Dr. Slavko Wolf (born Samuel Wolf, yi, שְׁמוּאֵל װאָלףֿ; 26 December 1862 7 November, 1936) was a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

n lawyer,

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player and writer. Wolf was born on 26 December 1862 in Tata, in

Komárom-Esztergom County Komárom-Esztergom ( hu, Komárom-Esztergom megye, ; german: Komitat Komorn-Gran; sk, Komárňansko-ostrihomská župa) is an administrative Hungarian county in Central Transdanubia Region; its shares its northern border the Danube with Slova ...

of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

parents, Benjamin and Matilda ( née Ebenspanger) Wolf. Soon after his birth Wolf family moved to

Vukovar Vukovar () ( sr-Cyrl, Вуковар, hu, Vukovár, german: Wukowar) is a city in Croatia, in the eastern region of Slavonia. It contains Croatia's largest river port, located at the confluence of the Vuka and the Danube. Vukovar is the seat of ...

, Croatia where Wolf was raised together with his brothers Dragutin and Leopold. His father was hazzan at the Vukovar Synagogue, rosh yeshiva and secretary of the Vukovar Jewish community. Later he was also a rabbi in Ludbreg for 10 years. Wolf attended the Vukovar

Yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are st ...

led by his father. In autumn of 1871, after his education at Yeshiva, Wolf began to attend the

Vinkovci Vinkovci () is a city in Slavonia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. The city's registered population was 28,247 in the 2021 census, the total population of the city was 31,057, making it the largest town of the county. Surround ...

Gymnasium. Last three grades he finished at the Osijek Gymnasium from where he graduated in 1879. That same year in autumn he started studying law at the Faculty of Law

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

. Wolf graduated from the University in 1883. In

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

he also obtained his doctorate. After his graduation Wolf worked as a trainee solicitor in

Bjelovar Bjelovar ( hu, Belovár, german: Bellowar, Kajkavian: ''Belovar'') is a city in central Croatia. It is the administrative centre of Bjelovar-Bilogora County. At the 2021 census, there were 36,433 inhabitants, of whom 93.06% were Croats. Histor ...

. Later he worked as a lawyer in Koprivnica, and representative at the Koprivnica City Assembly. He owned a law firm. In 1893 Wolf married Janka ( née

Granitz The Granitz is a wooded ridge in the southeast of Germany's largest island, Rügen, between the Baltic Sea resorts of Binz and Sellin. The woods cover an area of 982 hectares and are designated as a nature reserve. Since 1991 they have been ...

), a daughter of known Hungarian-born Croatian Jewish industrialist Ignjat Granitz. Their son Pavao Vuk-Pavlović was born in 1894. After his parents death, his mother died in 1891 and father in 1899, Wolf and his wife converted to Catholic faith in 1900. Through his years he stayed connected with Judaism and Jewish community in Koprivnica and Zagreb. Wolf and his family lived in Koprivnica until 1910, after they moved to

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

. He practised law until 1931. After his father in law company "Ignjat Granitz & Comp." was merged with the printing house of Ivan Novak, to found the Graphic and Publishing Bureau "Tipografija d.d.", Wolf became a lifetime president of the newly founded company. Wolf hobby was chess. In 1935 he published the book "Šahovski problemi za početnike" (''Chess problems for beginners'') about

chess problem A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Wolf's wife survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

with the help of her sons former students. Wolf died on 7 November 1936 and was buried at the

Mirogoj Cemetery The Mirogoj City Cemetery (, hr, Gradsko groblje Mirogoj), also known as Mirogoj Cemetery ( hr, Groblje Mirogoj), is a cemetery park that is considered to be among the more noteworthy landmarks in the city of Zagreb. The cemetery inters members o ...

. Gradska groblja Zagreb: Slavko Wolf, Mirogoj RKT-900-STANIC-108

Works

* ''Šahovski problemi za početnike'', Tipografija d.d., Zagreb (1935)

Bibliography

* *

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Slavko 1862 births 1936 deaths People from Tata, Hungary Austro-Hungarian Jews Croatian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Croatian Austro-Hungarians University of Vienna alumni Croatian lawyers Jewish Croatian politicians Jewish Hungarian politicians Croatian chess players Jewish chess players Croatian writers Jewish Austrian writers Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery