Gerson Löwensohn (1817 - 1871) was a printer, publisher, and lithographer based in Fürth, Bavaria. His training and early work is obscure; he and his father, Isaac (1777 - 1884), may have undertaken copperplate printing in his youth before moving into lithography. He died at a relatively young age, leaving the family printing business in the hands of his wife Helene (1821 - 1914), his two sons Bernhard (1849 - 1910) and Theodore (1853 - 1931), and later a cousin, Albert Rosenfeld (1864 - 1916). At this point, the company began to grow quickly, successively moving to larger locations, purchasing more advanced machinery, and developing a specialty in movable picture books and children's books, including many in foreign languages designed for export (publishing costs were relatively low in Germany at the time). The firm passed on to another generation, Gustav Ernst (1883 – 1945) and Robert (1895 – 1945), both sons of Theodore. Unfortunately, as the family was Jewish, they were forced to sell their business in 1937 and it was reorganized as Pestalozzi-Verlag, which remained a prominent publisher of children's books in the postwar period, going through several mergers before being bought by the Danish company Egmont. Both Gustav and Robert died in the Holocaust after having fled Germany to other countries in Western Europe and being captured there by the Nazis.



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