Walter Gerald Lowenstein-Lom

From Walter Lom (Löwenstein) talking about his grandfather (Gustav Loewenstein about 1860 – about 1919 • 93FY-WCW):

In my grandfather’s days the fortunes of the Lowenstein family were clearly looking up - maybe as a result of marrying those doctors’ daughters from Prague and collecting their dowries - and Gustav, my grandfather, seems to have been a well established shopkeeper and local citizen of some importance in the spa town of Karlsbad, where the family had moved to from Tuskov. In addition to his trade in haberdashery he had become a leather merchant dealing in whole skins, a more lucrative trade it seems than relying on the gallantry of Bohemian swains, and he owned a house on the banks of the Tepla river. On the other hand the family can not have been all that well off: Karlsbad being a well known spa has always had its local food and drink specialities. The local confectioners make their famous large circular wafers from an almond pastry cooked on special round grills. Shops who sell to visitors only carry beautifully minted round biscuits packed in circular boxes. My father assured me that in common with all the other poorer people of Karlsbad, as a boy he had always bought off-cuts and never seen a complete round wafer until he was grown up. There are a number of interesting touches about my grandfather, whom, most regrettably, I never met. I mentioned that he founded and that he always was a prominent member of the Free Thinkers Association. Why he took against organized religion, Jewish or other, I simply do not know. He also taught himself Italian and most have spoken it reasonably well because he was made honorary vice-consul of the Kingdom of Italy in Karlsbad. Apparently there were a fair number of Italians who “took the cure”, and Prague, the site of the nearest official Italian consulate, was too far away. The position was honorary and unpaid, but the work it involved can not have been particularly onerous. And there was one compensation: every year at Xmas there arrived from the consulate in Prague a small consignment consisting of a barrel of Chianti, a round of Parmesan cheese and a smoked Parma ham. I do not know if the Italians ever replaced the coat of arms and notice “Italian Consulate” on Haus Lorbeerkranz. But the plaque was always kept most beautifully polished. Grandfather Gustav had three sons and he brought them up more or less by himself: his wife Emma - again she came from a fairly well-off Prague Jewish family, the Goschlers, and may have contributed to the family fortunes - having died young. Quite clearly Gustav attached great importance to his sons’ education. To my mind it is remarkable that all three sons went to secondary school in Karlsbad and made it to University in Prague and Vienna respectively. Two of them, Noll and Ernst became professors in medical subjects, my father in ophthalmology, Ernest in bacteriology. Only the youngest son, Henry, dropped out, largely as a result of illness, I think, because he died fairly young from, what I would guess, was tuberculosis. I regret it in many ways that I do not know more about my paternal grandfather: he died just about the time I was borne. But I feel that he must have been an interesting personality. He seems to have been extremely set in his ways, a not unusual bourgeois characteristic. The household menu prepared by a hired cook who came in every morning was absolutely uniform. Boiled beef was eaten every day of the week and only the sauces, additions and vegetables ever varied, but again in predictably regular fashion. (Dill sauce on Monday) At certain times of day you could find him in his favourite coffee house, sitting at his favourite table, reading the paper or playing a card game called skat. It seems that he read a lot, that he disliked religion and that he was keen on foreigners and outsiders, finding his Karlsbad fellow citizens a little boring. Even so he largely lost contact with his two academic sons and evidently could not keep up with their intellectual development. Of course Karlsbad was a long way from Prague and Vienna; young men had to do their military service, and eventually the war made frequent contacts and visits almost impossible. I believe he was rather lonely, though, and only his youngest son, Henry, kept in closer touch with him, largely I suspect because he needed father’s financial help.