Retired hairdresser Fredric ‘Fritz’ Schwenk dies

In 1934, his parents sent 14-year-old Fredric Max "Fritz" Schwenk from his native Germany to live with an uncle on Staten Island, N.Y., to keep Fritz out of the Hitler Youth. Months later, they joined him.

Over the years, as he built a career for himself as a hairdresser and businessman in Highland Springs, he always stayed connected to Germany and continued to speak fluent German.

Mr. Schwenk, a co-founder of the largest Oktoberfest festival in Virginia and recipient of the German government's highest honor in 1994 as an unofficial ambassador for German culture and fosterer of German-American friendship, died Wednesday in a Henrico nursing home.

The 89-year-old retired hairdresser and businessman will be remembered today, Saturday, at a funeral at 11 a.m. at the Mechanicsville Chapel of Bennett Funeral Home, 8014 Lee-Davis Road. Burial will be in Signal Hill Memorial Park.

A former president of the Gesangverein (singing society) Virginia and of the Deutscher SportClub (German-American Sports Club), Mr. Schwenk was attending a club party in 1968 when he and his friend Edwin Lohmann decided that all Richmonders would enjoy the German conviviality so central to their lives.

With the backing of both German clubs, the friends put on their first Oktoberfest in 1969 at the old Holiday Inn venue known as The Abbey on Robin Hood Road.

The festival, which initially drew 500 people to eat German foods on long tables covered with white tablecloths, listen to German bands, dance and shop for souvenirs, now draws thousands and is still run by both clubs.

Mr. Schwenk, who served more than 30 years as the representative of the Deutscher SportClub on the Oktoberfest committee, was named honorary chairman several years ago in recognition of years of service, said Hans Stienen, president of the Deutscher SportClub.

A Nuremberg native and only child, Mr. Schwenk grew up in Garden City, N.J., where he earned his GED diploma and pursued a career as a barber and then hairdresser.

As "Mr. Fredric," he did hair shows for Clairol. After settling in the Richmond area, he opened a beauty salon on Cary Street and later owned Fredric's Institute of Hair Design, a beauty school in Sandston, until the mid-1980s.

After retiring, he took groups to tour Germany and Europe under the banner of "The Happy Wanderer" until his health began to falter.

Playing the zither he brought with him from home as a youth, he performed for years in Schnapsbrenner, a three-man group that played German music at venues around Richmond and at the annual all-German language Christmas Eve service of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Highland Springs.

Survivors include his wife, Nancy Elliott Schwenk; three daughters, Susan Donovan of Newport Richey, Fla., Donna Via of Holly Grove and Diane Comer of Mineral; and eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.