Rupert, Prince zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Count of Loewenstein-ScharffeneckMartin, Douglas (22 May 2014).

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

. ''Retrieved 27 May 2014
Archived here
(24 August 1933 – 20 May 2014) was a Spanish-born

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n aristocrat and the longtime financial manager of the rock band

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

Early life and education

A scion of the former royal houses of Wittelsbach and

Löwenstein-Wertheim Löwenstein-Wertheim was a county of the Holy Roman Empire, part of the Franconian Circle. It was formed from the counties of Löwenstein (based in the town of Löwenstein) and Wertheim (based in the town of Wertheim am Main) and from 1488 until ...

, Loewenstein was born in

Palma, Majorca Palma (; ; also known as ''Palma de Mallorca'', officially between 1983–88, 2006–08, and 2012–16) is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca ...

, Spain, the son of Leopold, Prince of Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, who was brother of Hubertus, Prince of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, and his wife, ''Bianca'' Henrietta Maria Fischler, Countess von Treuberg (1913–1984).Sweeting, Adam (22 May 2014).
"Prince Rupert Loewenstein Obituary Aristocratic Merchant Banker Who Made the Rolling Stones Rich"
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. Retrieved 25 May 2014. Both were of partial Jewish descent.

Henry de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright Henry de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright PC, DL, JP, FRS (20 October 1840 – 9 January 1903), known before his elevation to the peerage in 1895 as Baron Henry de Worms, was a British Conservative politician. Background and education Henry ...

was his father's maternal grandfather. Following his parents' separation, he and his mother arrived in England in 1940. Loewenstein was educated at the then Quaker

St Christopher School St Christopher School is a boarding and day co-educational independent school in Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, England. Established in 1915, shortly after Ebenezer Howard founded Letchworth Garden City, the school is a long-time pr ...

in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, followed by Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied medieval history.

Banking

After school, Loewenstein worked as a stockbroker for Bache & Co. In 1963, he was part of a consortium formed to buy the merchant bank Leopold Joseph & Sons, along with fellow Oxford graduates Jonathan Guinness, Richard Cox-Johnson and Louis Heyman, and he became a director of the resulting firm. Leopold Joseph had previously been family owned by the Josephs, and carried out only specialised lines of banking business. Following the acquisition, the business was substantially expanded to include advice on issues and mergers, investment advice, and particularly currency trading. By 1971, the firm had become one of the principal dealers in London in investment dollars. That year, it undertook a capital raising with a target of a net £940,000 to enable further expansion. In 1981, Loewenstein left to start his own company, Rupert Loewenstein Ltd, where most of his clients were new money, who he described as "much more interesting than old money. People with old money are nearly always having to be adjusted downwards; those with new money are much more realistic."

The Rolling Stones

Loewenstein was the Rolling Stones' business adviser and financial manager from 1968 until 2007. In 1968, then working in London as a merchant banker, he was introduced to

Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...

by a mutual friend, art dealer

Christopher Gibbs Christopher Henry Gibbs (29 July 1938 – 28 July 2018) was a British antiques dealer and collector who was also an influential figure in men's fashion and interior design in 1960s London. He has been credited with inventing Swinging London, an ...

. According to

Keith Richards Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943), often referred to during the 1960s and 1970s as "Keith Richard", is an English musician and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the co-founder, guitarist, secondary vocalist, and co-princi ...

, Loewenstein had never heard of Jagger before then. Richards, Keith, with James Fox (2010). ''Life''. London:

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991. History George Weidenfeld a ...

. p. 287. . Jagger was of the opinion that the Stones' then-manager,

Allen Klein Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 July 4, 2009) was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits ...

, was not paying them everything they were due. Loewenstein is credited with transforming the Stones into a "global brand and one of the world's richest bands", in particular by encouraging them to take into account potential tax advantages in any decisions about where to record, rehearse or perform. He managed their release from an existing contract, which paid them almost nothing, and persuaded them of the tax advantages of leaving England and moving to the south of France. He channelled their earnings through a series of companies in the Netherlands, and got them to rehearse in Canada, rather than the United States, to reduce their tax bill. Richards said, " e tax rate n the U.K.in the early '70s on the highest earners was 83 percent, and that went up to 98 percent for investments... It was Rupert's advice that we become non-resident". Loewenstein also copyrighted the famous red tongue logo, and enlisted corporate sponsors such as

