Renate Thyssen-Henne

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Renate Thyssen-Henne - Photo: Sabine Brauer

Renate Thyssen-Henne was born Renate Kerkhoff on 20 June 1939 in Bottrop, in Germany. She is part of the Westphalian industrial family Kerkhoff (wood sawmill, gravel pits, textile and clothing company), whose founder was her grand-father Hermann Kerkoff.

Renate Kerkhoff inherited her grand-father’s entrepreneurial talent: after completing high school (mittlere Reife), she obtained a work placement with a travel agency in Bottrop and at the age of 18, she started a job as secretary to the management of the American company Honeywell in Frankfurt/Main. In the evenings, she took courses in business English, business economics and management and also worked as model. At the age of 20, she founded her first limited company (GmbH) with a start-up capital of DM 20,000.--. She invented the modern refreshing tissue “Seifrisch” and began her own production. At the age of 24, she employed 150 people and supplied the retail trade as well as department stores, supermarkets, Lufthansa and catering companies including the restaurant chain “Wienerwald” with her proprietary article “Seifrisch”. At the age of 25, she founded the restaurant chain “Zum Gumpelmann” which was soon to have 12 branches in Aachen, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Heidelberg and other German cities.

At the age of 24, the young entrepreneur moved into a villa at Lerchesbergring in Frankfurt and gave birth to her first child. On 1 April 1963, her daughter Gabriele Renate was born, and on 2 June 1964, her son Joachim Helmut, both from her marriage with Helmut Friedhelm Homey, son of the industrial family of Homey from Essen (brewery, restaurant business and one hotel).

In 1969, Renate Kerkhoff married the German industrialist and medical doctor Dr. Bodo Thyssen (businesses include Telefonbau & Normalzeit, Thyssen-Heizkessel, Melderwerke) and member of the well-known Thyssen steel dynasty. Bodo Thyssen’s father and his brother Heinrich were the sons of founder August Thyssen. Baron Hans-Heinrich “Heini” Thyssen-Bornemisza was the famous cousin of Bodo Thyssen, whose legendary art collection is now property of the Spanish state and exhibited in the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. At the beginning of the 70s, Dr. Bodo and Renate Thyssen established the “Thyssen Privatklinik” in Prien by Lake Chiemsee.

Renate Thyssen now focused her own business activities on the real estate market, as constructor and owner of many properties. She married to her divorce lawyer Dr. Detlef Wunderlich, whose career she supported financially and promoted through her many contacts.

In the mid-80s, Renate Thyssen acquired the, at the time, rather run down restaurant chain “Wienerwald” from a Swiss consortium of banks and carried out the necessary classic downsizing of the business. After the restructuring process, she sold subsidiaries in Germany, France, Sweden and Egypt that were in deficit and focused on the core business in Austria which included 54 restaurants, 10 motorway restaurants, 5 hotels and a total of 1,500 employees.

Following her own motto of “light, young, fresh”, she revolutionised the restaurant’s cuisine and ambience. Under Renate Thyssen’s management, “Wienerwald” blossomed to become a booming restaurant chain and the largest in Austria. As a result, in 1988, the Austrian business magazine “Erfolg” nominated her as manageress of the year. At the end of the 80s, she sold the successfully restructured company to the city of Vienna.

Since 1988, Renate Thyssen has been married to Ernst Theodor Henne, owner for several decades of the large German Mercedes representative by the same name. At the end of the 90s, Renate Thyssen-Henne bid farewell to her 12-hour working day and concentrated her business activities in the area of real estate and investments. She now dedicates her spare time exclusively to charitable causes.

In the year 2002, together with her husband Ernst Th. Henne and her daughter, Dr. Gabriele Inaara the Begum Aga Khan, she founded the aid organisation SOS PROJECTS für Mensch und Tier e.V. in Munich, Germany. This private aid organisation promotes animal-assisted therapy for disabled and sick children and also carries out animal welfare projects.