Prince Rupert Loewenstein

Prince Rupert Loewenstein
Born Rupert Louis Ferdinand Frederick Constantine Lofredo Leopold Herbert Maximilian Hubert John Henry zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg
(1933-08-24)24 August 1933
Palma, Majorca, Spain
Died 20 May 2014(2014-05-20) (aged 80)
London, England, United Kingdom
Nationality British
Other names "Rupie the Groupie"
Occupation Merchant banker
Known for The Rolling Stones' business adviser and financial manager, 1968–2007
Spouse(s) Princess Josephine Clare née Lowry-Corry
Children Rudolf, Prince zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Konrad, Prince zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg and Maria Theodora Marjorie, Princess zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, now Contessa della Gherardesca
Parent(s) Leopold Prince zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg and Countess Bianca Treuberg

Rupert Louis Ferdinand Frederick Constantine Lofredo Leopold Herbert Maximilian Hubert John Henry zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg, Count of Loewenstein-Scharffeneck[1] (24 August 1933 – 20 May 2014) was a Spanish-born Bavarian aristocrat and the longtime financial manager of the rock band The Rolling Stones.[2] His affectionate nickname was "Rupie the Groupie".[3] Loewenstein was named to the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame in 2001.[4][5]

Early life and education

Arms of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg

A scion of the royal houses of Wittelsbach and Löwenstein-Wertheim, Loewenstein was born in Palma, Majorca, Spain, the son of Prince Felicien Leopold Friedrich Ludwig Hubertus zu Loewenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (1903–1974) and his wife, Bianca Henrietta Maria Fischler, Countess von Treuberg (1913–1984).[6] Both were of part-Jewish descent.[7] Henry de Worms, 1st Baron Pirbright was his father's maternal grandfather.[8] Following his parents' separation, he and his mother arrived in England in 1940. Loewenstein was educated at the Quaker St Christopher School in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, followed by Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied medieval history.[6]

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.[9][10] 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.[11] 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."[10]

The Rolling Stones

Loewenstein was the Rolling Stones' business adviser and financial manager from 1968 until 2007.[2] In 1968, then working in London as a merchant banker, he was introduced to Mick Jagger by a mutual friend, art dealer Christopher Gibbs. According to Keith Richards, Loewenstein had never heard of Jagger before then.[12] Jagger was of the opinion that the Stones' then manager, Allen Klein, was not paying them everything they were due.[6]

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.[6] 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.[1] Richards said, "[t]he tax rate [in 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".[13] Loewenstein also copyrighted the famous red tongue logo, and enlisted corporates sponsors such as General Electric for tours.[1]

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 1981–82 tour 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, [the band got] three 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."[14] 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?"[15]

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.[1] Richards confirmed: "Rupert didn't like rock and roll; he thought 'composing' was something done with a pen and paper, like Mozart."[12]

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

Petersham Lodge

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.[16]

The couple had three children:

They lived in Petersham Lodge in River Lane, Petersham, London, a former grace-and-favour mansion, purchased for about £2 million in 1987.[18] It is an early-18th-century house, built for the Duchess of Queensberry, and Grade II listed by Historic England.[19]

Catholicism

Loewenstein was a promoter of the traditional Latin Mass and had a letter on the subject published in The Times in 1975.[20] He was active in Catholic orders of chivalry and was a Grand Inquisitor of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and president of the British association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.[18]

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."[2]

Death

Loewenstein died, age 80, in London on 20 May 2014 from complications of Parkinson's disease[21]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Martin, Douglas (22 May 2014). "Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein, Rolling Stones Money Manager, Dies at 80". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 May 2014. Archived here.
  2. 1 2 3 Staff (22 May 2014). "Stones Manager Loewenstein Dies". BBC News. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  3. ↑ Shakespeare, Sebastian (21 May 2014). "Now Jagger Loses Prince Who Made Him So Rich: German Aristocrat Who Brought the Rolling Stones from Bankruptcy to Billions Dies Aged 80. Daily Mail. Retrieved 25 May 2014. Archived here.
  4. ↑ "The International Hall of Fame: Men". Vanity Fair. 7 July 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  5. ↑ Ultimate Style – The Best of the Best Dressed List. 2004. p. 181. ISBN 2 84323 513 8.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Sweeting, Adam (22 May 2014). "Prince Rupert Loewenstein Obituary – Aristocratic Merchant Banker Who Made the Rolling Stones Rich". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  7. ↑ Stuttaford, Andrew. "Time Was on His Side". Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Leopold Maximilian zu Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg (1903 - 1974) - Genealogy". web.archive.org. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  9. ↑ Prince Rupert Loewenstein Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  10. 1 2 Counsell, Gail (23 August 1992). "Profile: Prince of Pop Money: Financial Adviser Prince Rupert Loewenstein Is the Man Who Gathers the Moss for Rolling Stone Mick Jagger Among Others. Gail Counsell Finds There Is More to Him Than Money". The Independent. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "Leopold Joseph Holdings Limited". The Times. 11 January 1971. p. 20.
  12. 1 2 Richards, Keith, with James Fox (2010). Life. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-297-85439-5.
  13. ↑ Richards & Fox. p. 289.
  14. ↑ Richards & Fox. p. 480.
  15. ↑ Serwer, Andy; Boorstin, Julia; and Ann Harrington, Ann (30 September 2002). "Inside the Rolling Stones Inc." CNN Money/Fortune. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  16. ↑ "Person Page - 13887". thepeerage.com. Retrieved 27 May 2014.]
  17. ↑ Alexis: The Memoirs of the Baron de Rédé. 2005. pp. 104 and 159. ISBN 1-904349-03-X.
  18. 1 2 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. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  19. ↑ "Petersham Lodge, Richmond upon Thames". BritishListedBuildings. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  20. ↑ "Letters to the Editor: Roman Catholic liturgy". Rupert Loewenstein. The Times. 6 May 1975. p. 15.
  21. ↑ Schudel, Matt (24 May 2014). "Rupert Loewenstein, Rolling Stones' Money Man, Dies at 80". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
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