Richard Lenel

Richard Lenel was born on July 29, 1869 in Mannheim, the son of a Jewish merchant couple. His father Victor Lenel (1838-1917) and grandfather Moritz Lenel (1811-1876) ran several businesses in Mannheim, which Moritz Lenel had founded with a spice store.

Richard Lenel's family originally lived at O 3, 3, where his grandfather Moritz Lenel had founded the spice mill with a saffron and vanilla trade in 1833 and operated it as a colonial goods store for many decades. The residential and commercial building was still a building from the Baroque period and was located between the Mannheim Planken and the castle. At the time the business was founded, the former Electoral Palatinate royal seat had declined to a provincial town, having lost much of its economic power and importance due to the relocation of the court to Munich. Due to the increasing expansion of shipping and the port from 1840, Lenel's spice trade also took part in the city's renewed prosperity.

Around 1850, the brothers Moritz and Simon Lenel acquired properties in N 7, 3 and N 7, 4, which were used for residential and business purposes. The next generation, Victor Lenel, had a villa built there in the historicist style and commissioned the renowned Jewish architect Edwin Oppler (1831-1880) with the plans.

Richard was still a toddler when the family moved into the magnificent villa N 7, 4. At the time, upper-class villas were being built in the outer "squares" on the city's former fortress belt. Next door, in the properties N 7, 5 and N 7, 6, Uncle Alfred Lenel and the Lenel brothers' business premises were established.

At that time, the Lenel family shifted the focus of the company from trade to production. In 1873, Viktor and Alfred Lenel founded the Rheinische Hartgummifabrik together with Friedrich Bensinger (1841-1891), which later became world-famous as the "Schildkröt" rubber and celluloid factory. The factory "Wasserdichte Wäsche Lenel, Bensinger & Cie." emerged from it in 1886.

Richard attended the Grand Ducal Grammar School from 1878 to 1887. He then followed the example of his father Victor, whose years of teaching and traveling had broadened his horizons. Richard traveled to France, England and North America from 1889 to 1892. Prepared by these trips, he joined his father's company on his return.

In 1886, the factory "Wasserdichte Wäsche Lenel, Bensinger & Cie." was spun off from the "Rheinische Gummi- und Celluloidfabrik", which was founded by his father and his brother and business partner Adolf Bensinger. In 1893, at the age of 23, Richard Lenel first became an assistant and then an authorized signatory of his father's company. He quickly rose to positions of responsibility and became managing director in 1897.

He married his wife, the Berlin-born Miily Maas, in 1900. After the birth of two daughters, Lenel left the Jewish community in 1902 and became non-denominational. The reasons for this are not known. The couple described themselves as "free thinkers". The young family initially lived in their parents' villa at N 7, 4.

Richard Lenel set up a relief fund for the employees of his flourishing company to alleviate their hardship if there was no or too little support from the health insurance fund. In 1906, he was involved in the founding of the Mannheim-Ludwigshafen General Employers' Association, of which he became president. In 1908, he co-founded the Mannheim-Ludwigshafen Industrial Employment Agency (Arbeitsnachweis) and later became its president.

His father's donation, which he made in 1908 to mark his 70th birthday, was certainly an impressive experience for Richard. Viktor Lenel donated 100,000 gold marks to the city of Mannheim and built a large children's recreation home for them in the Neckar Valley near Heidelberg, which was inaugurated on May 17, 1911. The town of Neckargemünd contributed the land. The house contained four dormitories for 25 children each, a dining room, a recreation hall, a recreation room and utility rooms.

The apartment in the family home became too small for Richard Lenel's rapidly growing young family. Like other wealthy Mannheimers, they moved to the east of the city, where new upper-class neighborhoods were being built. First they moved into a rented apartment at Friedrichsplatz 5, then into their own semi-detached house at Charlottenstr. 17 and finally, in 1910, into the newly built Villa Maximilianstr. 10. Together with the children's recreation home, it was one of the family's large-scale building projects.

