Ludwig Baumann (Wehrmacht deserter)

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Ludwig Baumann (2014)

Ludwig Baumann (born December 13, 1921 in Hamburg ; † July 5, 2018 in Bremen ) was a German Wehrmacht deserter and peace activist .

Life

The son of a tobacco wholesaler occurred after the seizure of power of the Nazis , neither the Hitler Youth yet another organization of the NSDAP in. As a 19-year-old he was drafted into the Navy . On June 3, 1942, he deserted together with Kurt Oldenburg near Bordeaux in France . After the war, Ludwig Baumann explained his motives at the time: "I recognized that it was a criminal , genocidal war."

The day after the desertion, the two were arrested by a German customs patrol at the border to the unoccupied part of France. Although Baumann and Oldenburg were armed when they were arrested, they were arrested without resistance due to their non-violent attitudes. On June 30, 1942 Baumann was sentenced to death for “deserting in the field”. He only found out that the death penalty had been converted into a 12-year prison sentence after he had spent months in agony on the death row of a Wehrmacht prison. Every morning he expected his execution . Baumann was then imprisoned in the Esterwegen concentration camp in Emsland and was later taken to the Torgau Wehrmacht prison . In Torgau he saw how other deserters were executed. According to an extrapolation by military historians Manfred Messerschmidt and Fritz Wüllner, at least 22,750 deserters were sentenced to death by the military court on the basis of desertion laws during the Nazi regime and 15,000 of them were executed.

In the further course of the Second World War he shared his fate with other victims of the Nazi military justice system , who like him were forced into the so-called probation troops 500 , which were deployed on the Eastern Front in particularly endangered sections. Nevertheless, Baumann survived the war. After returning from captivity in the Soviet Union , he had a hard time in a society where deserters were still ostracized as “cowards”. In a short time he drowned his inheritance. When his wife died giving birth to their sixth child, he managed to get rid of alcohol. Eventually Baumann began to get involved in the peace and third world movement.

Ludwig Baumann at the Gelöbnix 2008 in Berlin
Ludwig Baumann at the memorial for the unknown deserter in Bremen-Vegesack

In 1990 he founded, together with about 40 surviving Wehrmacht deserters and some dedicated scientists and historians, the National Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice , a lifting of the unjust sentences against deserters, " Wehrkraftzersetzer " Selbstverstümmeler and other victims of enforcing Nazi military justice and their full rehabilitation to to reach. This goal was achieved in 2002 with the law for the repeal of Nazi judgments in the criminal justice system . In the course of the recognition, Baumann was active in several parliamentary debates and deliberations in Bundestag committees.

In addition to this commitment to deserters and others persecuted by the Nazi jurisdiction, he was involved in the peace movement. Until the suspension of compulsory military service in Germany in July 2011, he tried to get into conversation with those who were called up on the way to the barracks on every draft date . His message was: "Resist when you receive orders that you would not follow in civil life."

At the inauguration of the installation memorial in memory of those murdered by the Nazi military justice at Murellenberg on May 8, 2002 in Berlin , Baumann opened his speech with Hitler's quote : "The soldier can die, the deserter must die."

When, after a long dispute, the deserter monument on Stephansplatz in Hamburg was inaugurated in November 2015 , Baumann remembered his friend Kurt Oldenburg, who had been sentenced to death, and his last words: "Never again war!" He added: "This has become a legacy to me" and “(for my demeanor) I was verbally abused and beaten up by former soldiers. I went to the police and was beaten up again ”.

The grave of Ludwig Baumann in the cemetery of the Protestant parish Bremen-Grambke

Ludwig Baumann died in July 2018 at the age of 96 in a nursing home in Bremen. He is buried in the cemetery of the Protestant parish Bremen-Grambke . Wolfram Wette gave the funeral speech in the DGB building in Bremen . After Baumann's death it became known that when he moved to the nursing home, his victim pension was cut by almost half and converted into “home pocket money”. His son then received a demand for repayment of 4100 euros. In October 2018, the responsible General Customs Directorate in Cologne announced that Baumann's son did not have to repay the amount to the federal treasury after all - but it was 3453.46 euros. The reason for this was not given. In February 2019, the Federal Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice announced that such cuts will generally no longer be made in the future after moving to a home; in addition, the minimum monthly amount increases from 345 to 415 euros. This was ordered by the Federal Ministry of Finance .

