Ernst Löwenstein (lawyer)

Ernst Löwenstein (born April 7, 1881 in Jever , † June 4, 1974 in Canoga Park , California ) was a German lawyer and notary.

Life

Löwenstein was born to Jewish parents. Between 1891 and 1900 he attended the Mariengymnasium in Jever, which he completed with the Abitur. He then studied law at the universities in Berlin , Munich and Leipzig . His training was interrupted in 1904/05 when he was called up for military service in Halberstadt . After his legal exam in 1908, he was admitted to the bar. During the First World War he fought from 1914 to 1918 as a soldier for the German Reich at the front, for which he was later awarded the Cross of Honor for Frontline Fighters . In 1920 he married Else de Boer, with whom he had two children. In addition, he was licensed as a notary in 1921. From 1922 to 1933 he was a board member of the Bar Association in Oldenburg and from 1929 to 1933 a member of the court of honor. Around 1929 he took over the deputy chairmanship of the Jewish rural community in Oldenburg.

After the National Socialists came to power, a post of the SA was set up in front of his office in the local health insurance fund in Oldenburg as part of the call for a boycott of Jewish shops and service providers . Public posters with the names of Jewish businessmen also included his name. On October 1, 1935, the President of the Oldenburg Higher Regional Court, Eduard Högl, prohibited him from continuing his business as a notary by order of the Reich Ministry of Justice . Three and a half months later, the Ministry released him from office. In autumn 1936 the authorities refused an application by Löwenstein, who was now financially distressed, for maintenance subsidies.

He was arrested during the Reichspogromnacht on November 9, 1938 and deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , from which he was released on November 24, 1938. With the Fifth Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act on November 30, 1938, his license to practice as a lawyer was withdrawn. Finally, on January 6, 1939, he emigrated to the Netherlands . After the country was occupied by German troops, Löwenstein was arrested again in Amsterdam and was in prison from October 17 to November 21, 1940. At the Gestapo's threat with forced labor, his wife divorced him in 1941. From 1942 to 1944 he helped emigrate families of Jewish origin in Amsterdam.

After the end of the war, Löwenstein returned to Germany on October 22, 1945. Upon application, he was given back his lawyer and notary license. He became a member of the Board of Directors of the Bar Association and a member of the Court of Honor. In addition, he was an independent member of the Appointed Landtag of Oldenburg from January to November 1946 . On April 2, 1946, he remarried his wife Else and was elected head of the Jewish community in Oldenburg that same year.

For fear of a return of anti-Semitism in Germany, he withdrew his license to practice as a lawyer in May 1951 and emigrated to the United States, where he worked in Omaha ( Nebraska ) for a few years. He did not return to Germany until his death on June 4, 1974.

literature

• Barbara Simon : Member of Parliament in Lower Saxony 1946–1994. Biographical manual. Edited by the President of the Lower Saxony State Parliament. Lower Saxony State Parliament, Hanover 1996.
• Ulf Brückner: Erich Schiff and Ernst Löwenstein - on the fate of Jewish lawyers in Oldenburg during the Third Reich. Lecture at the Regional Court of Oldenburg on June 7, 2001. Edited by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice. Hanover 2002.