LOVE FOR LIFE

I have great respect for this important film project. You have given a voice to a very important universal issue. It is an important part of German history that we must never forget. Thank you.

Voice from USA
To share Ludwig Baumann’s and your “Love for Life“ within 50 places in Germany is truly planting seeds and cultivating the truth of reconciliation and restorative justice with the World War II consciousness for all Germans. There is something enduring and very relevant in “Love for Life” for everyone still affected by World War II, which includes people from all the European and North American, Asian and North and South Pacific nations.

A great film! We were all very moved. None of us knew the facts, knew about it. This man was a great soul. The subject matter is excellently presented, thank you for that.

We congratulate you wholeheartedly on this film!!! It is moving how this person and these difficult topics were brought closer to us.

It is so refreshing that no images of war are shown, but instead the film finds a way to address the topic of deserters through the person of Ludwig Baumann.

I am thrilled by your film! By the sensitivity with which you portray Ludwig Baumann, but also by the images, the use of music… 

An important, profound and successful contribution to coming to terms with the inglorious history of the Wehrmacht.

30,000 German soldiers of the Wehrmacht who deserted during the Second World War were sentenced to death by the Nazi military justice system. The few who survived were not rehabilitated in post-war Germany, nor were they ever compensated for the suffering they endured. One of them was Ludwig Baumann, himself a former Wehrmacht soldier who deserted in 1942 and was sentenced to death. After years of discrimination and humiliation, he campaigned for the rehabilitation of the victims of Nazi military justice, and it is thanks to him that the Nazi military court’s verdicts against Wehrmacht deserters were overturned in 2002.

In 1997 Ludwig Baumann was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Film
In her documentary film DIE LIEBE ZUM LEBEN (Love for Life), Annette Ortlieb addresses a topic that has hardly been explored in the reappraisal of Germany’s recent past. The film focuses on the life story and fate of former soldier Ludwig Baumann (1921-2018) exemplify the approximately 3,000 to 4,000 people who survived their death sentences as deserters but had to carry this sentence with them throughout their lives without anyone – not even the constitutional state of the Federal Republic of Germany – campaigning for the sentences to be overturned or repealed.

The film’s impressive impact is due in large part to the thorough research conducted by Annette Ortlieb and the trusting relationship between the filmmaker and the protagonist. It is this connection that makes it possible to provide such a personal insight into a life.

Ludwig Baumann talks intelligently, reflectively, energetically and passionately about his dramatic life, his traumas, his fears and his fight for justice: the overturning of all judgments handed down by Nazi military courts. Ursula Prahm, a long-time companion of Baumann’s, has her say, as does former Minister of Justice Herta Däubler-Gmelin. Baumann’s statements and the insight into this complex chapter of German post-war history are deeply moving.

But in the end, what remains is what gives the film its title: THE LOVE OF LIFE. A love that can be felt in Baumann’s words and actions. And thanks to Annette Ortlieb’s cinematic treatment, it can be an instructive and encouraging inspiration for today’s and future generations.

Source: German Board of Film recommendation

Den neuen Wehrdienst verweigern? So geht’s!

Presseheft

Ludwig Baumann Website

Ludwig Baumann Preis 2024

Zum Feind gemacht

Lernwerkstatt Neuengamme

Bundesvereinigung Opfer der NS-Militärjustiz e.V.: Informationen zur Aufarbeitung des Unrechts der Wehrmachtjustiz und über friedenpolitisch Aktuelles.

WANDERAUSSTELLUNG Was damals Recht war,… Soldaten und Zivilisten vor den Gerichten der Wehrmacht

Connection e.V International Support of Conscientious Objectors and Deserters    

EBCO European Bureau for Conscientious Objection 

Wikipedia: EBCO

Deserteure des Zweiten Weltkrieges

Sylter Deserteur-Denkmal

Deserteurdenkmäler in Deutschland

Bundesvereinigung Opfer der NS-Militärjustiz e.V.: Informationen über die Aufarbeitung des Unrechts der Wehrmachtjustiz und über friedenpolitisch Aktuelles.

WANDERAUSSTELLUNG
Das Reichskriegsgericht 1936–1945 Nationalsozialistische Militärjustiz und die Bekämpfung des Widerstands in Europa

Ausstellungseröffnung Berlin Herbst 2025

WANDERAUSSTELLUNG Was damals Recht war… Soldaten und Zivilisten vor den Gerichten der Wehrmacht

Deserteurdenkmäler in Deutschland