Richard Lenel

Richard Lenel ( born July 29, 1869 in Mannheim; † August 3, 1950 in Neckargemuend ) was president of the Chamber of Commerce, Jewish emigrant in the era of National Socialism and honorary citizen of the city of Mannheim.

Life

He was a son of Victor Lenel. Richard Lenel joined at age 23 in his father's " factory waterproof laundry Lenel, Bensinger and Co. " in Mannheim, and in 1897 its managing director. In 1908 he participated in the founding of the general employers' association Mannheim- Ludwigshafen. From 1909 to 1920 he was a judge. In 1911 he became the head of the manufacturer association and was elected to the Chamber of Commerce, whose president he was elected in 1920. In 1922 he was elected for the German People's Party in the citizens' committee, where he was a member until 1930. For his dedication to the Society for the Promotion of the Commercial College him the first honorary doctorate from the Graduate School of Management was awarded on December 3, 1930. In 1931, he presided over a company set up by the Mayor 's Fund to help ease the plight of the unemployed. On March 27, 1933 Richard Lenel had to resign from his position as president of the Chamber of Commerce under the pressure of the new rulers, though he was in 1902, resigned from the Jewish community.

In the following years he tried with his two oldest sons who stayed in Germany to get his company's family, to the rigorous measures of the Nazis in 1938 forced him to sell his house and his company, and to England, and later in the United States. flee His nephew Ludwig Lenel emerged as a composer. In exile, he was extremely unhappy and therefore returned in 1949 to return to Germany. On October 18, 1949 he made ​​an honorary citizen of the city of Mannheim and a day later the title of Honorary President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry was awarded. In his home town, Richard Lenel operated repeatedly as patron. So he left the Kunsthalle in Mannheim the painting " Head of an Old Jew" of the painter Adolph von Menzel. A few days after his 81st birthday, he died in Neckargemuend and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Mannheim.

Depending on a street in the " honorary citizen Quarter " in Mannheim- Feudenheim, as well as in Neckargemuend bear his name. At his former home in the Maximilian street in Mannheim Oststadt a plaque is attached.