Johannes Zukertort - Early Life and Non-chess Achievements

Early Life and Non-chess Achievements

Zukertort was born 7 September 1842 in Lublin, Congress Poland. He said that his mother was the Baroness Krzyżanowska (Krzyzanovska). His father was a Christian Protestant missionary of Jewish origin. The Christian mission among the Jewish population in Russian-occupied Poland was considered an illegal activity. Therefore, the Zukertort family emigrated to Prussia. He was educated at the gymnasium of Breslau, and in 1866 at the University of Breslau, from which he graduated in medicine in 1866. As a member of the medical corps of the German army he saw service in 1866, and again during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870–71.

Zukertort's may have embelished some of his achievements. In an account of his life for the Norfolk News in 1872 he claimed aristocratic descent, fluency in nine languages (fourteen, acc. to other sources), proficiency in swordsmanship, dominoes and whist; said he had played 6,000 games of chess with Adolf Anderssen, fought in numerous battles and was awarded seven medals besides the Order of the Red Eagle and the Iron Cross. He also found time to get an M.D. at Breslau in 1865 and work on the staff of Bismarck's private organ the Allgemeine Zeitung in addition to writing two chess books and working as the editor of a chess magazine for several years. "There is some truth in the last sentence: he was co-author of the books, co-editor of the chess magazine."