Richard Löwenthal

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Richard Lowenthal (1908-1991) was a German politician and writer.[1]

Lowenthal was born in Berlin in 1908, the son of a Jewish businessman. He studied economics and sociology at Berlin and Heidelburg in the 1920s.[2]

At one point he led the youth group of the Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) (KPO).[3] He was among a number of KPO members who split off in 1932 over the group's unwillingness to criticise the official communists, and subsequently joined the Socialist Workers' Party (SAP).[4]

He joined the ginger group New Beginning, and fled the Nazis to Prague, along with many social democratic leaders, in 1935.[5]

According to Anthony Glees:

Here he urged active resistance, arguing that Social Democracy's faith in the German people and an economic collapse inside Germany was idiotic and that co-operation with communists was desirable. How to draw the line between communism and Social Democracy remained the chief theoretical and practical concern until his death.

Following Nazi pressure on the Czechs, he left for London in 1938.[6]

World War Two

According to Glees:

As a New Beginner he attracted the interest of the Foreign Office as well as the intelligence services. Following the attack on France there was for a short time a demand for Germans prepared to risk their lives for the anti-Nazi cause. Lowenthal's skills lay in the pen rather than the sword, however, and he was set to work on both black and white propaganda; the enigmatic Sefton Delmer, Richard Crossman and Patrick Gordon Walker were close associates.[7]

During the war, Lowenthal was a member of David Astor's Europe Study Group formed to look at the problems of Europe and the prospects for a non-nationalist Germany, according to Stephen Dorril:

At the core of the group were a number of emigré Germans destined to play a role in the European Movement, such as the future leader writer on the Observer, Richard 'Rix' Lowenthal. Interviewed for recruitment by MI6, Astor was turned down for a full-time post but was subsequently used by MI6 officer Lionel Loewe to establish contact with the German opposition. Employed as the press officer in Lord Mountbatten's Combined Operations Headquarters in London, Astor continued with his group, which drew on the ideas of the Cecil Rhodes-inspired Round Table Group and its belief that 'the British Empire should federate'.[8]

Post-War

In 1948 he began to work for Reuters and The Observer under editor David Astor.[9]

At the Berlin Congress for Cultural Freedom on 28 June 1950, Lowenthal criticised the idea of Europe as a 'Third Force', saying it was "as dangerous an illusion as an unarmed neutrality which is simply another name for submission."[10]

According to Hugh Wilford, Lowenthal was one of a number of British contacts of Jay Lovestone and his Free Trade Union Committee in the 1950s.[11]

Lowenthal was among those present at the launch of the British Society for Cultural Freedom on 11 January 1951.[12]

In 1951, Lovestone and Irving Brown tried but failed to obtain a US visa for Lowenthal through Carmel Offie. He was eventually permitted to visit the US in 1956.[13]

In June 1957, he gave a paper at a conference on "Changes in Soviet Society" at St Anthony's College, Oxford.[14]

In 1969, after a year at Harvard, Lowenthal took a chair at the Free University of Berlin. By this time, an old friend, Willy Brandt, was Social Democratic chancellor of Germany. Lowenthal's anticommunist credentials meant that he was chosen to write a paper on policy towards Eastern Europe and Communism that was accepted by the SPD on 14 November 1970.[15]

In 1981, Lowenthal published his Six Theses on Social Democracy which accused the SPD of flirting with the far left and East German communists.[16]

Affiliations

External Resources

Notes

  1. ↑ Obituary: Richard Lowenthal, by Anthony Glees, The Independent, 31 August 1991.
  2. ↑ Obituary: Richard Lowenthal, by Anthony Glees, The Independent, 31 August 1991.
  3. ↑ Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, p.138.
  4. ↑ Robert J. Alexander, The Right Opposition: The Lovestoneites and the International Communist Opposition of the 1930s, Greenwood Press, 1981, pp.144-145.
  5. ↑ Obituary: Richard Lowenthal, by Anthony Glees, The Independent, 31 August 1991.
  6. ↑ Obituary: Richard Lowenthal, by Anthony Glees, The Independent, 31 August 1991.
  7. ↑ Obituary: Richard Lowenthal, by Anthony Glees, The Independent, 31 August 1991.
  8. ↑ MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, by Stephen Dorril, Touchstone, 2002, p.456.
  9. ↑ Obituary: Richard Lowenthal, by Anthony Glees, The Independent, 31 August 1991.
  10. ↑ Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain's Secret Propaganda War 1948-1977, Sutton Publishing, 1998, p.127.
  11. ↑ The CIA, The British Left and the Cold War: Calling the Tune? by Hugh Wilford, Frank Cass, London 2003, p162.
  12. ↑ The CIA, The British Left and the Cold War: Calling the Tune? by Hugh Wilford, Frank Cass, London 2003, p196.
  13. ↑ The CIA, The British Left and the Cold War: Calling the Tune? by Hugh Wilford, Frank Cass, London 2003, p185.
  14. ↑ The CIA, The British Left and the Cold War: Calling the Tune? by Hugh Wilford, Frank Cass, London 2003, p203.
  15. ↑ Obituary: Richard Lowenthal, by Anthony Glees, The Independent, 31 August 1991.
  16. ↑ Obituary: Richard Lowenthal, by Anthony Glees, The Independent, 31 August 1991.
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