Film Project War Diary by Erwin Bowien

When the painter and Nazi opponent Erwin Bowien escaped a control by luck - in December 1943 - he no longer dared to leave his hiding place, the Allgäu village of Kreuztal-Eisenbach (the place is nestled in the Adelegg massif, between the towns of Isny and Kempten, exactly on the border between Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) and remained there until the end of the war. He had fled there after his paintings in Augsburg had been confiscated by the Reich Chamber of Culture and the regime had ordered a ban on exhibitions. Since he did not have valid military papers, he also risked arrest at any time.

He used the enforced time to write a diary in French in this lost village "at the end of the world", in which he recorded the exciting chronicle of the village at the end of the war. The war takes place behind the mountain, the village fills up with refugees, first the "bombed out", then the refugees from the East, finally fleeing soldiers. The authorities in the village pretend that everything is fine until the end. A world like Kafka's or Sartre's. The result is an exciting work based largely on dialogue, which is ideally suited to be made into a film. The Foundation will endeavour to work towards turning the material into a play or a cinematic work.