Lowenstein Family Papers and Art

Henry Lowenstein was born Ernst Heinrich Loewenstein on July 4, 1925 in Berlin, Germany to Dr. Max Moses Loewenstein and Marie [Maria] Lilli Margarete Bätge Loewenstein. Max Loewenstein, called ''Vatchen'' by his children, was Jewish; however, Maria ''Mautzy'' was not. Growing up in pre-World War II Germany, Henry attended a Jewish school and was a member of a Jewish boy scout group where he learned to survive the Nazi terror.

Max Loewenstein was born in Lessen, West Prussia on May 17, 1885. He moved to Germany to study medicine and worked as a ships doctor before becoming an army doctor during World War I. After the war he settled in Berlin where he specialized in dermatology and venereal disease. In Berlin he met, married, and built a life with Maria Steinberg.

Maria Bätge was born in Tallinn, Estonia on April 9, 1894. Maria studied art in St. Petersburg, Russia where she married her first husband Erich Steinberg in 1914. Their daughter, Karin, was born in 1915 in Helsinki, Finland. The family escaped the Russian Revolution in 1917 by moving to Germany. After Erich's death in 1920, Maria moved to Berlin to work as an artist and designer.

In 1939, Heinrich Loewenstein [Henry Lowenstein] was relocated from Berlin on the Kindertransport to safety in England where he remained for the duration of World War II.

Throughout the war, the rest of the Loewenstein family, including Heinrich Loewenstein's [Henry Lowenstein] non-Jewish half-sister Karin Steinberg, remained in Berlin. The family suffered because they lived in a Jewish household, yet Maria was able to save Max from being transported to concentration camps on several occasions. Many of the Loewenstein's friends and family members died in concentration camps or ghettos.

After the war, Karin Steinberg obtained a position as an assistant to Otto Grotewohl, leader of the Socialist Democrats in Germany. In this capacity, she was part of a secret meeting in early 1946 between Grotewohl and Wilhem Pieck, leader of the German Communists. Steinberg learned of their plans against the Western Powers and passed the information to an American contact. In order to protect the Loewenstein family, the United States government facilitated the family's immigration to the United States in 1946.

In 1947, Heinrich Loewenstein [Henry Lowenstein] joined his family in the United States after emigrating from England. It was after the family's immigration to the United States that they changed their name to Lowenstein. Henry Lowenstein served in the Air Force, then attended Yale University Drama School in 1953. After graduation he was recruited by Helen Bonfils to design and produce shows for the Bonfils Theatre in Denver, Colorado later called the Lowenstein Theatre. He also produced plays for the Denver Civic Theatre until his retirement in 1995.

The Loewenstein family, Henry Lowenstein's paternal ancestors, lived in Lessen, West Prussia. Levin Loewenstein, his great-grandfather, was granted Prussian citizenship in 1848 and with citizenship was able to choose a last name. Prior to Levin Loewenstein's citizenship, the family, like all Jews in Eastern Europe, was denied a last name. Levin's son Emil was a grain merchant married to Ernestine. Upon Emil's death in 1908, Ernestine continued to operate the business until the area was ceded to Poland in 1918. Ernestine, called ''Omchen'' by her family, then moved to Berlin, Germany to be near her sons, Max and Georg Loewenstein. Ernestine died a natural death in 1940 before her son and daughter-in-law, Georg and Alice Loewenstein, were deported to the Lodz Ghetto.

The Bätge family, Henry Lowenstein's maternal ancestors, lived in Tallinn, Estonia. Ernst Carl Friedrich Bätge, his great-grandfather, was a merchant and served as mayor of Tallinn 1864-1875. Ernst disinherited his son Dr. Arthur Ernst Bätge when Arthur decided to become a medical doctor rather than join the family's merchant business. Arthur was married to Therese Sophie Agathe Berg the daughter of a merchant. Their daughter was Marie Lilli Margarete Bätge Steinberg Loewenstein.

Henry Lowenstein's cousin, Ingrid Lind, was raised by the Loewensteins after her mother died and her Danish father deserted his children. In 1939, Ingrid went to Denmark as she had duel citizenship and a Danish passport. From there she went to Sweden, then across Russia to the Middle East where she joined the British Army. Ingrid was in England at the end of the war.