Hans Loewy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hans Löwy (born May 17, 1907 in Vienna ; † August 4, 1993 ) was one of the strongest Austrian table tennis players in the 1920s . In 1954 he founded the American company Forest Laboratories .

Table tennis career

Löwy grew up in Vienna. In 1919 he joined the Vienna Athletics Club (WAC) . Here he was initially active with football and billiards, later he shifted his focus to table tennis. Here he made rapid progress and competed in European tournaments with the top players at the time, who came mainly from Hungary and Austria. By 1924 he was among the top 10 players in Europe.

Important tournament successes were

  • Beginning of February 1925: International TT tournament in Bratislava: 2nd place in doubles with Eduard Freudenheim
  • 14.-15. February 1925: "The Scratch" tournament: 1st place singles
  • 1925: Championship of Moravia: 2nd place in doubles with Eduard Freudenheim, 1st place in mixed with Josephine Wiesenthal
  • 1925: European tournament for individual competitions: 1st place
  • 1926: European tournament for individual competitions: 1st place
  • 1926: Open Austrian Championship: 1st place in mixed with Gertrude Wildam
  • 1926/27: Open Prague Championship: 1st place in the individual
  • 1926/27: Non-open championship of the Wiener League: 2nd place in singles, 1st place in doubles with Weiger
  • 1926/27: Championship of the Makkabi Club: 1st place in doubles with Weiger
  • 1927: Semmering: 1st place in doubles with Weiger
  • 1927: (restricted) Austrian Championship: 1st place in mixed with Gertrude Wildam
  • 1928: Open Austrian Championship: 1st place in mixed with Josephine Wiesenthal

Löwy was registered for the 1926 World Cup in London. He is also listed in the tournament book, but did not play there. Nothing is known about the reasons, including whether he was there at all.

At the end of the 1920s, Löwy temporarily ended his table tennis career. This was due to health and professional reasons. He had a doctorate in chemistry and worked with his brother Fritz in the textile company De Angeli-Frua as a foreign trade representative. From 1928 to 1933 he also trained the Austrian boxers who took part in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Occasionally he wrote for the sports column of a Viennese newspaper.

In the mid-1930s there was a comeback in table tennis. He was registered for the 1937 World Table Tennis Championships in Baden (Austria). Here he lost according to the tournament protocol in the first round against the Yugoslav Ladislav Hexner. Again, it is not known whether Löwy took up the position.

Emigration to the USA

Löwy was a Jew. After the annexation of Austria , like all Jews, he was forced to resign from the Vienna Athletic Sports Club (WAC). He also lost his job at De Angeli-Frua. He was committed to the persecuted Jews and enabled about 350 Dachau inmates to travel to Costa Rica. Löwy was arrested several times, and each time he managed to escape. On October 14, 1938, he married the gymnastics teacher Rosl Irom. In February 1939 he fled to Holland with his wife, and on March 13 of the following year they reached New York by ship.

Initially, Löwy worked as a chemist for the American defense industry. He later became an American citizen and changed his name to Hans Lowey . He developed and patented sustained release drugs, which release the drug slowly ("sustained release"). In 1954 he founded Forest Laboratories . Later he started other companies.

literature

  • Dan Edelman: Champion Before the Championship: Hans Lowey, Forgotten Table Tennis King of the 1920s , The Table Tennis Collector, issue 59 pages 10–13 + issue 60 pages 6–9

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Der Scratch" was an Austrian publication about table tennis
  2. ↑ ITTF Museum ( Memento of the original from March 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Select "1926: ITTF Created", Slides 10, 12, 14 (accessed on May 18, 2011)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ittf.com
  3. ↑ see the article De Angeli-Frua in the Italian language Wikipedia
  4. ↑ ITTF Museum ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed April 19, 2014)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ittf.com
  5. ↑ PAtente des Lowey Hans (accessed May 18, 2011)
  6. ↑ http://www.frx.com/pdf/FRX_Corporate_Brochure.pdf (accessed on May 18, 2011)
  7. ↑ Dan Edelman is a grandson of Hans Löwy
personal data
SURNAME Löwy, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lowey, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian table tennis player and company founder
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1993