Karl Amson Joel

Karl Amson Joel (November 20 1889 – November 4 1982) was a German-Jewish textile merchant and manufacturer. He is the grandfather of conductor Alexander Joel and musician Billy Joel.

Joel, born in Colmberg as the son of a textile merchant, founded a Nuremberg based mail order textile and clothing company in 1928. The following year he also started manufacturing. Joel's company soon became one of the leading mail order sellers in Germany (along with Quelle or Schöpflin).

After the rise to power of Nazism (1933), Joel was increasingly discriminated against by the regional Nazi Party leaders, especially Julius Streicher. Therefore, Joel moved his company to Berlin in 1934 where he rented a factory site in Wedding and installed new packing machines. The stitching department, however, had to remain in Nuremberg. As discrimination further increased (e.g. deliveries had to be marked with a "J" for Juden, or Jew), and Jewish firms became "Aryanized," Joel was forced to sell his company to Josef Neckermann for an unrealistic purchase price in 1938. The original agreement of 2.3 million marks was further reduced by Neckermann to 1.1 million marks. The money was transferred to a trust account at the banking house "Hardy & Co." in Berlin.

Meanwhile Joel and his wife Meta had emigrated to Switzerland in July 1938. Their son Helmut (later called Howard) attended boarding school there. As a so-called "Devisenausländer" (currency foreigner) Joel could not get access to the trust account in Berlin. In August 1938 he was expatriated and his firm was confiscated the following month. Via France and England the Joels flew to Cuba. Finally, they reached the United States, where Joel started a new enterprise in 1942.

In 1957 Joel got a compensation of 2 million German marks for his former company from Neckermann who ran the most successful German mail order selling company at the time. In 1964 Joel returned to Nuremberg, where he stayed until his death.