Jan Loewenbach

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Jan Löwenbach (born April 29, 1880 in Reichenau , Bohemia , † August 13, 1972 in Glens Falls , New York ) was a Czech writer, translator and diplomat.

Life and activity

Löwenbach studied law in Prague. After completing his doctorate, he worked as a lawyer with his own law firm in Prague, specializing in copyright law. As a lawyer he was involved in the establishment of Czechoslovak copyright law.

After studying music privately, Löwenbach also worked as a music critic and writer. He wrote texts for operas by Jaroslav Křička and Bohuslav Martinů . He also translated works by Rainer Maria Rilke into Czech and songs by Antonín Dvořák into German. For Heinrich Mann he represented his rights for Liliane and Paul . He was also the organizer of the Society for Contemporary Music and founder of the Czechoslovak national group of ALAI (Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale).

In 1938 Löwenbach emigrated to the USA. From 1941 to 1945 he was a press attaché at the Czechoslovak consulate in New York. He was also the editor of NY Listy newspaper .

In 1945 Löwenbach returned to Czechoslovakia, where he headed the music department of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Education for two years. After the communist seizure of power in his homeland in 1948, he left again and went back to the USA.

During the Nazi era Löwenbach was sometimes attacked as a "Jewish-Czech" author.

Löwenbach's estate is now kept as the Jan Lowenbach Collection by San Diego State University .

Fonts

  • Richard Wagner the anti-Semite , 1913.
  • Gluck a Ceohy , 1914.

Librettos

  • Jaroslav Křička : Haunted in the castle. Comic opera in 6 pictures , 1932. (Text based on a motif by Oscar Wilde by Jan Löwenbach-Budin)
  • Bohuslav Martinů : Voják a tanečnice , 1927. (Comical opera in three acts and ten pictures based on the comedy Pseudolus by Plautus )

literature

  • Susanne Blumesberger, Michael Doppelhofer, Gabriele Mauthe: Handbook of Austrian authors of Jewish origin from the 18th to the 20th century. Volume 2: J-R. Edited by the Austrian National Library. Saur, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-598-11545-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jan Löwenbach @ LexM. Retrieved March 19, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Archive for Music Research , Volume 6, Issue 3, p. 131.
personal data
SURNAME Löwenbach, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech writer, translator and diplomat
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenau , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 1972
Place of death Glen Falls , New York