Benno Elkan OBE (2 December 1877, Dortmund, Westphalia – 10 January 1960, London) was a German-born British sculptor and medallist. His work includes the big Menorah standing in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem and also numerous monuments, busts and medals in Germany and England.

Biography

Benno Elkan was born in Dortmund, Germany in 1877, to a Jewish family. In February 1900, he was among 17 people who founded German football club FC Bayern Munich. He fled Germany in 1933 after the rise of the Nazis. He was married to Hedwig Einstein, sister of Carl Einstein and a concert pianist in her own right. Together they had two children: Ursula and Wolf, both of whom emigrated to the United States. Elkan died in London. He is buried at the Liberal Jewish Cemetery, Willesden, England.

Education

Sculpting career

He studied and worked in Paris, Rome and Frankfurt am Main, and moved to London following the rise of the Nazis in Germany in 1933. His works included tombs, busts, medals and monuments. He was an exhibitor in International Exhibitions in Germany, France, Italy, and England; his works are in many museums in Europe. Elkan created the first statue in Britain of Sir Walter Raleigh, and designed Frankfurt's Great War Memorial, incorporating mourning mothers as a symbol of loss in World War I. The memorial was removed by the Nazis in 1933 and re-erected in 1946.

Some major works