Richard Lenel (29 July 1869, in Mannheim – 3 August 1950, in Neckargemünd) was chairman of the

chamber of commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...

and honorary citizen of the city of Mannheim, Germany.

Biography

Richard Lenel joined his father Victor Lenel's company "Fabrik wasserdichter Wäsche Lenel, Bensinger u. Co." at the age of 23 and was promoted to general manager in 1897. In 1908, he was a founding member of the general workers committee of Mannheim-

Ludwigshafen Ludwigshafen, officially Ludwigshafen am Rhein (; meaning " Ludwig's Port upon Rhine"), is a city in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the river Rhine, opposite Mannheim. With Mannheim, Heidelberg, and the surrounding region, it form ...

. From 1909 to 1920 he was a judge in commercial matters. In 1911, he was made chairman of the manufacturers society and was elected a member, 1920 chairman of the chamber of commerce. In 1922 he was, as a member of the German People's Party, elected a member of the citizens committee, on which he remained until 1930. For his efforts in support of the society for the promotion of the commercial university, he received the university's first honorary doctorate. In 1931, he was made chairman of a charitable relief society for the unemployed. On 27 March 1933, he was forced by the Nazi government to resign his seat in the chamber of commerce. In the following years he attempted, together with his two eldest sons who remained in Germany, to hold on to his company, but the rigorous measures of 1938 forced him to sell his house and his company and flee to England, later to the USA. His nephew

Ludwig Lenel Ludwig Lenel (May 20, 1914 – April 22, 2002) was an organist and composer. Early life and education Lenel was born May 20, 1914, in Strasburg, Germany during the German Empire in present-day France, the son of the late Walter and Luise (Borcken ...

became a well-known composer. In exile, he was utterly unhappy and returned thus already in 1949 to Germany. On 18 October 1949, an honorary citizenship of the city of Mannheim was bestowed upon him, the following day he was made honorary chairman of the chamber of industry and commerce. A few days after his 81st anniversary, he died and was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Mannheim. A road in the "honorary citizen area" of Mannheim-Feudenheim was named after him and a remembrance sign was attached to the high-rise building on the site of his former residence at Maximilianstrasse.

Literature

* Watzinger, Karl Otto, Geschichte der Juden in Mannheim 1650-1945, Stuttgart, 1984, S. 119ff. * Watzinger, Karl Otto, Richard Lenel 1869-1950, Mannheim 1972.

External links

Biography of Richard Lenel

Lenel family archival materials
at the Leo Baeck Institute, New York {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenel, Richard 1869 births 1950 deaths Businesspeople from Mannheim