Henkell, Karl

Sparkling wine producer, managing director, co-owner of Sektkellerei Henkell & Co.

born: 14.04.1888 in Mainz

died: 10.02.1944 in Wiesbaden

Henkell, grandson of the founder of Sektkellerei Henkell & Co., Adam Henkell (1801-1866), was introduced to the company at the age of 16 after attending the Geneva School of Commerce.

From 1908-10, he worked in import and export houses in England and the United States and was subsequently particularly active in the sales force in Europe and overseas. His father Rudolf (1843-1912) had intensified the foreign business of the wine merchant and sparkling wine producer since 1866, enabling the company to successfully take advantage of the economic boom of the second founding period. From 1911, Henkell was a personally liable partner in the winery alongside his brother Otto Heinrich Adolf Henkell, who was 20 years his senior, and in this capacity became a member of the advisory board of the Wiesbaden Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) in 1913, of which he was a member for over 30 years. Before the First World War, Henkell received military training and took part in the war. From 1919, he successfully managed the company together with his brother through the years of inflation.

His sporting interests, his activities as a sportsman and sponsor (clay pigeon shooting, hunting, tennis and golf, horse riding, racing stable owner, motor sport) also allowed him to appear in society time and again and contributed to the winery's public image, among other things. In 1922, he married Alice Freiin von Riedel (1901-1946). The marriage produced two sons, Hans Alexander (1924-1945) and Otto Hubertus Henkell, who later became Otto Henkell II.

After the death of his brother Otto I in 1929, Henkell became senior manager of the house, which he ran together with his nephew Stephan Karl from 1931. The advertising campaign "Henkell and Sport" from 1928/29 in collaboration with the graphic artist Reutas and the support of the first Whitsun tournaments Unter den Eichen can also be traced back to him.

From 1933, Henkell was President of the German Golf Association; in this capacity, he tried to introduce golf as an Olympic sport (separate competitions following the 1936 Olympic Games) and to popularize it as a sport for the people.

Until his death, he was a member of the Wiesbaden Council, as the body was called after the dissolution of local self-government during the Nazi era from 1934. From 1940, he was President of the Wiesbaden Chamber of Industry and Commerce and Vice President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for the Rhine-Main economic area. In addition to his work on the advisory board for the finances of the Wiesbaden spa and baths administration, he had been a partner and member of the supervisory board of Köln-Düsseldorfer-Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft and Rhenser Mineralbrunnen since the 1920s.

Following an air raid on the Henkell sparkling wine cellars in February 1944, Henkell died along with 23 of the company's employees.