Ludwig Lenel

The grandfather on the mother's side of Ludwig Lenel was a Prussian democrat Friedrich Kapp (1824–1884), who emigrated to the United States, but returned later to become a national-liberal deputy to the German Reichstag and a friend of Bismarck. His youngest son Wolfgang, a great-uncle of Lenel was a leader of the 1920 coup d'état.

Since 1918, the Lenels have lived in various places, one among them being Heidelberg. Lenel's father was a lecturer for Italian medieval history, and his uncle was the famous industrialist Richard Lenel. He was made an honorary professor without remuneration of the university in 1932, but was forced out of it a year later because he was Jewish. In August 1933, he lost his license to teach. He died in 1937 in Heidelberg.

Lenel, who was half-Jewish, was the last of his family to leave Germany in 1939 to relatives in the US.

Born on May 20, 1914 in Strasburg, Germany (now France), Ludwig Lenel was a son of the late Walter and Luise (Borckenhagen) Lenel. During his youth, he met and was strongly influenced by Albert Schweitzer, who frequently stayed with the Lenel family while visiting Heidelberg, Germany.[1]

He then later studied organ with Schweitzer, and assisted him on tours of Germany and Switzerland in 1932 and 1936, respectively. In between those tours, Lenel's concerto for two violins and string orchestra was premiered at the Collegium Musicum of Heidelberg in 1933, and he then earned his diploma in 1935 from the Hochschule fuer Musik in Cologne, Germany. In 1938, he was also awarded a diploma from Switzerland's Basel Conservatory of Music.[2]

After emigrating to the United States, Lenel worked as an organist and continued his studies in music composition at Oberlin College (Ohio/USA), where he was awarded his master of music degree in 1940. A resident of Illinois, Pennsylvania and member of the faculties at Monticello College and Elmhurst College, Westminster College in Pennsylvania, and the New School for Social Research in New York City, he eventually joined the faculty of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he taught for 27 years as a professor of music. During his tenure, he created the music department's curriculum, and also established the college's program which enabled students to major in music. Conductor of the College Choir, he initiated a concert series and took the group on tour, and also founded the Department of Opera.[3]

Retired from Muhlenberg College in 1979, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from that institution in 1989.[4]

On November 9, 1998, Lenel returned to Heidelberg to attend the performance of his main oeuvre, Death and Atonement, for narrator, violin, oboe, brass, piano and drums, in memory of the Holocaust. The 20-minute-long concerto, written between 1976 and 1992, is based on Paul Celan's poem Todesfuge and texts by Nelly Sachs. Composer Wolfgang Fortner mentions Lenel, besides René Frank, Laurence Feininger, and others, as witnesses and examples of his teaching Jewish students before and during World War II in the attachment of his "Story of Life" in his de-Nazifiying file (Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe).

Lenel died on April 22, 2002 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Funeral services were held on May 24, 2002 in the Egner Memorial Chapel at Muhlenberg College. His obituary noted that he was the "former husband of Jane Lenel," and that he was survived by a son, two daughters, a brother and a sister, and three grandchildren.[5]

• Anderson, E. Ruth. Contemporary American composers. A biographical dictionary, Second edition, G. K. Hall, 1982.
• Borroff, Edith; Clark, J. Bunker. American opera. A checklist, Harmonie Park Press, 1992.

• Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung Heidelberg 4. und 9. November 1998.
• Givannini/Moraw (Ed.). Erinnertes Leben – Autobiographische Texte zur jüdischen Geschichte Heidelbergs, Heidelberg 1998.