A Journalist Who Paid for His Convictions with Imprisonment in a Concentration Camp

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Ludwig Stratmann - Nachruf - Beerdigung im Juni 1969. In Kirchenblatt für Tirol, S. 2.

Ludwig Stratmann was born on October 31, 1903, in Verl, Westphalia. After graduating from a humanistic grammar school and studying theology and philosophy in Paderborn, Bonn, Munich, and Innsbruck, he found his calling in journalism. Early on, he proved to be a resolute opponent of the National Socialist ideology.
This stance soon brought him to the attention of the regime. He was arrested in 1938 and, on May 31, 1938, was deported to the Dachau concentration camp alongside other regime opponents, including the renowned international law scholar Dr. Ernst Verdross. A significant note in Verdross's private records confirms their joint deportation. In Dachau, Stratmann was registered as prisoner number 14359 and endured two and a half years in the hell of the camp.
A contemporary obituary paints the picture of a courageous and deeply religious man, for whom "hatred and vindictiveness were profoundly alien." Even the abuse and humiliation he suffered in the camp did not change his fundamentally Christian and humane attitude. His time in Dachau was the painful consequence of his resistance, which shaped his later life's work.

Life's Work After Imprisonment: Unwavering Commitment to Truth and Faith

After liberation in 1945, Stratmann continued his resistance on an intellectual level. He became an editor for the church newspaper of the Diocese of Innsbruck and dedicated his life to "Christian ideological criticism." As the obituary states, he had a unique ability "to reveal the claim to salvation of the totalitarian political movements and systems of the present and the recent past."
Without holding an official preaching office, he became a "witness to the truth" for "the despondent, the wavering, and the doubting." For 23 years, he travelled tirelessly through Tyrol, advocating for the lay apostolate and the dissemination of the Catholic press. Until the final weeks of his life, even while marked by death, he continued to give lectures and fulfill his editorial duties.

Late Recognition and the Work of Remembrance

Ludwig Stratmann died in June 1969 in Innsbruck, his "beloved adopted homeland." At first glance, his trace in history seems faint: few photographs of him have survived, and besides this moving obituary, it is primarily the brief note from Dr. Ernst Verdross that testifies to his deportation.
Yet, it is precisely these seemingly small puzzle pieces that form the foundation of remembrance. On the occasion of the book presentation "KZ-Dachau Häftlingsnummer 14354" (Concentration Camp Dachau Prisoner Number 14354), his fate was honoured again in October 2025 in the "TIROLER SONNTAG", the church newspaper of the Diocese of Innsbruck. In an article by Walter Hölbling titled "Vom Grauen und vom Widerstand" ("Of Horror and Resistance"), Stratmann was once more documented as a "witness to the truth" in connection with the book presentation and Dr. Ernst Verdross.
It is poignant that after over 80 years, when often nothing more remains than a newspaper article and a note in private records, we can still remember him today. This is also thanks to the work of dedicated historians who rescue such individual fates from oblivion and restore them to their rightful place in the historiography of resistance.

Artikel Walter Hölbling. In: Tiroler Sonntag, 23. Oktober 2025, Innsbruck 2025.