Henry H. Arnhold (1921-2018) was born into the banking family of Arnhold in Dresden. One of five children of Heinrich Arnhold and his wife Lisa, née Mattersdorff, he grew up in the family villa in Dresden’s Tiergartenstrasse and went to school at the Kreuzschule. Heinrich Arnhold died in 1935, at a time when the persecution of Jews was gathering pace. The bank fell victim to ‘Aryanisation’ and the family in Germany found itself exposed to increasing reprisals. When the Second World War broke out, Henry Arnhold was visiting a school friend in Norway. He remained there, but was arrested after the invasion of Norway by German troops in April 1940. Fleeing first to Sweden and then to Cuba, he managed to reach the USA in April 1942, where the rest of his family had meanwhile emigrated.
After a brief period of study at UCLA and three years’ service in the US Army, he entered the family business in New York, the investment bank Arnhold & S. Bleichroeder, where he served as chairman from 1960.
After the peaceful revolution of 1989 that led to the reunification of Germany, the Arnhold family resumed its tradition of civic engagement and patronage, supporting the restoration of the Georg-Arnold swimming baths and the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche and the synagogue. Since then, Henry Arnhold has been an extremely generous sponsor of student exchanges between New York and Dresden and patron of Dresden’s museums. In May 2011, TU Dresden made him an ‘honorary senator’, a title it had previously awarded to his grandfather, father and uncle. Henry Arnhold holds the Saxon Order of Merit and the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He died on August 23, 2018 in New York.
Continue to build Bridges
Speeches at the award ceremony of the honorary senator dignity of the TU Dresden
25.05.2011
Obituary of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Obituary of the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden
Celebration of Life
It was a moving memorial service, a celebration of life: On April 2, 2019, the late Honorary Senator of TU Dresden, Henry H. Arnhold, was honored with a “Celebration of Life” at The New School in New York. Around 800 invited guests, family members, friends, and colleagues gathered to remember the Dresden native, who had made a lasting contribution to culture, science, and public life in New York and the United States—and, after 1990, in his hometown as well. Henry Arnhold also founded numerous internationally active aid organizations in the fields of medicine, conservation of natural resources, climate protection, and refugee aid.
Invited by the Arnhold family, Hans Vorländer, speaking on behalf of the many friends and partner institutions from Dresden, conveyed in his commemorative address greetings from Minister President Michael Kretschmer, Minister of State Eva-Maria Stange, and Mayor Dirk Hilbert, as well as from the Rector of TU Dresden, Hans Müller Steinhagen, the Director General of the Dresden State Art Collections, Marion Ackermann, and the president of the Palucca University of Dance, Jason Beechey.
In his speech, Vorländer paid tribute to the great dedication with which Henry Arnhold had revived his family’s philanthropic tradition in Dresden after 1990. Guided by his motto, “Continue to build bridges,” Henry Arnhold has since supported a wide range of projects and initiatives aimed at fostering the exchange of people and ideas in Dresden. This led to the creation of the Henry Arnhold Dresden Summer School at TU Dresden—an international program that, since 2012, has invited emerging scholars and young museum professionals to Dresden each year to engage with the city’s major cultural institutions.