Otto Henkell

Bust of Otto Henkell at the Biebrich "Henkell-Schlösschen"

Building of the Henkell & Co. sparkling wine cellar, called "Henkell-Schlösschen" on Biebricher Allee in Wiesbaden

Otto Heinrich Adolf Henkell (born May 20, 1869 in Mainz , † July 16, 1929 in Schwarzach im Pongau ) was a German entrepreneur and owner of the company Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei .

Life

Otto Henkell was born in Mainz on May 20, 1869. His father Rudolf Henkell (1843–1912) was the owner of the company Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei founded in 1856, his mother was Anna Henkell, nee. Gastell. His sister Elsa became an artist and in 1898 married the painter Hans Beat Wieland .

Otto Henkell attended the Grand Ducal Gymnasium in Mainz from 1877 to 1885, then the commercial school in Antwerp , which he successfully completed in 1887. He did his military service in the Hussar Regiment "King Humbert of Italy" (1st Kurhessisches) No. 13 and spent his journeyman time in London and New York City . From the USA he brought with him a wide range of commercial experience and various marketing ideas, such as how certain products are placed in the market and how intensive customer interest can be gained. After his return to Mainz in 1891, he received power of attorney in his father's company, Henkell & Co. Mainz.

Just one year later, in 1892, he became a partner in the wine and sparkling wine cellar founded by his grandfather Adam Henkell in Mainz with the area of ​​activity "champagne factory". He made the decision to create a branded item for the Henkell company and launch it on the market. This brand was "Henkell Sect Trocken". In 1894 he began with the first advertising campaigns, as already at this step there was increasing customer interest, he took the next step in 1899 when the brand “Henkell Trocken” was advertised even more intensively in renowned weekly magazines with an artistic presentation. The effect was enormous and brought good growth for the company. Using this point in time, he developed the company into a market-leading company. In 1900 he was given full decision-making power in Henkel & Co. When the company moved to Wiesbaden in 1907 , he made further decisions going into the future. He had the architect Paul Bonatz erect a representative building for the sparkling wine cellar and the headquarters of the Henkell & Co. company in Biebrich am Rhein . The move into the new office building took place in 1909. As early as 1910, in terms of sales figures, it reached the top position in the German sparkling wine industry. The increased sales figures made it necessary to create additional production and storage capacity. That happened in 1912 with the construction of the Reims cellar, also by the architect Paul Bonatz.

After the end of the First World War, Otto Henkell saw himself as a representative of the “build-up generation” and used the economic growth that began in the early 1920s to expand production and customer networks. When his eldest daughter Annelies married Joachim Ribbentrop , who was internationally experienced in the wine trade, in Wiesbaden on July 5, 1920 , he entrusted him with the development and management of the Berlin branch of the company Henkell & Co. Otto Henkell helped steer his company even in the turmoil of the global economic crisis experienced hand.

Otto Henkell died on August 16, 1929 in Schwarzbach near Salzburg.

Family and disputes over inheritance

Otto Henkell was with Katharina, called Käthe, geb. Michel (1871–1942), married. Both had three children together:

• Anna Elisabeth , called Annelies (born January 12, 1896 in Mainz; † October 5, 1973), married Joachim Ribbentrop in Wiesbaden in 1920 , from 1925 by adoption "von Ribbentrop". He first worked in the company of his father-in-law and later Foreign Minister of the German Reich. She was a self-confessed National Socialist and received awards from right-wing extremist associations.
• Franziska Katharina Stephanie (* 1898), called Fänn, married to the Düsseldorf textile entrepreneur Willy Schniewind , who then sat on the Henkell supervisory board.
• Stefan-Karl, killed in France in 1940.

After Otto Henkell's only son fell in 1940, his underage children jointly received a share of 35 percent in the company Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG, Otto Henkell's daughter Anneliese von Ribbentrop held 10 percent, and his daughter Franziska Schniewind also held 10 percent. Otto Henkell's brother Karl accounted for the remaining 45 percent. When Karl Henkell died in a bomb attack on Wiesbaden in 1944, his share was given to his two sons, Otto junior and Hans-Alexander, under the tutelage of his wife Alice (died 1946). The latter was killed in a plane crash near Oppenheim in 1945.

Otto Henkell's nephew Otto junior then became Karl's sole heir and held a 45 percent stake when he took over the management of the Henkell company in 1946 at the age of 23.

On the basis of a contract from 1942, a son from the marriage of Ribbentrop-Henkell, who was born by his mother, Anneliese von Ribbentrop, b. Henkell, was to determine a clear legal right to admission to the company as managing partner. In 1951, at the request of Anneliese von Ribbentrop, widowed since 1946, her 31-year-old son Rudolf Joachim von Ribbentrop was to join the Henkell company. However, since in 1951 memories of the rule of National Socialism and the war, finally the Nuremberg Trial and Joachim von Ribbentrop's inglorious end were still very fresh, the Henkell supervisory board considered it unwise to include a name bearer Ribbentrop in the management "Because everyone still remembers Hitler's foreign minister and this could not have a positive effect on sales figures."

Anneliese von Ribbentrop insisted on the 1942 contract and, in 1951, initiated a lawsuit against the company and her cousin Otto junior with her son Rudolf as a joint plaintiff, who, now 28, had been the sole head of the Henkell family since 1946. The process dragged on. Finally, in 1963, Anneliese's further son Adolf (born September 2, 1935), who later traded as Henkell-von Ribbentrop, was accepted into Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei KG with procuration. Adolf Henkell-von Ribbentrop has been with Christiane, geb. Countess Eltz (born November 27, 1951), mother of the former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg , married.

In 1986 the Henkell company was taken over by Dr. August Oetker Group taken over.

Web links

• Family Ribbentrop: The quality of the sparkling wine . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1951, pp. 12–15 ( online - November 28, 1951 , Rudolf von Ribbentrop is supposed to join Henkell - The Trial).
• Adolf Richard Barthold von Ribbentrop . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 1963, pp. 88 ( online - March 20, 1963 , Adolf von Ribbentrop receives power of attorney at Henkell).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hundred years of family history ( Memento of the original from September 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ^ Henkel, Otto Heinrich Adolf (1869–1929) Society for the History of Wine eV in: Archive of the Sektkellerei Henkell & Söhnlein KG, Wiesbaden
3. ↑ Wolfgang Michalka, biography Ribbentrop Joachim from in: http://deutsche-biograhie.de/sfz/105566.html  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.