In 1910, the year Adelheid, their fifth child, was born, the family moved into their new, spacious villa at Maximilianstrasse 10. Oststadt, which was built on the site of the International Art and Horticultural Exhibition of 1907, offered plots of land for prestigious villas and residential buildings. With its 30 rooms and garden, the villa provided enough space for the family, which soon grew to nine children. Things were also looking up professionally. The factory "Wasserdichte Wäsche Lenel, Bensinger & Cie." employed 800 workers in 1912. In 1911, Lenel became president of the Fabrikantenverein and was elected to the Chamber of Commerce. From 1909 to 1920, he was a commercial judge. In 1920, he rose to become President of the Chamber of Commerce. In his introductory speech, he emphasized:

"Deeply moved and full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, I am taking up the position that my grandfather and my father already held. I am prepared to devote all my efforts to consolidating and maintaining the high reputation that the Chamber of Commerce enjoys in all circles. I want to support to the best of my ability all endeavors that can be conducive to the development of Mannheim's economic life" (Watzinger, p. 119).

In his function as President of the Chamber of Commerce, he was a member of the Baden Chamber of Commerce, the German Chamber of Commerce, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Imperial Railway and Imperial Waterways Advisory Board and the Administrative Board of the Imperial Post Office for Aviation and Broadcasting.

He generously supported art and science. For example, at his suggestion, the Chamber of Commerce made an annual donation of 30,000 marks to the Society for the Promotion of the Commercial College, which was founded in 1921. On the occasion of his ten-year presidency of the Chamber of Commerce, the Handelshochschule awarded him his first honorary doctorate in 1930.

In politics, Lenel was active in the Citizens' Committee for the national-liberal German People's Party for two terms from 1922 to 1930. The bitter plight of the unemployed caused by the global economic crisis prompted him to take over the leadership of the "Mannheim Relief Organization", which was founded in 1931.

Lenel initially paid little attention to the threatening political developments, believing it impossible that the National Socialist movement would be successful. But Hitler became Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933 and the new rulers forced Richard Lenel to resign as President of the Chamber of Commerce on March 28, 1933.

Two years later, the Lenel family moved back into the smaller villa at Charlottenstrasse 17. The large villa in Maximilianstrasse was taken over by the "Reich Treasury" and made available to the Wehrmacht command of Mannheim-Ludwigshafen. Occupied by the American occupying forces after the end of the war, it was bought by Süddeutsche Zucker AG in 1957 and the building was demolished. Today, the main administration building of Südzucker AG stands on the site.

After six of the nine children had moved out and the overly large Maximilianstrasse villa became uneconomical, the family moved back to Charlottenstrasse 17 around 1935. Richard Lenel tried to continue the business with the help of his two eldest sons Klaus and Viktor, who had remained in Germany. He still believed in a future in his beloved hometown.

However, the company "Wasserdichte Wäsche Lenel, Bensinger & Cie.", which employed over 200 workers, was "de-Jewified" in 1938. The pogrom of November 10, 1938, at the latest, robbed Richard Lenel of his last illusions. It is not known whether his home was raided. Jewish men were arrested throughout the day. In the afternoon, Richard and his sons were taken by the Gestapo to the district office in L6. Klaus was sent home again, but Richard, Ernst and Viktor were put on a special train to Karlsruhe. There, all men under 18 and over 60 had to get off the train, Richard was allowed to leave the train and go home, but Ernst and Viktor were sent to Dachau concentration camp. The sons were released in January 1939.

Richard Lenel realized that further hesitation was pointless. On April 3, 1939, the last of the nine children left. In order to be able to leave the country himself, he had to sell his company and his house for less than they were worth. The house at Charlottenstrasse 17 became the property of the "Deutscher Fuhr- und Kraftfahrgewerbes" eGmbH, which housed the SS cavalry squadron here. The villa in Maximilianstrasse became the Mannheim-Ludwigshafen Wehrmacht headquarters. After he was able to pay the "Reich Flight Tax", he and his wife emigrated to England. It was the last moment before the outbreak of the Second World War.

