Valentin Albert Loewenberg was born in 1882, in Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawai’i, to Abraham Albert and Henriette Jenny (nee Schottlaender) Loewenberg. At the time, Abraham Albert (Albert, as he was known), was a merchant for the M. Phillips & Co. firm, based out of San Francisco, California. Valentin was most likely named after Valentin Schottlaender, Henriette’s father.
According to family history, Valentine’s mother Henriette was homesick and wished to return to her family in Posen, Posen, Prussia. (Note – Posen was both the name of the city and the state within the Prussian federacy.) In March 1883, the family travelled to San Francisco, California, to begin their journey home. According to the ship manifest, the family was comprised of Albert, his wife, two children (Valentin and his older sister Alice), and a servant. Albert’s father Raphael and brother Isidor and family were living in San Francisco at the time.
By 1884, the family was residing at Gruenstrasse 3 in Posen, not far from Henriette’s mother Johanna and sister Regina. Albert continued to travel between Posen and Honolulu for several years and maintain his partnership with Phillips. The family expanded with sister Bertha arriving in 1884, and brothers Harry Richard (1887) and Alfred Ludwig (1889).
Albert continued his partnership with Phillips until 1888, although he did have interests in land ownership on Oahu through 1895. By 1891, the family moved to Berlin, and Paul Kurt was born the following year. According to family history, the family fortunes declined through a series of poor investments and speculations.
Valentin most likely lived with his parents, even as an adult. He was an author with far-leftist political views, not uncommon to the intelligentsia class in Europe prior to the Great War. It is possible he authored “Thomas Munzer und die Lutherkamarilla”, an essay published in “Historische Zeitscrift” in 1912. (Thomas Munzer was a critic of both Martin Luther and the Catholic Church and was beheaded in 1525.)
Little else is known about Valentin. According to the Institut fur Stadtgeschichte, Valentin was ill for three weeks before being admitted to the Asylum for the Insane and Epileptic in Frankfurt am Main on August 6, 1914 at the instigation of his brother Paul. He was discharged three days later and admitted to the Israelite Community Hospital. He was readmitted to the asylum on August 29th with a diagnosis of paranoia as a result of tuberculosis meningitis. He died at the age of 32 on September 9th, with the official cause of death a cerebral palsy.
On September 9th, in Frankfurt a.M., my dearly beloved son, our dear brother and brother-in-law Valentin Albert Loewenberg, passed away after a short illness.
In deepest pain on behalf of the bereaved Henriette Loewenberg nee Schottlaender.
Burial at the Weissenesee cemetery has already taken place in private.
Valentin is buried in Weinessee Cemetery, Berlin, Germany.
Interesting Note
The Institute for the Insane and Epileptic was founded by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, author of the popular children’s book Struwwelpter (Shaggy Peter). A prominent physician at the Institute for the Insane and Epileptic was Dr. Alois Alzeheimer, famous for his discoveries of a peculiar form of dementia, now known as Alzheimer’s Disease. The Asylum (also known as the “Institute”) was well known for its manorial appearance, courtyards and gardens.
List of Sources
Berlin, Germany, Births, 1874-1899, accessed from Ancestry.com
Berlin, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1920, accessed from Ancestry.com.
Biography of Abraham Albert Loewenberg compiled by Dorene Nowatzke.
Dresden, Germany, Marriages, 1874-1920, accessed from Ancestry.com
Family history as told to Dorene Nowatzke by Liselotte Wedell Bollmann.
Family history as told to Peter Loewenberg.
Hawaii, Passenger Lists, 1843-1898, Hawaii Sate Archives, accessed from Ancestry.com.
Hesse, Germany, Deaths, 1851-1958, Death Certificate #905, 1914, accessed from Ancestry.com.
Poznan Address Book, 1884, digital images, genealogy.net.
World War 1 Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, access from Ancestry.com.
The Budding Genealogist 