Kurt Uihlein

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Kurt Heinz Uihlein (born November 14, 1919 in Bad Harzburg ; † November 5, 2013 in Hanover ) was a German wallpaper manufacturer , businessman , entrepreneur and patron . The honorary consul was president of the German-Jordanian Society he founded for more than four decades . As a Templar and Freemason , the multiple honored man saw his life's work in helping and bringing people together, and was particularly considered to be a “bridge builder” between the people of the Arab world and the German cultural area .

The Uihlein wallpaper house at Andreaestrasse 1 (with the owl on the roof) is still owned by the family today

Life

youth

Born in the Harz Mountains during the Weimar Republic , Kurt Uihlein attended school at Ettersburg Castle together with the grandchildren of the former German Emperor Wilhelm II . At the time of National Socialism, he completed an apprenticeship as a banker and then served as a soldier in the Air Force during the Second World War from 1939 to 1945 .

engagement

Immediately after the war, Uihleins began significant activities in the reconstruction of the city, which was largely destroyed by the air raids on Hanover, especially in the center. In 1945, he was able to expand the family-owned property in the Bahnhofstrasse in Hanover so that he could build a larger trading yard there. Uihlein founded the UHU group of companies, the Uihlein-Handelshof company . UHU was a conglomerate consisting of an economic service provider , a head office for barter , a transport company that had already been founded in Bad Harzburg , a travel agency , an agency for stages , an advertising expedition , supplemented by the Uhustuben restaurant , which later became Eulenspiegel - Cabaret stage was attached. In addition, the businessman was the first private telephone operator in Hanover after the war.

Uihlein was temporarily involved in up to 68 different clubs, organizations and associations. His work in the Executive Board - and the Supervisory Board - bodies brought to the entrepreneur a "an excellent reputation in the Hanover business community." His wife Brigitte supported Uihlein in many areas.

Participation in the Order of the Templars and the Masonic Lodge

In 1960 Kurt Uihlein was accepted into the Order of the German Templars in Paris by the then Grand Master of France , General Daniel Zdrojewski . In 1962 Uihlein got to know King Hussein and the country he ruled Jordan . On his 44th birthday, on November 14, 1963, Kurt Uihlein founded the German-Jordanian Society in Hanover , by means of which the entrepreneur capable of communicating and cooperating under the motto "Jordan needs friends" quickly found active and helpful people for the impoverished people gathered around. After Uihlein was appointed Honorary Consul of the Kingdom in 1965 , he collected around 250,000 DM and around 50,000 blankets for the refugees of the country between 1967 and 1969 after the Six Day War . Around 200 ovens against the cold in the tent camps as well as a mobile dental station reached the needy in Jordan. By around 1970, the aid provided by Uihlein and his colleagues totaled around one million DM.

From 1973 to 1981 Kurt Uihlein headed the Masonic Lodge Light and Truth as Master of the Chair . On one of his nineteen trips to Jordan in 1977 he accompanied the then Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher , and in 1983 he was part of the delegation of Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl on a state visit to Egypt , Saudi Arabia and the Hashemite Kingdom . From a cultural point of view, the merchant promoted research into the former capital of the Nabataeans - the archaeologist Karl Schmitt-Korte was particularly dedicated to the legendary rock city of Petra . One result of this funding was a traveling exhibition that began in 1976 at the Kestner Museum in Hanover, which was opened by 700 people and which was then shown in eight other cities. In 1986 Uihlein invited to a "Day of German-Arab Friendship" in Celle. For his intercultural commitment, the monarch was finally honored with the highest award in Jordan by his friend King Hussein I.

After Kurt Uihlein had been made an honorary member of the German Templar Order in 1988, the honorary consul was also awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class in 1997 .

Uihlein's residence Ludwig-Barnay-Strasse 2

At the end of the 20th century, the consul Uihlein lived in Ludwig-Barnay-Straße 2 .

As part of the Expo 2000 - under the patronage of King Abdullah II and represented by his brother Prince Faisal - the Euro-Mediterranea symposium on The Legacy of King Hussein took place. A Vision of the Middle-East took place, in which, in addition to Uihlein, a delegation from other members of the Templar Order took part in the Jordanian Pavilion and at the symposium itself. In 2003 the German-Jordanian Society celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Friendship Society with around 300 guests, which Kurt Uihlein has headed uninterruptedly as President since it was founded. The Uihlein couple's “hospitality that brings people together” is heralded by 53 memory books containing around 35,000 entries and signatures from international public figures.

Last years

The 94-year-old was unable to attend the ceremony in Hanover's New Town Hall for the 50th anniversary of the German-Jordanian Society in 2013. He died a short time later, on November 5th of the same year.

Afterlife

In place of the former trading yard of the businessman Kurt Uihlein on the Bahnhofstrasse in Hanover, today (as of April 2015) there is the Kaufhof department store, which was built between 1966 and 1967 and was expanded in 1976 on Ernst-August-Platz . However, the Uihlein wallpaper house at Andreaestrasse 1 near the Kröpcke remained in the family's possession .

Honors

See also

literature

  • Kurt Klein (Ed.): Lower Saxony Lexicon. Everything you need to know about the state of Lower Saxony. Umschau-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main [1969], p. 382.
  • Karl Schmitt-Korte: The Nabataeans. Traces of an ancient Arab culture. A companion through the archaeological exhibition in the Kestner Museum Hanover November 28, 1976 - January 30, 1977, Liebieghaus, Museum Alter Plastik, Frankfurt am Main March 25, 1977 - May 8, 1977. (= Publications of the German-Jordanian Society ), German-Jordanian Society, Hanover 1976.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Compare the information under the GND number of the German National Library
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Siegfried Schildmacher, Winfried Brinkmann, Edzard Bakker, Peter Rosenstein (ed.): Kurt Uihlein. In Siegfried Schildmacher (Ed.): In the footsteps of the Freemasons - a walk through the streets of Hanover. Self-published, Hannover 2015, p. 153.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Nicolaus Heutger : The Templars then and now. For the 50th anniversary of the reactivation of the Templar Order in Germany. Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86732-017-7 and ISBN 3-86732-017-9 , pp. 141-144 u. ö .; partly online via Google books
  4. ↑ Who is who? The German Who's Who , Volume 38, Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1999, p. 1457; limited preview in Google Book search
  5. ↑ Compare the obituary notice of the German-Jordanian Society in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from November 9, 2013
  6. ^ Helmut Knocke , Hugo Thielen : Bahnhofstrasse. In: Hannover Art and Culture Lexicon , p. 88f.
  7. ↑ Waldemar R. Röhrbein : Uihlein Tapetenhaus. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 634.
personal data
SURNAME Uihlein, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Uihlein, Kurt Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur and patron, honorary consul, Templar and Freemason, founder and president of the German-Jordanian Society
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Harzburg
DATE OF DEATH 5th November 2013
Place of death Hanover