Erich Toeplitz: Benno Elkan* Summary and Analysis by Sara
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Erich Toeplitz: Benno Elkan* Summary and Analysis by Sara Soussan, Jewish Museum Frankfurt Fig. 1: Benno Elkan in his workshop in the Carmelite Monastery, Frankfurt am Main, 1926 (from Hans Menzel- Severing: The sculptor Benno Elkan. Dortmund 1980) In 1929, the Jewish art historian Erich Toeplitz describes the contemporary Jewish artist and sculptor Benno Elkan in his article in the Jewish family journal “Menorah”, who later also became famous for his menorah sculpture in front of the Jerusalem Knesset. He created this sculpture in the years 1949–1956 and made it a newer national symbol – not only because of the reference to the temple menorah, but with the numerous appliqué depictions of central moments in Jewish history. Fig. 2: Knesset menorah in Jerusalem by Benno Elkan, 1949-1956, photo: From Proesi in Wikipedia in German, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1963670) * Published in German in: Menorah. Jüdisches Familienblatt für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Literatur, Vol 7 (1929), no. 9–10 (September 1929), pp. 455–458, English translation by Christopher Wynne. – 1 – Benno Elkan was born in Dortmund on December 2nd, 1877. After studying art, he lived temporarily in Rome and Paris, where he met Auguste Rodin, who made a deep impression on him. He turned exclusively to sculpture and developed his skills autodidactically. He was drafted as a soldier in 1914, after the First World War he lived with his family in Frankfurt, where he became Chairman of the Artists' Council in 1919. Fig. 3: Memorial for “Heroes' Lament/To The Victims" in the Gallusanlage in Frankfurt by Benno Elkan, 1920, photo: Frank Behnsen at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons_Elkan.jpg) Toeplitz describes Elkan's work with great pride and great admiration, especially with regard to the growing Jewish self-confidence in all areas: „[…] it is a source of satisfaction to find Jews among the leading artists also in the field of plastic art […]“. He also emphasizes his ability to incorporate his worldview and individuality into the commissioned work. His memorial to the fallen in World War I was unveiled in 1920 in the Gallusanlage in Frankfurt and is entitled “Heroes' Lament/To The Victims2. It shows a grieving woman, with this Elkan distances himself clearly from the contemporary heroic warrior monuments. The author attests Elkan an inherent empathy, which is expressed in his art: „[…] with a sincere love of it and a tender and sensitive understanding for its human purpose […]“ Elkan’s sculpture was discussed controversially, his son Wolf describes the situation: “The only inscription was: 'To the victims.' This memorial soon became quite famous in Germany and beyond Germany's borders because it seemed to express the universal pain and sacrifice that the war had for everyone, for brought to every wife and mother in every country. But soon after the unveiling of this monument, some of the smaller newspapers belonging to a group that called – 2 – themselves 'Deutsch-Völkisch' at the time began attacking my father and calling his monument 'un- German'.” In 1934 Elkan and his family fled from the Nazis to London, where he died in 1960. He created numerous memorials, busts, medals and grave monuments, but also a few juadaica objects. The collection of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt contains a Hanukkia by Benno Elkan, which has been on view in the new permanent exhibition since October 2020. He made at least three copies, nothing else is known about other specimens. Fig. 3: Hanukkah candlestick “The Five Maccabees”, Frankfurt around 1925, with Hebrew inscription: Who is like You among the gods, Lord (Exodus 15:11), bronze, 68.8 x 77.5 cm, Jewish Museum Frankfurt The chandelier cannot actually be used for lighting the lights for Hanukkah (according to the Halakhah all brackets for the candles should be on one line, see Shulchan Aruch, Rama 671:4), as Elkan arranges the vessels for the lamps in ascending order. The five Maccabees (Jochanan, Schimon, Jehuda, Eleasar, Jonathan) can be seen as strong fighters who led the revolt against the Who is like you among) מי כמוך באלים ה‘ Hellenistic-Seleucid oppression. The Hebrew inscription the gods, Lord) forms the well-known reference to the Maccabees, whose name is formed from the first letters of this Torah quote. The motif of the combative Maccabees enjoyed great popularity in the Zionist movement of the time, as they embodied a self-confident and defensive attitude. Prof. Theo Garve remembers the candlestick in Frankfurt:“The work on the seven-armed chandelier was often and especially in the circles of my Jewish-Zionist friends.” (Memories of Prof. Theo Garve 1979, who knew Benno Elkan during his Frankfurt years, quoted from Hans Menzel-Severing: The Sculptor Benno Elkan. Monographs on the history of Dortmund and the Grafschaft Mark, Dortmund 1980). Remarkably, Toeplitz does not mention this chandelier in his article, but this work also underlines his thesis about Elkan: „There is just one thing one must not demand of him, namely, compromise with prevailing opinion or a snobbish spirit. (…) The boldness of this attitude must be met with due respect especially in these unstable times!“ – 3 – The “unstable times” allude to the politically fragile situation of the 1920s, in which the author welcomes Elkan's resistance to the “flat opinion” and “snobbish mood”. Benno Elkan was not known as a Zionist, so his design of the chandelier is to be understood as an expression of his clear and decided Jewish attitude of defensiveness – also against the growing hatred towards Jews. The Jewish Museum Frankfurt is exhibiting it in this context. – 4 – .