Vilma Wilhelmine Löwenbach

Good friend of Milena Jesenská.

VILMA ZUCKER LOWENBACH Written by Ann Bala Matyas, Vilma’s grandaughter

Vilma Zuker was born the youngest of 5 children to Flora (nee Taussig) and Joseph Zucker on May 16, 1891 in Strakonice, Bohemia. She was intelligent and precocious and she charmed everyone, including her four older siblings, Ernst, Marinka, Herbert, and Selma. Vilma loved reading books, listening to music and looking at art. Her interests were varied and she became a knowledgeable and accomplished young woman. While her mother, her grandmother, her sisters and her aunts were relegated to the traditional role of wife and mother, Vilma devoted herself to learning.

When Vilma was a teenager, she met Jan Lowenbach, a young man from Rychov nad Kneznou who was studying law at Charles IV University in Prague. My mother, Mima Lowenbach Bala, told me that while her mother and father were courting, they used to walk many kilometers to meet each other half way between their towns; however, since Prague was 111 kilometres away from Strakonice and Nachod, where Jan became an articled clerk in 1910, was 258 kilometers away, it is not clear what this story referred to.

Jan Lowenbach and Vilma Zucker got married in a traditional Jewish ceremony on February 14, 1911, the year after Jan had received his Doctorate of Law degree from Charles IV University in Prague. Vilma must have moved with Jan to Nachod where Jan had started as an articled clerk after his graduation. They moved to Prague in 1913 when Jan opened his own law practice there. Jan was instrumental in furthering Vilma’s self education and she became a great asset to his career. As Jan became a well-known Prague copyright attorney, music critic and promoter of Czech music at home and abroad, Vilma became a great asset to his career. Jozka Pejskar writes “Vilma became a powerful, creative, and enlightened support to her husband Dr Jan Lowenbach, without whom it is somehow impossible to imagine musical Prague for the full thirty years before the beginning of the Second World War. Without the active, even zealous work of his wife, Dr. Lowenbach would have had great difficulties to fulfill what he explained as his life's aim on the day of his promotion at the Charles University: ‘To bring harmony into law and law into music’…In the documentary book ‘Correspondence of Dr Jan Lowenbach with Leos Janácek’, we can find the name of Mrs. Vilma Lowenbach on a number of pages.” Vilma helped Jan translate into German the works of many Czech poets and several pieces of music, including ‘Czech songs’, cantatas and operas. In 1924, Vilma helped Jan initiate and organize the music festival in Prague to celebrate Smetana's Jubilee. This and other festivals were the origin of the ‘Prague Musical Spring’ which made Prague famous internationally. Pejskar writes “Vilma Lowenbach, with her whole life's work, deserves a permanent entry into the history of Czech music.”

Jan and Vilma Lowenbach had 2 daughters. Eva was born on December 1, 1912. When Eva’s sister, Vera Judith was born on May 5, 1914, one and half year old Eva called her Miminka which means Baby in Czech. The name stuck and Vera Judith was known to her friends and family as Mima from that day forward.

Every summer, Vilma, Jan, Eva and Mima left Prague for Strakonice where they visited Vilma’s parents, Joseph and Flora Zucker in their large home on the main square of the town. Vilma’s four older siblings Ernst, Marinka, Herbert and Selma, all of whom lived in Vienna, also came with their families.

Flora’s sisters frequently came to visit and their children and grandchildren all played together, forming close relationships which were maintained throughout the generations. Flora was especially close to her sister Beta (Elisabeta, Eliska). Their daughters, Vilma and Irma respectively, were not only first cousins, but also best of friends. Irma’s daughter, Joan Cominos and Vilma’s daughter, Mima continued the bond and I still enjoy close ties with Joan Cominos and her children Eve and Dion.

Flora’s sisters, Laura and Anna also came to visit. Laura and Anna Taussig had married two brothers Jindrich (Heinrich) and Ludèk (Ludwig) Fischer. Vilma’s mother-in-law, Babetta Fischer Lowenbach was their sister. Once again bonds were formed that lasted generations. I am still in contact with Peter Grant, Laura and JIndrich’s great grandson as well as Eleanor and Patricia Sommer, Anna and Ludek’s great granddaughters. They are my 3rd cousins on both of my grandparent’s sides. As Hitler became increasingly powerful in neighboring Germany, concern grew in Austria about the prospect of annexation and about the safety of its Jews. Vilma’s oldest brother, Ernst, moved to Argentina and in early 1938, when an annexation of Austria seemed imminent, he insisted that his siblings Marinka and Herbert leave Vienna where they both lived with their families. With their spouses begrudging the move, they both moved with their families to New York City where their sister Selma had already moved to.

In February 1939, with the threat of a Nazi occupation of Prague looming, Vilma and Jan left their home in Prague and after spending some time in England and Cuba, moved to New York City. After the war, they returned to Prague but when the communists took over in 1948, they left Czechoslovakia for good and moved back to New York City.

Ernst, Vilma’s oldest brother, died in 1958 and, being childless, left an inheritance to all of his nieces and nephews with the stipulation that they care for their parents. Mima and Eva bought an apartment for Jan and Vilma at 17 West 54th Street in Manhattan. I used to visit them often and after all these years, I still remember their telephone number: Judson 23484. I cherished my visits with my grandparents. My grandmother used to take me to ballets, theatres, concerts and art exhibits. Her apartment was facing the Museum of Modern Art and she often took me there, describing to me what she saw in the paintings and asking me what I saw. Sometimes her courage and determination scared me. Once after an evening show on Broadway, she pulled me into the middle of oncoming traffic to hail a taxi. With a shining army of fast moving lights advancing on us, I was sure we would die. But my grandmother imperiously stood her ground waving and a taxi stopped for her immediately. Another time, when she and I on got on a bus, the driver pointed out that she did not have the correct change. Undeterred, she tried to barter with him and offered to exchange some little trinket for our fare. Of course he refused, but that still got us a few stops closer to our destination.

Vilma often entertained. She and Jan were always open to receiving artists, composers, musicians, politicians and writers who frequently came to visit them, both in Prague and in New York City. Vilma was also very involved in social action. While still in Prague, she was active on the working committee of the Czechoslovak YMCA, the Czechoslovak Red Cross and the Saldo Committee, which Jan had founded to organize help for anti-Nazi German intellectual refugees. In the United States, Vilma was a member of the Czech Women’s Society; the America Czech National Council and the League of Women's voters.

Vilma Lowenbach died on April 26, 1975 in New York City, USA.