Luise Antonie Lenel Collection

Luise Antonie Lenel, known as Toni, was born in Straßburg, Germany (today Strasbourg, France) on September 5, 1912. Her parents were Professor Walter Lenel, born on August 3, 1868 in Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, German Confederation (today Germany) to a family of Jewish heritage and Luise Lenel (née Borckenhagen) born on July 26, 1882 in Charlottenbrunn, Prussian Silesia (today Jedlina-Zdrój, Poland). Toni Lenel’s elder brother, Fritz Victor Lenel, was born in Kiel, Germany on July 7, 1907. Her elder sister, Edith Grete Helene Lenel, was born in Straßburg, Germany on May 22, 1909. Her younger brother, Ludwig Moritz Lenel, nicknamed Ludo, was born in Straßburg, Germany on May 20, 1914. Due to Jewish heritage, Walter Lenel was dismissed from his professorship at the University of Heidelberg under the Nazi government, and he died in Germany on April 28, 1937. The four Lenel siblings immigrated to the United States before World War II started. The eldest, Fritz Victor, emigrated in 1931 and assisted his three siblings in their process of emigration. Toni Lenel arrived via the ship Cherbourg and arrived in New York in September 1938. During the war, Luise Lenel, Toni’s mother, remained in Germany to care for her mother, Toni’s maternal grandmother, Grete Borckenhagen (née Kapp, born in New York, USA, 1857-1945). Luise Lenel emigrated to the United States in 1947, became a naturalized US citizen, and died in 1982. Fritz Victor Lenel established a career as a chemist/metallurgist, married Margaret (Peggy) Schroy, had five children, and died in 2003 (see Fritz Victor Lenel collection, AR 25424). Ludwig Lenel became a professor of music and organist/ composer, had three children during his marriage to Jane Harmon, and died in 2002. Edith Lenel worked as a professor in the United States and died on October 23, 1994. Toni Lenel studied modern languages at the University of Geneva and the University of Wisconsin- Madison. She worked for many years as a German professor and teacher. She died in 2012 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.