The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre

Chapter 1. Facemaker

4 ❖ The LOst One 1 Facemaker Acting is a ridiculous profession unless it is part of your very soul. —Peter Lorre At the beginning of the twentieth century,Arad looked to the future.Thanks to its position as an important railroad junction, the commercial center of southeastern Hungary boasted one of the largest distilleries in Europe, its own brand of flour (Arad Königsmehl, or King’s Flour); a lumberyard; and wagon, machine, and barrel factories. The surrounding countryside produced grains, fruit,tobacco,honey,and cattle.Underground lay gold,silver,and copper.Above lived nearly 40,000 inhabitants. Predominantly Roman Catholic, the population also included nearly 10,000 Greek Orthodox Christians and 5,000 Jews, together withGreekCatholics,Lutherans,andReformedProtestants.Littlewonder the bustling community could afford to top its new city hall with a tower and fund a telegraph, a business school, a cathedral, a conservatory, a theater, and a horse-drawn trolley to connect the growing suburbs. Given its importance as an industrial hub, it is not surprising that the city attracted the businessminded Loewensteins.1 Born to Savolta and Wilhelm Loewenstein, an office worker and assistant rabbi, in nearby Csene on January 27, 1877, Alajos followed in his father’s footsteps. After graduating with honors from a three-year commercialacademyin1897,heestablishedhimself attheErsteAradFabrikshof Aktiengesellschaft, a manufacturing concern. Three years later, he stepped into the comfortable position of chief bookkeeper at Adolf Weigel and Company. The need to supplement his income no doubt played an important part in Facemaker ❖ 5 his decision to join the kaiserlich und königliche Armee, the professional standing army of the Habsburgs, on September 18, 1897. More likely, his love for Emperor Franz Joseph tugged at his heart and universal military service forced his hand. Whatever his motivation, Loewenstein signed up for one year at a volunteer training school, ten years in the Heer (army), and two years in the Landwehr (national guard).The Haupt-Grundbuchblattdescribed the five-footfour soldier as having black hair, brown eyes, a well-formed mouth, a round (dimpled) chin, and an oval face.2 A surviving portrait of Alajos Loewenstein in his uniform shows a proud man with clear, strong features that convey a firm sense of purpose. Loewenstein began at the bottom but advanced rapidly. After passing the volunteer’s one-year examinations at the infantry regiment number 33, Kaiser Leopold II, in Arad, he was promoted to the rank of titular corporal, then field sergeant. Another exam paved the way for his rise to deputy cadet and finally lieutenant in January 1901. Believing war with Russia inevitable, the Dual Monarchy had increased its military budget in 1895. The army was slowly awakening from a period of stagnation,and active reserve officers,drawn from the ranks of the one-year volunteers, were becoming increasingly important. Alajos was among the better-paid public servants. He was soon earning six thousand kronen per year, three times what he was making behind his desk. That he was able to speak and write both German and Magyar pushed his stock higher.Besides being remunerative, the Austro-Hungarian Army—composed of “different and often hostile nationalities . . . held together by tradition and discipline”—was surprisingly liberal, becoming one of the first European forces to open its officer corps to Jews. Military historian Gunther E. Rothenberg notes that although the“well-educated and largely middle class Jewish population of the monarchy” constituted only 5 percent, it “continued to provide over 16 percent of reserve officers.” Between military exercises at nearby Grosswardein (Nagyvárad), Loewenstein found time to marry twenty-three-year-old Elvira Freischberger, a native of Zubrohlava, on September 8, 1903. The following year he accepted the position of chief bookkeeper with the Textil Industrie Aktiengesellschaft in Rószahegy,a small primarily Slovak town of 12,490 inhabitants nestled against the High Tatra Mountains on Hungary’s northern border. Rising sharply out of a high plateau in the central Carpathians, they kept close company with the TransylvanianAlps.However,as the elevation dropped,wolves,bears,and wildcats gave way to spring and summer cow pastures and, lower yet, to vineyards. Closely tied to the land, Rószahegy depended on the production of textiles, wood, cotton, flax, grains, livestock, and marble. 6 ❖ The LOst One On June 26, 1904, Elvira gave birth to their first child, László, who would become better known as Peter Lorre.3 True to what would become an all-toofamiliar pattern...