Louis Lowy

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louis Lowy (* 1920 in Munich ; † May 22, 1991 in Boston ; maiden name Löwy ) was an American and German social worker , social scientist and university professor . He dedicated himself particularly to the topics of education for the elderly and applied social work in German-speaking countries. With his collaboration, it was possible to successfully establish social work / social pedagogy in the scientific community in America ( Heiko Kleve ).

Life

Born in Munich as the only child of Max Löwy and Thekla Anna Löwy (née Bolz), he grew up "in a conservative-liberal and Central European-oriented family". In 1933 he tried to get the family to emigrate to England . Immigration was refused because his father suffered from asthma . Thereupon he emigrated to Prague - due to the origin of the grandfather, the acquisition of the Czechoslovak citizenship was possible. After graduating from high school , he completed teacher training, became a teacher at a middle school and also studied educational science at the then German-speaking Charles University . He and his father were admitted to the Theresienstadt ghetto in 1941 ; her mother, who was not of Jewish origin, accompanied her. There Lowy was involved in education, gave lectures on educational issues and secretly led children's groups. His mother died in 1942 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. There he met Ditta Jedlinski, his future wife. In 1944, Louis and a little later his fiancée were taken to Auschwitz . Shortly before his liberation, Lowy fled west with a group of young people. He returned to Theresienstadt via Budapest , Bratislava and Prague, where he learned that his father had died on the last transport to Auschwitz.

Given his language skills, Lowy worked as a “welfare worker” in Deggendorf in a Displaced Persons camp of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). This organization advised Holocaust survivors on their integration in Europe or their relocation to other continents. Lowy visited Prague and later emigrated with his wife Ditta to Boston , where his wife's relatives lived.

There he studied social work and worked on various projects with children, adolescents, adults and later also with older people. He received his doctorate in 1955 from Harvard University and became a professor at the "Boston School of Social work" at Boston University .

From 1964 he regularly visited colleagues in Germany and also taught at the Catholic Academy for Youth Issues in Münster .

After his retirement in Boston, Lowy was won over by Teresa Bock - the long-time vice-president of the German Caritas Association and chairwoman - now an honorary member - of the German association , as well as the founding rector of the KFHNW (since 2008 Catholic University of North Rhine-Westphalia ). In this collaboration he influenced the development of research and teaching in social work and supervision in Germany ( Kersting ).

Focus of his work

  • Social group work
  • Establishment of systems theory as the guiding theory of social work
  • Development of a model of external supervision (with effects on the development of supervision in Germany),
  • Participation in the reform of studies for social work in the transition from the “higher technical school” to the “ technical college ” and the development of curricula
  • Participation in the establishment of work for the elderly in German social work.
  • Introducing and developing a concept of social work science in the role of the university teacher
  • Participation in the development of case management in the 1980s

Works (selection)

  • Adult education and group work . 1955.
  • with Saul Bernstein (Ed.): Studies on social group work. 1st edition. Freiburg / Br. 1969. (1975, ISBN 3-7841-0094-5 )
  • with Leonard M. Bloksberg, Herbert J. Walberg: Integrative learning and teaching in schools of social work; a study of organizational development in professional education. Assoc. Press, New York 1971, ISBN 0-8096-1830-3 .
  • with Nelida A. Ferrari, Betty J. Rank, Sebastian Tine, The elderly in the group. Help in life through social group work , Freiburg im Breisgau, Lambertus-Verlag, 1971.
  • The role of social work in changing society. A practice continuum. Antonius-Verlag, Solothurn 1973.
  • with Leonard M. Bloksberg and Herbert J. Walberg: Teaching records: integrative learning & teaching project. Council on Social Work Education, New York 1973, OCLC 723873 .
  • Function of social work in a changing society. A continuum of practice. Charles River Books, Boston 1976, ISBN 0-89182-004-3 .
  • with Theresa Bock: curriculum development for social workers and social pedagogues. Lambertus, Freiburg / Br. 1974, ISBN 3-7841-0092-9 .
  • Supervision: an agogic teaching and learning process. In: Supervision, a job-related learning process. Verlag Haus Schwalbach, Wiesbaden 1977, ISBN 3-920427-20-3 , pp. 8-19.
  • with Anton Hunziker and Wolfgang Grichting: General teaching of social work. 1979, OCLC 6195934 .
  • Social work with the elderly: a textbook (Social work with the aging). Translated into German by Ulrike Stopfel. Freiburg im Breisgau 1981, ISBN 3-7841-0216-6 .
  • with Saul Bernstein (Ed.): Investigations into social group work in theory and practice. Translated into German by Margarethe Bellebaum and Ernst Nathan. 7th edition. Freiburg im Breisgau 1982, ISBN 3-7841-0051-1 .

Literature on Louis Lowy

  • Antonia Fischer: Edith Lowy, “We have nothing to risk, we want to live!” In: Joachim Wieler, Susanne Zeller (ed.): Emigirierte Sozialarbeit. Freiburg / Br., Pp. 217-220.
  • Alban Scherzinger: Louis Lowy. A life for a society with a human face. In: Joachim Wieler, Susanne Zeller (Hrsg.): Emigirierte Sozialarbeit. Freiburg / Br, pp. 221-232.
  • Heinz J. Kersting: Social work / social pedagogy as a science in the Anglo-American and German-speaking countries. Essay on the book of the same name by L. Lowy. In: Archives for Science and Practice of Social Work. 1983, No. 4, pp. 245-251.
  • Heiko Kleve : Supervision, social work (science) and constructivism. The extremely useful synthesis of Heinz Kersting. In: Theodor M. Bardmann , Waltraud Hornmann (eds.): EulenFest & SpiegelSchrift. Compiled for Heinz J. Kersting for his 60th birthday (= publications of the Institute for Advice and Supervision. Volume 14). Aachen 1997, ISBN 3-928047-26-4 .
  • Heinz J. Kersting: Louis Lowy (1920–1991) - observations of an observer and bridge builder across the Atlantic. In: Heinz J. Kersting (Ed.): Zirkelzeichen. Supervision as constructivist advice. Aachen: Kersting (Schriften zur Supervision, Vol. 11), ISBN 3-928047-27-2 , pp. 253–268.
  • Lorrie Gardella: The Life and Thought of Louis Lowy. Social Work through the Holocaust. Syracuse University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8156-0965-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Uta Antonia Lammel: Memories of Louis Lowy. In: Marion Gerads et al. (Ed.): Aachen University for Social Work. 100 years of tradition - reflection - innovation. Verlag Barbara Budrich, Opladen, Berlin, Toronto 2018, p. 139
  2. ^ Oral communication from Lowy to Kersting
  3. ^ Bock, Teresa (1969 [1965]): Foreword to the German edition. In: Saul Bernstein and Louis Lowy (eds.): Investigations into social group work in theory and practice [Explorations in group work]. Freiburg im Breisgau: Lambertus-Verl., P. 9
personal data
SURNAME Lowy, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Löwy, Louis (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German and American social scientist
DATE OF BIRTH 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1991
Place of death Boston