Fritz Lenig

Friedrich Maria Lenig (* 24. April 1905 in Gelsenkirchen , † 28. March 1955 ; until 1946 Friedrich Moritz Levinsohn ) a first German and later was stateless and finally Dutch doctor , entrepreneur and football functionary .

Life

Friedrich Moritz Levisohn was born in 1905 as the son of the Jewish doctor Arthur Levisohn, who lived in Gelsenkirchen, and his wife Rosa Bloch. Levisohn studied medicine and history and took over his father's practice after completing his doctorate at Heidelberg University . In addition, he was managing director of the fittings and metal casting manufacturer Seppelfricke ; he was also financially involved in this company. The Levisohn couple joined the Catholic Churchat; he later described himself as "half-Jews of the Catholic faith". In 1938 his license to register was withdrawn; from then on he practiced in the Jewish community center, the establishment of which burned down during the November pogroms in 1938 .

At the beginning of January 1939 Levisohn fled to the Netherlands, where his wife and son followed him six months later. In Wageningen he was born with the permission of the Dutch government and with the help of the Seppelfricke family under the pseudonym Dr. FM van Dijk Director and main shareholder of a metal goods factory. After the German occupation he lived with the help of the Dutch resistance in Ede in Gelderland under the name Dr. Frederik Maria van Rijn . From then on he became involved in the resistance movement himself, for which he received a letter of appreciation from the Dutch commander in chief of the armed forces and later Prince Consort Bernhard and in 1948 the order of participation in the Dutch resistance movement . In 1942 he was imprisoned in the Amersfoort transit camp , but was able to escape. In 1944 he worked as a doctor among the British airborne troops in the Netherlands. According to his own account, Alois Seppelfricke supported him financially throughout the war years.

After the war Levisohn returned to his homeland and in 1945 resumed his work as a doctor and managing director of the Seppelfricke metal works. Because of his escape, he was considered stateless after the war; in April 1950 he took Dutch citizenship . At his request, his surname was changed from Levisohn to Lenig in November 1946 by a cabinet decision of the state government of the newly founded state of North Rhine-Westphalia .

Lenig was involved in the association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime , published a monthly magazine for philatelists called Merkur and was on the board of the Borkenberge Society . As early as May 25, 1946, he was named 1st Chairman of FC Schalke 04 , still with the name Levisohn . He held this office until February 22, 1947; his successor was Josef Wietfeld .

literature

• Karl Ritter von Klimesch (ed.): Heads of politics, economy, art and science. Naumann, Augsburg 1953, Volume 2, p. 666.
• Stefan Goch , Norbert Silberbach: "Between blue and white lies gray". Dr. Fritz Levisohn / Lenig. Essen 2005, ISBN 3-89861-433-6 , p. 226 ff., P. 351 ff. (A summary of the study is available under the title “Schalke in National Socialism” on the FC Schalke 04 website )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ according to the association's website ( memo of November 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) only since June 25, 1946.