Philipp Loewenfeld

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Philipp Loewenfeld (born September 23, 1887 in Munich , † November 3, 1963 in New York ) was a German lawyer and politician ( SPD ).

Life

Philipp Löwenfeld comes from a Jewish family that had been associated with Bavaria for generations. His father was the law professor Theodor Löwenfeld , who wrote important papers on labor and civil law. Löwenfeld graduated from the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich in 1906 and then studied law at the University of Munich until 1911. Löwenfeld then became a lawyer in Munich and honorary professor at the university.

On October 1, 1914, he volunteered for the military at the beginning of the First World War and was trained in a radio operator replacement company. There he was promoted to corporal on May 5, 1915, appointed reserve officer aspirant on November 21, and promoted to superordinate sergeant . On December 1, 1915 he moved "into the field", on August 10, 1916 he was promoted to deputy lieutenant and received the rank of deputy officer on December 21. From January 13, 1917, he led a mountain troop radio operator. At Christmas 1916 he received the Iron Cross II. Class and the Bavarian Cross of Merit with Swords. From December 1, 1915, he took part in the Balkan campaign, including on the Greek and Macedonian borders, battles near Monastir , Lake Ostrowo, Florina and Struga on Lake Ohrid .

Löwenfeld had already been politically active as a student. In 1912 he became a member of the SPD because he campaigned for “social reforms and legal progress”. Löwenfeld was a “reformist” social democrat all his life. In 1918 Löwenfeld was elected the party's delegate to the Reich Council Congress. At the request of the Bavarian Prime Minister Kurt Eisner , he worked out the draft for the Bavarian constitution together with two other lawyers . Its first version was proclaimed as the “Basic Law for the Republic of Bavaria” on January 7, 1919 and was the first democratic constitution in Bavarian history.

During the Weimar Republic , he became known as a defender in a number of high-profile political criminal trials. He defended, among other things, the Soviet Republicans Ernst Niekisch and Felix Fechenbach . He also led a journalistic fight against the abuses of the Weimar legal system. As a staunch Republican and opponent of National Socialism, he had to emigrate to Switzerland in 1933 and to the United States in 1938 . In 1942 he wrote his autobiography , which was published in 2004. Loewenfeld wanted to make a contribution to shedding light on the causes of National Socialism . He last lived in New York.

family

Löwenfeld had been married to Lottie Winkler since 1914 and they had three daughters. One daughter was the scientist Irene Löwenfeld , who together with Otto Löwenstein wrote a basic work on the human pupil.

Publications (selection)

  • Criminal law as a political weapon . (The socialist legal idea issue 1, series of publications by the Association of Social Democratic Lawyers, edited by Franz Neumann ), Berlin 1933.
  • Political murder - to its sociology . Europa Verlag, Zurich 1936. (An account of the murders of the National Socialists on their political opponents, published under the pseudonym Hans Kilian)
  • Law and politics in Bavaria between the time of the Prince Regent and National Socialism. The memories of Philipp Loewenfeld . Ed. Peter Landau ; Rolf Rieß, Aktiv Druck & Verlag, Ebelsbach 2004, ISBN 3-932653-16-5 . (Münchener Universitätsschriften - Law Faculty, Treatises on Basic Legal Research 91) (The book was also published by the Bavarian State Center for Political Education [1] ).

Others

  • Loewenfeld boasts that he was possibly the last to have collected his legal costs through foreclosure from Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler .
  • In 2006 the city of Munich named a street after Loewenfeld

literature

  • Horst Göppinger : Jurists of Jewish descent in the Third Reich: Disenfranchisement and persecution. - Munich: Beck, 1990
  • Monika Richarz (ed.): Citizens on Revocation: Testimonials of German Jews 1780–1945. - Munich: Beck, 1989 (contains part of the memories of Löwenfeld)
  • Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The editors in the introduction to law and politics in Bavaria between the time of the Prince Regent and National Socialism. The memories of Philipp Loewenfeld . Ed. Peter Landau ; Rolf Rieß, Aktiv Druck & Verlag, Ebelsbach 2004, ISBN 3-932653-16-5 , p. XVII.
  2. ^ Annual report on the Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Munich. ZDB ID 12448436 , 1905/06
  3. ↑ a b Irene Loewenfeld, PhD Physiologist of the Pupil. Retrieved March 23, 2019 .
  4. ^ Official directory of the staff of teachers, civil servants and students at the royal Bavarian Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Winter semester 1906/07. Ludwig Maximilians University Munich 1907 (and following)
  5. ↑ Pay book at ancestry
  6. ^ The editors in Law and Politics in Bavaria between the Prince Regent Period and National Socialism. The memories of Philipp Loewenfeld . Ebelsbach 2004, p. XVII.
  7. ^ The editors in Law and Politics in Bavaria between the Prince Regent Period and National Socialism. The memories of Philipp Loewenfeld . Ebelsbach 2004, p. XVIII.
  8. ↑ Renaming of the street Philipp-Loewenfeld-Straße on www.muenchen.de
personal data
SURNAME Loewenfeld, Philipp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH 3rd November 1963
Place of death new York