Siegmund Loewe

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Siegmund Loewe (left) with Manfred von Ardenne
Loewe headquarters in 1923 in Berlin-Friedenau, Niedstrasse 5

Siegmund Loewe (born November 6, 1885 in Berlin ; † May 2, 1962 in Sarasota , USA) was a pioneer in radio technology and an industrialist. He was a co-founder of the company "Radioaktiengesellschaft D. S. Loewe", a major radio manufacturer during the Weimar Republic and the Nazi dictatorship . The Radio AG D. S. Loewe was the predecessor companies of West German Loewe Opta AG , today Loewe AG .

Life

Siegmund Loewe grew up in a Judeo-Christian family: his father Ludwig, who had been an ENT doctor since 1879 , was Jewish, his mother Emilie Ernestine Oxen was a Protestant . While the first-born son David Ludwig was baptized Protestant, Siegmund, born a year later, was formally a member of the Jewish community, albeit without a ritual admission. The two younger siblings Clara and Bernhard were apparently raised Jewish and later also chose Jewish spouses.

Loewe studied physics and electrical engineering and was at Max Vienna in Jena with magna cum laude to the Dr. phil. PhD. His specialty was high frequency technology .

Share of RM 1000 in radio stock company DS Loewe from April 1930

October 29, 1923 is considered to be the hour of birth of broadcasting in Germany . On this day, the first entertainment program was broadcast from the Vox house . As early as January 1923, Loewe and his brother David  founded the Radiofrequenz GmbH company in Berlin-Friedenau , Niedstrasse 5, in the premises of the former mechanical workshop Grüttner & Lütgert Berlin . October 1923 marked the beginning of a series of Loewe companies. These included the Audion-Werk Dr. S. Loewe GmbH for the production of electron tubes , soon after that Loewe Radio GmbH for the production of loudspeakers and resistors. In the spring of 1924,  a plant for the production of individual parts and receivers was built on the Teltow Canal in the Steglitz district ( Lankwitz district , Wiesenweg 10). Soon after, the Loewe brothers consolidated their companies in the Berlin-Steglitz plant , which in 1929 was initially the headquarters of Berliner Radio-Handels AG . In 1930 the name was changed to "Radioaktiengesellschaft D. S. Loewe".

In the mid-1920s, Siegmund Loewe hired the young autodidact Manfred von Ardenne and worked with him to develop one of the first multi-system tubes. In addition to three triode systems, four resistors and two capacitors were also housed in the so-called 3NF triple tube . It was one of the first integrated circuits and was used in the Loewe OE 333 local receiver. With the exception of the Volksempfänger and DKE 38 ("Deutscher Kleinempfänger"), which were later commissioned by the National Socialists, the OE 333 was the most successful radio set in Germany before the Second World War.

Immediately after the takeover of the Nazis , the brothers Loewe and their company were attacked by the regime in public. A boycott of the products threatened. The attacks by the Nazi factory cell were initially directed against David Loewe. On April 27, 1933, he put the management of Radio AG D. S. Loewe and Audion-Werk Dr. S. Loewe down. Rumors of tax and currency offenses were spread against him, so that David Loewe left Germany in 1933. He emigrated to Great Britain via Switzerland . Siegmund Loewe was tolerated for the time being, but at the end of 1934 he anticipated the payment of the Jewish community tax. Nevertheless, from 1935 onwards, as a result of the Nuremberg Laws, he was still considered a “ Jewish half-race ”. In order to secure the company patents for the American market, he traveled to the USA for two stays of several months in 1936 and 1937 and founded Loewe Radio Inc. In order to make an impending " Aryanization " more difficult, shares in Radio AG D. S. Loewe were transferred to Loewe - Foreign companies in Switzerland and England transferred. Meanwhile, the companies Bosch and Zeiss Ikon tried to force Loewe out of the joint research company TV AG . In return, Siegmund Loewe wanted to preserve the company's independence through agreements with Telefunken and Philips .

The expropriation of Radio AG D. S. Loewe (from 1940 Löwe Radio AG , from 1942 Opta Radio AG ) took place in 1938 after the Reich Ministry of the Interior came to the conclusion that Loewe's exit from the Jewish community was ineffective because it had not been declared before the competent local court was. That is why Siegmund Loewe was seen as a “ Jew of validity ” - but since the end of 1937 the production of radio and television sets was reserved for “Aryan” companies. When Siegmund Loewe was dismissed from the board during a business trip, he did not return to Germany. He settled in the USA.

In 1949 the West German and West Berlin parts of the company were returned to Siegmund Loewe and renamed Loewe Opta AG. Siegmund Loewe died during a stay in the USA and was buried on May 28 at the Dahlem Forest Cemetery .

A state secondary school and a street near the former state horticultural show area is named after Siegmund Loewe in the city of Kronach .

Web links

literature

  • Helmut Mielert:  Loewe, Siegmund. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , pp. 86-88 ( digitized version ).
  • 90 years of innovation - Loewe. (PDF) ELV-Journal 1/2013, accessed on January 28, 2016 .
  • Kilian JL Steiner: local receiver, public television and optaphone. The development of the German radio and television industry and the Loewe company 1923–1962 . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2005, ISBN 3-89861-492-1 .
  • Kilian JL Steiner: The "Aryanization" of the radio stock company DS Loewe in Berlin-Steglitz . In: Christof Biggeleben u. a .: "Aryanization" in Berlin . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938690-55-0 , pp. 225–246.
  • Martin Münzel, Kilian JL Steiner: The long shadows of "Aryanization". The Berlin companies Loewe and Ullstein after 1945 . In: Christof Biggeleben u. a .: "Aryanization" in Berlin . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938690-55-0 , pp. 287-314.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Died: Siegmund Loewe . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 1962 ( online - May 23, 1962 ).
  2. Kilian JL Steiner: local receiver, people's television and optaphone. The development of the German radio and television industry and the Loewe company 1923–1962 . Essen 2005, p. 34 f.
  3. ^ Obituary for Siegmund Loewe. In: Funkschau , No. 12/1962, on Radiomuseum.org; accessed January 29, 2016.
  4. radio sets . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1924, part 2, p. 475.
  5. radiomuseum.org: Tube 3NF. Retrieved January 28, 2016 .
  6. The Loewe 3NFB tube - analysis of a multiple tube Link (PDF; 170 kB)
  7. radiomuseum.org: local receiver OE333. Retrieved January 28, 2016 .
  8. ^ Kilian JL Steiner: The "Aryanization" of the radio stock corporation D. S. Loewe in Berlin-Steglitz . In: Christof Biggeleben u. a .: "Aryanization" in Berlin . Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-938690-55-0 , p. 232 ff.
  9. Kilian JL Steiner: Ortsempfänger, Volksfernseher und Optaphon , p. 221.
  10. Kilian JL Steiner: Ortsempfänger, Volksfernseher and Optaphon , p. 225 ff.
  11. Kilian JL Steiner: Ortsempfänger, Volksfernseher und Optaphon , p. 231.
  12. Michael Keeble Buckland: Emanuel Goldberg and His Knowledge Machine , 2006, p. 239 f.
  13. Loewe Opta company history , Radiofundgrube, accessed on November 6, 2016.