Introductory Address
The Swiss Connection of Lehnert & Landrock
The founders of the Lehnert & Landrock bookshop were the Austrian born photographer Rudolf Lehnert and the German businessman Ernst Landrock. This begs the question how the two partners developed a Swiss connection and how the business ended up being run by a Swiss family.
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In 1899, Lehnert, a graduate of the Institute of Graphic Arts in Vienna, traveled by foot through Europe and fell in love with Italy. In 1903 he spent some time in Palermo and then went on to Tunesia, walking through the country, documenting his travels by taking stunning photographs. He returned to Europe the following year. He walked through Italy up to Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva where he met Ernst Landrock. The two became fast friends and after Landrock saw Lehnert's photos of Tunisia, they decided to start a business there.
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The onset of World War I turned Lehnert's and Landrock's world upside down. Due to their nationalities their business was sequestered including all of their glass plate negatives. They themselves experienced an Odyssey, being transferred from one interment camp to another, but both eventually ended up in Switzerland where they met their future wives. Landrock married Emilie Lambelet who had three boys from a previous marriage - one of them being Kurt Lambelet, my father.
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After the end of the War, the former partners agreed to revive their business, this time in Egypt. In all likelihood the stunning discovery of Tutankhamen's treasures in 1922 influenced their decision to set up shop in Cairo. They traveled there with their wives and the young Kurt Lambelet, Emily's second son who was a Swiss citizen. In 1938 Kurt bought 80% of the business and after World War II he acquired the last 20%. Being a Swiss citizen, Kurt navigated through the ups and downs of World War II, something Lehnert nor Landrock were not able to do due to their nationalities.
For the next 70 years, the Lehnert & Landrock bookstore remained mainly in Swiss hands, starting with my father Kurt Lambelet who then passed on the business to me. Interestingly, Egyptians refer to the bookstore as 'the German bookstore'.
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In 1982, I re-discovered several wooden boxes containing old photographic glass plates in a forgotten storage room. These were all the original photographs shot by Lehnert many decades ago across the Maghreb and the Middle East. Today, the glass plates are stored at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, very close to where Lehnert and Landrock first met in 1903.
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Dr. Edouard Lambelet
Lehnert & Landrock
September 2016
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