Ferdinand Loewenberg

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Fred Löwenberg at the VVN-BdA unification congress in October 2002 in Berlin

Ferdinand "Fred" Löwenberg (born April 19, 1924 in Breslau ; † May 30, 2004 in Berlin ) was a German anti-fascist and journalist.

Life

Ferdinand Löwenberg was born on April 19, 1924 to social democratic parents in Breslau, the father was Jewish. His younger brother Martin Löwenberg was also a victim of Nazi persecution and a participant in the resistance against National Socialism.

He was denied professional training during the Nazi era . At the age of 19 he was interned by the SS in the Buchenwald concentration camp and there “a real participant in the resistance” (Löwenberg). The "red Kapo" Robert Siewert saved Löwenberg from deportation to Auschwitz . Fred Löwenberg's younger brother Martin was also deported to a concentration camp by the National Socialists and had to do forced labor .

Despite his own negative experiences, Fred Löwenberg has pleaded for friendly and good neighborly relations with Poland : After the liberation from National Socialism, Löwenberg was denounced by Polish citizens and taken to prison, where he was responsible for German self-government in Wroclaw (appointed by the Soviet headquarters) had to sit in prison with the torturers of the Third Reich. Even his children learned little about this time, which was also physically difficult for Löwenberg, in order not to burden their relationship with Poland. The testimony of a Polish guard who recognized Löwenberg as his savior during the Third Reich led, after many months, to Löwenberg's acquittal and to the mitigation of the (death) sentence that had already been written.

Fred Löwenberg's grave on the VdN grove of honor in the Friedrichsfelde central cemetery

Löwenberg was a member of the Munich SPD and at the same time deputy district chairman of the association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime . Because of the incompatibility decision of the SPD, he was in 1950 from the SPD ruled out and joined the Socialist Action . Due to the contacts between the SED and the Socialist Action, Löwenberg was charged with secret bundling and sentenced to nineteen months imprisonment during a trial before the Federal Court of Justice . He worked for the KPD, which was banned in 1956, and moved to East Berlin in 1969 . Löwenberg worked for several years for the business newspaper Horizont , later for the Neue Deutsche Bauernzeitung and mainly dealt with foreign trade issues. Foreign trade up-to-date was a series of lectures by Löwenberg, which he a. a. held for Urania in the 1970s and 1980s. Due to his persecution and his resistance in the Third Reich , Löwenberg was able to retire at the age of 60.

When the interest group of those persecuted by the Nazi regime ( IVVdN ) was founded after the turnaround and peaceful revolution in the GDR in eastern Germany , he was editor-in-chief of the association's magazine antifa for several years .

Löwenberg campaigned for the unification of VVN-BdA (West) and VVdN-BdA (East) that took place in October 2002 .

Until his death he was chairman of the “Berlin Association of Former Participants in the Antifascist Resistance, Persecuted by the Nazi Regime and Survivors e. V. "

Fred-Löwenberg-Platz

Fred Löwenberg died after a brief illness on May 30, 2004 and was buried in the cemetery for victims of fascism and persecuted by the Nazi regime at the Berlin-Friedrichsfelde cemetery at the beginning of July .

His long marriage to Olga Löwenberg (1926–1980) resulted in three sons. He also had two daughters.

The SHOA Foundation recorded and archived a video about his life with Fred Löwenberg.

In the Berlin district of Marzahn-Hellersdorf , a square was named after him on April 19, 2012 at the corner of Cecilienstraße and Wuhlestraße: Fred-Löwenberg-Platz .

literature

  • Daniela Fuchs-Frotscher: Between anti-fascist resistance and loss of home - the Löwenberg family in Breslau. In: Cornelia Domaschke, Daniela Fuchs-Frotscher, Günter Wehner (eds.): Resistance and loss of home. German anti-fascists in Silesia. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation , Texts 73, Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin, 2012, pp. 10–38, online as PDF (1.9 MB).

Web links

Commons : Ferdinand Löwenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniela Fuchs-Frotscher: Between anti-fascist resistance and loss of homeland - the Löwenberg family in Breslau. In: Cornelia Domaschke, Daniela Fuchs-Frotscher, Günter Wehner (eds.): Resistance and loss of home. German anti-fascists in Silesia, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, texts 73, Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin, 2012, p. 35
  2. ↑ Archive No .: 11319
  3. ↑ Design: landscape architect Gabriele Wilheim-Stemberger. Press release from the Marzahn-Hellersdorf district office: Fred-Löwenberg-Platz was opened on April 19. solemnly inaugurated
personal data
SURNAME Löwenberg, Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Loewenberg, Fred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter against National Socialism, victim of Nazi persecution and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 2004
Place of death Berlin