Honors

  • In 1994 Ludwig Baumann received the Sievershausen Peace Prize .
  • In 1995 he received the Aachen Peace Prize .
  • In 2007 he received the Culture and Peace Prize of the Villa Ichon in Bremen.
  • In 2010, Baumann signed the city of Erfurt's Golden Book .
  • On December 13, 2011, on the occasion of Baumann's 90th birthday, the mayor of Bremen, Jens Böhrnsen, paid tribute to his work at a Senate reception. Böhrnsen presented Baumann with the “Bremen Key” as a token of recognition of his tireless commitment to the victims of Nazi military justice.
  • In 2014 Baumann received the Franco Paselli Peace Prize from the International School of Peace in Bremen .

The Potsdam initiative founded especially for this purpose proposed him to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.

One of the reasons why Baumann refused to accept the Federal Cross of Merit was “because I don't want a medal that former Nazis also wear”.

Works

  • Never against your conscience: the last Wehrmacht deserter pleaded . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2014, ISBN 978-3-451-30984-7 (with the assistance of Norbert Joa).

literature

  • Jan Korte , Dominic Heilig (Ed.): War Treason: Politics of the Past in Germany; Analyzes, comments and documents of a debate . Dietz, Berlin, 2011, ISBN 978-3-320-02261-7 .
  • Ulrich Herrmann: Two young soldiers as victims of the armed forces justice . In: Ulrich Herrmann (Ed.): Young soldiers in the Second World War: War experiences as life experiences . Juventa-Verlag, Weinheim / Munich, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7799-1138-8 .
  • Hannes Metzler: Dishonored forever? The rehabilitation of the armed forces deserters in Germany and Austria, taking Luxembourg into account . Mandelbaum, Vienna, 2007, ISBN 978-3-85476-218-8 . See in particular p. 55, "Ludwig Baumann" and interview excerpts in this book.
  • Hans-Peter Klausch : The Probation Troop 500. Position and function of the BW 500 in the system of NS-Wehrrecht, NS-Military Justice and Wehrmacht Prison (Fig., Doc., Lit.) edition Temmen , Bremen, 1995, ISBN 3-86108-260 -8 (edited therein: author's interview with LB)
  • Lars G. Petersson: Hitler's Deserters. When Law Merged with Terror. Fonthill Media, Stroud, 2013, ISBN 978-1-78155-269-8 .

Web links

Commons : Ludwig Baumann  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peace Prize Laureate Ludwig Baumann died at the age of 97. epd message on Kreiszeitung.de , July 5, 2018, accessed on July 6, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Ulrich Bröckling, Michael Sikora (ed.): Armies and their deserters: neglected capital of a modern military history . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998, ISBN 978-3-525-01365-6 , pp. 223 .
  3. ↑ See Hannes Metzler: Dishonored forever? Vienna, 2007.
  4. ↑ Thomas Eilenberg: Murellenschlucht. ( flash ) January 14, 2007, accessed on July 6, 2018 (place the cursor on the 7th circle from the top on the left). On the Hitler quote and a similar speech by Baumann see also: Finally: Memorial stone for the conscientious objectors and deserters of the Wehrmacht unveiled in Buchenwald, "In memory of the victims of National Socialist military justice ..." Peace research group at the University of Kassel , June 12, 2016, accessed on June 6 , 2016 July 2018 .
  5. ↑ Volker Stahl: "Hamburg has rethought". The Hanseatic city now has a deserter memorial. It honors the victims of Nazi military justice. In: Neues Deutschland , November 26, 2015, p. 14.
  6. ↑ Wolfram Wette: Restoring his dignity. Funeral speech for the last surviving armed forces deserter, Ludwig Baumann, who died at the age of 96. In: Frankfurter Rundschau of July 19, 2018, p. 28.
  7. ↑ Georg Ismar and dpa : Shortened NS victim pension: Government under criticism. Schweriner Volkszeitung (SVZ.de), August 5, 2018, accessed on August 5, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Pascal Beucker: German thoroughness. Die Tageszeitung (taz.de), August 3, 2018, accessed on August 6, 2018 .
  9. ↑ stg: sacrificial pension for deserter not reduced. Repayment stopped. In: Frankfurter Rundschau, October 24, 2018, p. 4
  10. ↑ http://upgr.bv-opfer-ns-militaerjustiz.de/uploads/Dateien/Pressemitteilungen/BVPM20190204AKG-Rili-neufsg.pdf
  11. ^ Senate reception on Ludwig Baumann's 90th birthday. Press release from the Hanseatic City of Bremen, December 9, 2011, archived from the original on July 8, 2012 ; accessed on July 6, 2018 .
  12. ^ Karl-Heinz Janssen: One who resisted. In: The time . December 13, 1996, accessed July 6, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Magnus Koch: L. Peterssen: Hitler's Deserters. Reviewed for the Working Group on Historical Peace and Conflict Research. H-Soz-Kult , July 25, 2014, accessed July 6, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Baumann, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German armed forces deserter and peace activist
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH 5th July 2018
Place of death Bremen