"Fritz Bauers Erbe - Gerechtigkeit verjährt nicht"

Film and discussion at the Hotel Silber.

As early as the 1960s, the Hessian Attorney General Fritz Bauer argued that anyone who worked in a Nazi concentration camp was guilty of aiding and abetting murder. However, it was not until the early 2010s that Bauer's approach became established as a new principle of legal opinion in Germany.

The documentary Fritz Bauer's Legacy - Justice is not time-barred (2022, directors: Sabine Lamby, Cornelia Partmann and Isabel Gathof, running time: 98 minutes) follows the most recent Nazi trials concerning the Stutthof concentration camp. It follows people who were involved in the run-up to and during the trials: From the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg, which conducted the preliminary investigations, to the lawyers Christoph Rückel and Stefan Lode, to some of the more than 30 concentration camp survivors who were legally represented by Rückel and Lode in the joint action. With moving and stirring eyewitness accounts from the survivors, the film unfolds a fascinating story of how justice found its way into the German courts. It also illustrates the pioneering significance of today's judgments as a warning for the future.

After a short break, the screening will be followed by a panel discussion on the questions raised in the film: Why has there only been a rethink in the judiciary 70 years after the crimes and around 50 years after Fritz Bauer? Why are people over 90 still being tried for Nazi crimes today? And why are and were these trials important - also for the future? The discussion between Thomas Will (head of the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg) and Dr. Stefan Lode (joint plaintiff's representative in trials against Nazi perpetrators) will be moderated by Gigi Deppe (head of the ARD legal department/radio).

Refreshments will be available at a drinks bar during the screening.

The event is part of the series of events "Reflecting on the Rule of Law" and accompanies the current special exhibition "Gestapo in Court - The Persecution of Nazi Criminals".

Organizers: House of History Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart Regional Court, Stuttgart Higher Regional Court

Participation in the event is free of charge.

Please register at veranstaltungen-hs@hdgbw.de