-oriented articles on chess - and now has decided to conquer the english language market, where only New in Chess Magazine provides on occasion similar material (of top quality, ofcourse).
It seems the Nazi authorities and the local Munich Nazi tops wanted to spare no effort ot make the Munich 1936 Olympiad a resounding success for the "New Germany" they were propagating. Part of preparation was to have a new chess set designed - the one mentioned above - in order to repel the Staunton sets invented in "treacherous Albion", and adopted by a still fledlging FIDE.
Please read the whole article by Michael Negele (of the Ken Whyld Association), it is very interesting. Certainly a few hundred sets were made, and used throughout the Munich event.
These chess pieces seem to have had a long life after the war in German clubs, until replaced as is natural by newer pieces. The average life span of a wooden set in active club life will rarely exceed 30 years, because pieces get lost, broken, or simply chipped and chapped - and club members change as well.
For the "Bundesform" set, it remains to determine who designed these sets, in which manufactury(ies) were they produced, and where did the postwar set in the same style originate from.
9 Comments
|
Nicholas R. Lanier
Infected with chess fever at an early age - never recovered.... Archives
April 2009
Categories
All
|