Renate Benfey

Renate Benfey Wilkins arrived in the United States with her parents, Eduard and Lotte Benfey, in December 1939. Until Kristallnacht in 1938, her family had not felt threatened by the Nazis. Though Jewish by Hitler’s definition, their faith was Christian. Her father was both a World War I veteran and a judge in Berlin.

It was largely through her aunt Anni Albers, who was already at Black Mountain College, that her parents were convinced of the true danger, and in January 1939 Renate and her younger brother were sent to England. They were joined in May by their parents who were able to arrange passage on a refugee ship to New York.

When Josef and Anni Albers visited the Benfeys in New York in January 1940, they brought Renate back to Black Mountain College so that she could finish high school in the village of Black Mountain while her parents found a place to live.

After graduation in the spring of 1940, she enrolled as a student at the college. Renate recalled that though she did not choose Black Mountain College, it was a perfect place for her to grow up and adapt to her new country. She took a general curriculum with a focus on courses in French, Spanish and Russian.

She worked on the construction of the Studies Building, pouring cement for the foundations and nailing "bendable nails" into the oak flooring. When she left Black Mountain, Renate moved to Cambridge where her parents then lived. Her mother was assistant manager at the Window Shop, a restaurant that had been created to give employment to refugees.

Benfey first took a secretarial course and worked for the American Friends Service Committee before enrolling at Boston University for her B.A. degree in Sociology. After her marriage to Homer Wilkins, a physicist, she lived in Grinnell, Iowa; St. Louis, Missouri; Alfred, New York; and South Hadley, Massachusetts while rearing their two children. In South Hadley she began working part-time at Mount Holyoke College in the Admissions Office.

After her divorce, she became assistant to the Dean of the College Chapel. She completed her Master of Education degree in student personnel work at Springfield College. At her retirement she was Dean of Students.

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Alternative Name: Renate Benfey Wilkins

Relationships

Aunt: BMC faculty, Anni Albers

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Renate in 2001 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection.

Topics: Hearing about BMC – initial impression – interest in organic, self-sufficient farm – Natasha Goldowski as person and chemistry class – weaving with Trude Guermonprez – Geometry for Artists – Madame Goldowski– mealtimes – college dances – Dave Corkran family – work program – college farmers – bookbinding with Johanna Jalowetz – Fuller Geodesic Dome 1949 summer and ideas – BMC chairs – marriage to Martha Treichler – later professional work

Courses Taken

Fall Term 1940-41: 19th and 20th Century French Literature (Chenkin) Introductory Spanish (Mangold), American History (Babcock), Music (Evarts),Chorus (Jalowetz)

Spring Term 1940-41: Introductory Spanish (Mangold), Music (Evarts), American History (Babcock), Chorus (Jalowetz)

Fall Term 1941-42: Advanced French Tutorial (de Graaf), Advanced Spanish (deGraaf), General Biology (Carpenter), Werklehre (Albers), Types of Literature (Kurtz), Chorus (Jalowetz)

Spring 1941-42: Advanced French Tutorial (de Graaf), Advanced Spanish (deGraaf), General Biology (Carpenter), Werklehre (Albers), Types of Literature (Kurtz)

Fall 1942-43: Introductory Russian (de Graaf), Readings in Spanish Literature (deGraaf), Readings in Philosophical Classics (Straus), The Seeing of Art (Albers), Advanced French Tutorial (de Graaf), Community Work Program (Wood)

Winter Quarter 1942-43: Readings in Spanish Literature (de Graaf), Introductory Russian(de Graaf), The Seeing of Art (Albers), Tutorial French Literature (deGraaf), Tutorial French Linguistics (de Graaf), Reading of French Classics (deGraaf), Europe 1600-1800 (Bentley), Community Work Program (Wood)

Spring Quarter 1942-43: IntermediateRussian(de Graaf), The Nineteenth Century (Bentley), Operas of Mozart (Jalowetz), Tutorial in French Literature (deGraaf), Tutorial in French Linguistics (de Graaf), Community Work Program (Wood)