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

for tours. Richards described how, until they started to tour large venues in the 1980s, the Stones did not make serious money. The first important one was the

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

and 1982 tours which broke box office records. By then, Loewenstein had reorganised the band's finances so that they did not "get cheated out of eighty percent of the takings... On a fifty-dollar ticket, up till then, he band gotthree dollars. He set up sponsorship and clawed back merchandising deals. He cleaned out the scams and fiddles, or most of them. He made us viable." In a 2002 interview, Richards said of Loewenstein: "He is a great financial mind for the market. He plays that like I play guitar. He does things like a little oil well. And currency—you know, Swiss francs in the morning, switch to marks in the afternoon, move to the yen, and by the end of the day, how many dollars?" Loewenstein never got involved in the music. He said he preferred classical music and never played a Stones recording by choice; if he had to listen to rock and roll, he preferred

The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...

. Richards confirmed: "Rupert didn't like rock and roll; he thought 'composing' was something done with a pen and paper, like Mozart." Loewenstein's daughter, Princess Dora Loewenstein (Maria Theodora Marjorie Loewenstein), wrote several first-hand accounts of life with the Rolling Stones, whom she had known since she was a child.

Personal life and family

On 18 July 1957, Loewenstein married Josephine Clare Lowry-Corry (born 26 January 1931). She is the daughter of Montagu William Lowry-Corry (1907–1977), who was a grandson of Edward O'Brien, 14th Baron Inchiquin and Hon. Mary Constance Biddulph (1906–1991), who was a daughter of John Michael Gordon Biddulph, 2nd

Baron Biddulph Baron Biddulph, of Ledbury in the County of Hereford, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 1 August 1903 for the banker and politician Michael Biddulph. He was a partner in the London banking firm of Cocks, Biddu ...

. The couple had three children: * Rudolf Amadeus Joseph Karl Ludwig Emmanuel (born 17 November 1957) who became a Roman Catholic priest in the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

. * Konrad Friedrich Ferdinand Johannes Ottakar Sylvester (born 26 November 1958) who also became a Roman Catholic priest. He belongs to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. * Maria Theodora Marjorie (born 11 July 1966) who has been married since 1998 to Count Manfredi della Gherardesca. Her godfather was Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Redé (1922–2004). They lived in Petersham Lodge in River Lane, Petersham, London, a former grace-and-favour mansion, purchased for about £2 million in 1987.Staff (21 May 2014).
"Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein Obituary Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein Was a Bavarian Aristocrat and Banker Who Disliked Rock and Roll But Made The Rolling Stones Very Rich"
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. Retrieved 25 May 2014. It is an early-18th-century house, built for the Duchess of Queensberry, and Grade II listed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

. Loewenstein was named to the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame in 2001.

Catholicism

Loewenstein was a promoter of the traditional Latin Mass and had a letter on the subject published in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' in 1975."Letters to the Editor: Roman Catholic liturgy". Rupert Loewenstein. ''

''. 6 May 1975. p. 15. He was active in Catholic orders of chivalry and was a Grand Inquisitor of the

Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George The Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (SMOCG) ( it, Sacro Militare Ordine Costantiniano di San Giorgio, es, Sagrada Orden Militar Constantiniana de San Jorge), also historically referred to as the Imperial Constantinian Order ...

and president of the British association of the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

Autobiography

In 2013, Loewenstein published his autobiography, ''A Prince Among Stones: That Business with The Rolling Stones and Other Adventures'' (Bloomsbury, London), which disclosed details of the band's financial arrangements. Jagger was not pleased and was reported to have said: "Call me old-fashioned, but I don't think your ex-bank manager should be discussing your financial dealings and personal information in public."

Death

Loewenstein died, age 80, in London on 20 May 2014 from complications of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loewenstein, Prince Rupert 1933 births 2014 deaths 20th-century English writers 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century English writers 21st-century Roman Catholics Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Businesspeople from London Counts of Germany German nobility German princes Deaths from Parkinson's disease English autobiographers English bankers English financial company founders English music managers English stockbrokers English Roman Catholics English traditionalist Catholics English people of German-Jewish descent Rupert House of Wittelsbach Neurological disease deaths in England People educated at St Christopher School, Letchworth People from Palma de Mallorca People from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Petersham, London The Rolling Stones Spanish people of German descent Knights of Malta Writers from London 20th-century English businesspeople