In the course of their emigration to England, Milly and Richard Lenel lost virtually all of their possessions, including personal valuables and mementos. They arrived in London on August 31, 1939, one day before the start of the war, and found accommodation in the New Mansion Hotel at 38 Lancaster Gate. A donation of 1,000 pounds from relatives made it possible for them to support themselves for the time being. Their sons Ernst and Victor, who were serving in the British army, supported their parents. The couple received a modest "War Service Grant" from the state. For a short time they lived in Kendal in Westmorland, then moved to Staveley and finally to Windermere. In the spring of 1944, they met their children Ernst and Victor, who were on home leave, and Renate. It was the last time they saw Ernst, because a short time later he, who was fighting for the Royal Army as an elite soldier, was killed when the Allied troops landed. He was probably recognized as a German Jew and killed by Wehrmacht soldiers, as his name cannot be found in any list of fallen Allies or British prisoners of war.

At the turn of 1944/45, the couple managed to emigrate to the USA. Once again, they were faced with wandering around in a wide variety of accommodation. In New York City, they lived at 29, Locust Avenue, Larchmont, then in Windham in the state of New York. At Christadora House, 143 Avenue B Apt 2a, in New York City, they found a somewhat longer-term place to stay.

A great many letters written by Richard and Milly Lenel from exile to their children in England and Switzerland were handed over to the Mannheim City Archives by their son Heinz Walter in 1968. They are touching and bear witness to the intensive exchange of ideas between parents and children. The affectionate tone, the caring inquiries, but also the efforts to dispel the children's worries about their parents' well-being are predominant. Bitterness is noticeable when 75-year-old Richard asks the children for material support for himself and his mother. Both repeatedly emphasize that they draw strength from the letters in difficult times.

The former industrialist had practically nothing left of his considerable fortune and found himself completely destitute and dependent, for example as a guest of his daughter Heidi Stearne and her husband Paul or on the remittances from his son Heinzwalter in Switzerland. This situation weighed heavily on him.

When the Lord Mayor of Mannheim officially invited him to return to Germany in October 1947, he immediately accepted.

At the invitation of Maria Zentmayer, the long-time director of the Victor Lenel Foundation in Neckargemünd, which Richard's father had once founded, and the Lord Mayor of Mannheim, Richard and Milly Lenel were able to move into an apartment at Hollmuthstrasse 31 near the foundation on April 15, 1949. Neckargemünd is located about 30 km from Mannheim in the Neckar Valley.

On October 18, 1949, he was awarded honorary citizenship of Mannheim and one day later the title of Honorary President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. In his letter of thanks to Lord Mayor Dr. Hermann Heimerich on October 19, 1949, he wrote:

"Unfortunately, it is not possible for me, as it was for my grandfather and father, to express my deep attachment to my hometown through a foundation for my fellow citizens in a clear and lasting way. However, I will arrange for a painting by the Baden artist Hellwag, "The Port of London", to be sent to the city council these days, and I have also agreed with my wife that after our death a painting by the old master Adolf Menzel, "Head of an Old Man", will be presented to the city council as a lasting testimony to our attachment to my home town." (Watzinger, p. 120)

A few days after his 81st birthday, on August 3, 1950, Richard Lenel died. He was buried in the family grave in Mannheim's Jewish cemetery. His memory lives on in the cityscape today: In Mannheim, a street in the Feudenheim district bears his name and there is a memorial plaque on the high-rise building of Süddeutsche Zucker (now Südzucker AG), which was built on the site of his former home on Maximilianstrasse. In Neckargemünd, a path was named after his father and a school was named after him. The city of Mannheim sold the Victor-Lenel-Stift to the state of Baden-Württemberg in 1965. The Neckargemünd Rehabilitation Center was built on the site. The proceeds from the sale were used to finance the construction of the Victor Lenel Home in Mannheim, which was designed as an infant home and operated as such until 1980. Today, the Victor Lenel Home in Mannheim, Rottannenweg 70, is a socio-therapeutic facility run by the AWO.