Chess collector and chess historian Egbert Meissenburg died (1937-2023)

by ChessBase
1/22/2024 – The internationally renowned chess collector, bibliographer and chess historian Egbert Meissenburg died on 29 December last year. For more than 50 years he published numerous essays and writings on chess history. In an obituary on the website of the German Chess Federation Siegfried Schönle pays tribute to Meissenburg. | Photo: Egbert Meissenburg 2007 (Siegfried Schönle)
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EGBERT MEISSENBURG (26.6.1937 - 29.12.2023)

Obituary by Siegfried Schönle (published by the German Chess Federation)

As a chess historian, as a bibliographer for various areas of chess (correspondence chess, biography and bibliography of Emanuel Lasker, etc.), as a collector and also as a connoisseur of Stefan Zweig's The Royal Game, Meissenburg was known not only in specialist circles.

He was a notary and lawyer by profession. He was valued for his meticulous research, his emphasis on source-orientated working methods and his numerous publications. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, refers to some 90 entries in its catalogue. Among other things he researched the life of Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, a 19th century chess historian, not only on his computer at home, but also several times at the Polska Akademia Nauk in Kórnik, south of Poznań.

A sign of his appreciation is the commemorative publication of almost 900 pages designed by around 50 authors (Siegfried Schönle [ed.] Festschrift for Egbert Meissenburg. Chess research. Vindobona (Vienna), edition: 2008 / 2009 : Refordis Verlag).

He leaves a painful gap for the study of chess history, but not only for chess history.

Our sympathy and condolences go to his wife and all his relatives.

Siegfried Schönle, January 2024

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