The New International Encyclopædia/Loewe, Wilhelm

LOEWE, lẽ've, Wilhelm (1814-86). A German Liberal politician, also called Loewe-Kalbe. He was born at Olvenstedt, near Magdeburg, was educated at Halle, and became a practicing physician. In 1848 he was elected to the Frankfort Parliament, was a prominent member of the extreme Democratic Party, was soon chosen first vice-president of the Parliament, and, after its removal to Stuttgart, was made president. At first acquitted on the charge of sedition for his part in this revolutionary movement, he was finally sentenced in contumaciam to life imprisonment. He spent several years in Switzerland, Paris, and London, and then practiced medicine for eight years in New York. In 1861 he benefited by the amnesty and returned to Germany. Two years later he was elected to the Prussian House of Deputies, and in 1867 to the North German Reichstag as a member of the Progressist Party. In 1874 he quarreled with his party on the military law of that year, and tried to form with other independents a Liberal Party which would agree in political matters with the Progressist Party, but would be free on economic questions. In carrying out this policy, he eagerly defended the protective tariff of 1879. He was defeated for reëlection in 1881.