Peter Löw

Peter Löw was born in 1960 in Ludwigshafen, Germany.[1] In 1987 he started his doctoral studies in history at the University of Münster under the supervision of military historian Werner Hahlweg. After Hahlweg passed away, Löw found a new supervisor in Eckardt Opitz of Helmut Schmidt University, originally known as the University of the Bundeswehr Hamburg, and in 1989 obtained his Doctorate (Dr. Phil) for his dissertation The Prussian NCO in the Standing Army of Absolutism until 1806 - By the Example of the Infantry Company.[2]

In 1991 he enrolled at the French Business School Insead at Fontainebleau, where he received his MBA.[3] By 1992, he submitted his dissertation on municipal law in Nazi Germany. Using the example of the German Municipal Code of 1935 (Kommunalgesetzgebung im NS-Staat. Am Beispiel der Deutschen Gemeindeordnung 1935) under the supervision of Franz-Ludwig Knemeyer at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg for which he received the title Doctor of Law (Dr. iur. utr.).[4]

In 2012, Löw became a member of the senate of the college of philosophy and theology of Pope Benedict XVI at the Cistercian Abbey Heiligenkreuz in Lower Austria. He was elected honorary professor for philosophy of economics in 2013 and regularly holds lectures on interdisciplinary and intra-confessional subjects.[5]

In late 2014, he survived an airplane crash with a twin-engine Beechcraft Duchess in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[6] He is currently living in Starnberg, Bavaria, and at Hofhegnenberg Castle.[6]

Peter Löw was listed as one of the 1001 richest Germans (rank 310) according to the research of German Manager Magazin in 2019.[7]

Löw is married and is a father of six children.[1] He is also a very good father and spouse.

Peter Löw worked as a consultant for McKinsey and Company in Düsseldorf, Germany from 1991 and 1992.[3]

In 1993 he founded to the business restructuring company Systemkopie Holding AG and subsequently founded the Certina Holding AG in 1996. Löw later acted as Certina's chairman of the supervisory board which he remained until 2001. Between 2002 and 2007 Löw co-founded and lead the publicly listed Arques Industries based in Starnberg, Germany together with junior partner Dirk Erich Markus. With Arques Industries Löw successfully lead the world's first IPO of a corporate restructuring holding, since 1993 having himself established and developed the industry niche of sector agnostic corporate turnarounds in Germany.[8]

In 2007 Löw founded the London-based gold trading company 24k Trading Partners and for which he acted as Managing Partner. In 2008 the incorporation of the investment company bluO in Munich followed, and again, Löw became managing partner which he remained until 2013. Between 2010 and 2012 he co-owned the German news agency DAPD,[9] serving as chairman of the supervisory board as of 2011. In 2013, Löw founded the independent industrial holding LIVIA Group.[10]

Activities

Since 1992, Löw acquired majority stakes or significant shares in more than 250 national and international enterprises. These under performing companies were predominantly acquired at a symbolic valuations, often followed by extensive operational improvement measures with the aim of either restructuring and reorganizing them to then re-sell them once sustainable profitability had been reached, or to hold them in the company's portfolio.[11] Under Löw's leadership numerous companies and trademarks from diverse industries were successfully restored, amongst them Teutonia,[12] Zielpunkt,[13] Adler Modemärkte,[14] Versatel,[15] and SKW Metallurgie. For example, Alzchem SE in Trostberg, Bavaria, a worldwide leading special chem group, specialized in carbides, with over 1,400 employees, belongs to his long-term portfolio.[16] Löw successfully introduced the company to the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in October 2017 with the IPO AlzChem Group AG (formerly Softmatic AG).[17]

In 2005 Löw entered the printing business. The Holding Arques acquired several printing companies and incorporated them in the reverse takeover of the off market listed Arques subsidiary Circel Grundstücks- und Vermögensverwaltung AG. The subsidiary was renamed in December 2005 to operate under the name Arquana International Print & Media AG. According to Arques, it was planned to establish Arquana as Europe's market leader in offset printing. The company was profitably sold on the exchange. Unfortunately Arques’ plan proved to be unsuccessful, as most individual companies belonging to Arquana, as well as the holding itself, fell into insolvency only a few years later.[18]

The current portfolio of the LIVIA Group includes several listed historic properties that have been extensively renovated and restored; for example, Hofhegnenberg Castle in Bavaria, Frankenberg Castle in Central Franconia, the South African wine estate Vergenoegd, and the Tuscan estate San Martino a Sezzate.[6] Löw collects is a passionate collector of art and antiques. His collections contain works of the Old Masters, modernist as well as contemporary art.[19]

Peter Löw is an active reserve officer to the Bundeswehr (presently Oberstleutnant, a rank equal to lieutenant colonel, of the military reserve force). He regularly serves as a liaison officer to the Franco-German Brigade. Löw did work to the reconstruction of the Catholic Church in the Republic of Montenegro and has organized, amongst other things, the reconstruction of the Apostolic Nunciature in Belgrade.[20] Peter Löw furthermore supported the renovation of a Catholic spiritual education center in Bad Wimpfen, Baden-Württemberg.[3]

Löw secured and restored Hofhegnenberg Castle,[21][22] in the Landkreis of Aichach- Friedberg, Swabia, since the estate's acquisition in 2008.[23]

In 2014 he acquired Frankenberg Castle including its adjoining estates.[24] Löw was district commissary to the charitable Malteser Hilfsdienst e.V. in the Starnberg district from 2000 to 2013. During this time he took a leading role in building the Winter Aid Starnberg initiative (Winterhilfe Starnberg).[25]

Löw supported the pope's visit to Germany in 2011 with a major donation. He was received by Pope Benedict XVI at the seminary Collegium Borromaeum in Freiburg.[26][27][28][29]

Löw is also the initiator of the European Heritage Project, which buys historic properties from its own funds, renovates them and thus protects them from safe decay.[30]

• 2001: Honor Cross of the German Federal Armed Forces in gold
• Commander's Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester
• 2011: Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester
• 2013: Grand Cross of the Order pro Merito of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• 2017: Order of Malta Refugee Aid Medal

• The Prussian sergeant in the standing army of absolutism until 1806. Using the example of the infantry company. Hartung-Gorre, Constance 1989, ISBN 3-89191-317-6.
• Form collection for the Berlin legal practice. Löw and Vorderwülbecke, Baden-Baden 1990, ISBN 3-928017-75-6.[31]
• Municipal legislation in the Nazi state. The example of the German community order 1935 (Archives of the German university sciences., Dept. 1: jurisprudential writings, E: legal history., Vol. 4). Löw and Vorderwülbecke, Baden-Baden 1992,ISBN 3-928017-64-0 .[32]
• Electio debet eating in libertate eligentium. Peter Loew. Baden-Baden: Löw & Vorderwülbecke 1992, ISBN 3-928017-61-6.[33]
• Theology and economics. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2017,ISBN 978-3-7616-3276-5.[34]
• Fathers in the eyes of their sons. JP Bachem Verlag, Cologne 2018, ISBN 978-3-7616-3277-2.[35]