Axel Landmann was born in Germany in 1929 and lived with his family in the town of Finow in Brandenburg. After Kristallnacht in November 1938, when the shop his parents ran was ransacked, Axel Landmann boarded a train for England as part of the Kindertransport programme and arrived to live with a family in Northampton. After World War II, he learned that his parents had taken their own lives in 1940 upon finding out that they were to be sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

During his youth, Axel Landmann, who became an eminent leather scientist, was awarded a grant to study leather manufacture at the Northampton College of Technology before joining Lankro chemicals, where he learned to make, test and control leather finishes. He continued his studies to obtain an Honours Degree in Chemistry and became an Associate of the Royal Society of Chemistry and, later, a Fellow. Axel joined the British Leather Manufacturers Research Association (BLMRA), later to become the BLC Leather Technology Centre, where he remained for the rest of his career until retirement. There he started a new department of Leather Finishing and also guided the research with a strong emphasis on practical applications, including the evaluation and development of test methods.

Axel represented a variety of committees, including SLTC and IULTCS, and he also lectured at congresses such as the Hungarian and Czechoslovak Leather Societies. He served a term as SLTC President from 1990-1992 and remained a member of the Council during his retirement. 

He was an advisor to the Ministry of Defence on leather methods and appeared as an expert witness in court on behalf of the Trading Standards Department in cases involving leather descriptions and performance.

Axel contributed to World Leather Magazine for many years, compiling a series of features under the name of “The Scientific Detective”. In one of his last columns in 2006, he poked wry fun at “excessive testing” of leather, saying that it was entirely possible for leather buyers to insist on an extensive enough battery of tests for the cost of testing to exceed the cost of the leather.

Axel Landmann was the first recipient of the Axel Landmann Certificate in 2014 and the full list of other people recognised with this honour can be found on our “Past Presidents and Awards” page. 

Axel died aged 88 in 2018 and on his passing, our then SLTC membership secretary, Pat Potter, told members she was very sad to inform members of Axel Landmann’s death. “We thought him immortal”. Such was his impact and standing in the leather community.

Acknowledgements:
World Leather Magazine Article: 22 March 2018
International Leather Maker Article:  27 March 2018