Ludwig Loewe, the Forgotten Pioneer Industrialist of Imperial Berlin

Despite Ludwig Loewe’s pivotal role in Germany’s pre-WW1 industrial success, only sparse information on him and his work remains. His “Jewish enterprise” was expropriated post-1933, falling under Günther Quandt’s control, where it stayed post-WW2. All company records and correspondence subsequently disappeared. However, when the few remaining information fragments are contextualized, a fuller picture of this extraordinary man emerges. A man who devoted much to his homeland, only for his heirs to be exiled and stripped of everything.

Heidi Zogbaum served as an Adjunct Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, from 2008 to 2021. She is also a Fellow of The University of Melbourne’s Department of Spanish and Latin American Studies.