Loewe, Fritz Philipp (1895 - 1974)

Summary

Fritz Philipp Loewe arrived in Australia in 1937 and established Australia's first university Department of Meteorology (University of Melbourne). Prior to this he had spent many years working in England and in Europe. Loewe initially undertook legal studies at the University of Grenoble, but this was interrupted for four years during World War I when he worked as a Radio operator in an artillery unit. On his return from the war he transferred to the University of Berlin to study terrestrial physical sciences, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in geography and physics in 1924. From 1922 Loewe was appointed to a number of positions including Scientific Assistant at the Potsdam Meteorological Observatory (1922), Head of Research Flights of the Prussian Meteorological Service (1925) and Personal Assistant to Wegener on the German Greenland Expedition (1930-1931). During 1933 and 1934 Loewe was subjected to much discrimination because he was Jewish and after being sacked from the German Meteorological Service in 1934 fled to the United Kingdom where he worked as a Meteorologist at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, UK. In 1937 Raymond Priestley, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, asked Fritz Loewe to come to the University and establish university's Department of Meteorology. He remained at the University of Melbourne until his retirement in 1959.

Details

Chronology

1914 - 1918

Career position - Wireless operator in the German Army

1921

Career position - Tidal current surveys in Germany

1922 - c. 1924

Career position - Scientific Assistant at the Potsdam Meteorological Observatory

1924

Career position - Cosmic radiation research in Switzerland

1924

Education - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Berlin

1925

Career position - Atlantic expedition on the Meteor

1925 - c. 1928

Career position - Head of Research Flights of the Prussian Meteorological Service

1926

Career position - Heat balance studies on the Grossen Aletschgletscher

1929

Career position - Member of the Wegener expedition to Greenland ice cap

1930 - 1931

Career position - Personal Assistant to Wegener on the German Greenland Expedition

1934

Life event - Fled Germany to England

1934 - 1937

Career position - Meteorologist at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, UK

1937

Life event - Migrated to Australia (Melbourne)

1937 - 1960

Career position - First Lecturer in Meteorology, University of Melbourne

1947

Career position - Member of the failed Wyatt Earp expedition to Antarctica

1950 - 1951

Career position - Member of the French lead expedition to Antarctica on the Commandant Charcot

1958

Career position - UNESCO expert to Pakistan where he established a meteorological training school

Archival resources

The University of Melbourne Archives

• Fritz Loewe - Records, 1913 - 1971; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Books

• Loewe, F., Duststorms in Australia (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1943), 16 pp. Details
• Loewe, Fritz, Sixty years with ice (Parkville, Vic.: University of Melbourne, Meteorology Department, 1976), 12 pp. Details
• Radok, Uwe, UNIMET - the Meteorological Department of the University of Melbourne 1937-1990 (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, Meteorology Section, School of Earth Sciences, 1993), 50 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Richmond, Mark, 'Loewe, Fritz Philipp (1895-1974), Meteorologist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 15: 1940 - 1980 Kem-Pie, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2000), pp. 113-114. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150143b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• 'Obituary: Fritz Loewe', Australian Meteorological Magazine, 22 (1) (1974), 21-23. Details
• Anderson, Fay, 'Fritz Loewe', Australasian Science, 20 (1) (1999), 46. Details
• Hart, Terry, 'Fritz Loewe: a connection between Australian meteorology and plate tectonics', BAMOS: bulletin of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, 34 (1) (2021), 18-9. Details
• Loewe, F., 'Alfred Wegener - His Life and Work', Australian Meteorological Magazine, 18 (4) (1970), 177-190. Details
• Loewe, F., 'The first series of meteorological observations in Australia', Australian Meteorological Magazine, 18 (1) (1970), 39-42. Details
• Schwerdtfeger, P., 'Obituary: Fritz Loewe', Journal of Glaciology, 14 (70) (1975), 191-3. Details
• Voss, Jutta, 'Johannes Georgi und Fritz Loewe: Zwei Polarforscherschicksale nach 'Eismitte'. Aus ihrem Briefwechsel 1929-1971 sowie die gesammelten Schriftenverzeichnisse von J. Georgi und F. Loewe', Polarforschung, 62 (1992), 151-161. Details
• Wilcock, A. A., 'Fritz Loewe 1895-1974', Australian Geographer, 13 (5) (1977), 306-310. Details
• Zillman, John W., 'The remarkable German contribution to Australian meteorology', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 127 (1) (2015), 110-6, https://doi.org/10.1071/RS15013. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/72602816. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1467366. Details
• 'Loewe, Fritz (1895-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1467739. Details

See also

• Antonello, Alessandro, 'Glaciological bodies: Australian visions of the Antarctic ice sheet', International Review of Environmental History, 4 (1) (2018), 125-44. Details
• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_l.html. Details