Siegfried Alkan
Template:Short description Template:NOINDEXScript error: No such module "Message box". Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image
Siegfried Alkan (30 March 1858 – 24 December 1941) was a German composer.
Alkan was born in Dillingen, Saarland (then Prussia, now Germany), the son of Johannes Alkan and Johanna Bonn in a family of merchants and musicians. Through his mother he was a distant cousin of the composers Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Fanny Hensel and Giacomo Meyerbeer.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". It is unknown whether he was related to the French composer and pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan, but like the latter, he was a scion of Jewish families from the Moselle region.
In November 1938, when he was in his eighties, Alkan was assaulted during Kristallnacht, and his musical instruments were destroyed. In the regime’s later years, he was also compelled to wear the yellow badge identifying Jews.
Many works of Siegfried Alkan seem to be lost. Still known are for example the compositions "Gruß an die Saar" (Op. 32), "O wüsstest du's" (Op. 39), "Neues Saarlied" (Op. 91) and "Ur-Großmütterchen" (Op. 80), which was very popular in the time after World War I.
References
Gregor Brand: Über den saarländischen Komponisten SIEGFRIED ALKAN (in German)