Lukowsky, Josef (1896-1973) Germany

Joseph Lukowsky was born in Berlin in 1896 as the son of a Catholic civil servant. Even as a child, he received lessons in piano as well as an excellent instruction in music theory and composition. At school, he sang in the boys’ choir of St. Sebastian, under the direction of Prof. Carl Thiel, who then instructed him in organ playing and composition. The First World War interrupted his career because he had to go to the front for 4 years. He then was trained as a teacher but did not get a job at a school after his graduation. So, in 1922, he applied for the position as an organist and choirmaster at the Catholic parish of St. Peter in the north of Berlin. He founded an excellent choir and conducted numerous significant works of the new church music as an organist, including his own pieces, which he wrote in the following years. During the bombing of the World War II, large areas of northern Berlin were destroyed. Joseph Lukowsky followed his family to Saxony-Anhalt where they found refuge. After the end of the war, he was able to work as a substitute teacher there before he could return to Berlin as an organist.  That period was marked by productive years of composing with many works produced by important artists of his acquaintance for broadcasting and performed in concerts. In the meantime, he received a lectureship for music theory at the Institute of Musical Education of the Humboldt University in Berlin.
Joseph Lukowsky, the father of Rolf Lukowsky (*1926), died of heart failure in Hohen-Neuendorf near Berlin in 1973.