Career
Lüth began his career in 1923 as an intern in the editorial staff of the Hamburger Ullstein Verlag Berlin his education. Subsequently he was editor of the "Hamburger Anzeiger" and chairman of the Hamburg Young Democrats. In spring 1930 Lüth left the DDP and in the same year joined the inaugural Radical Democratic Party (RDP).
From 1933 to 1935 Lüth managed a trade association.
In 1943, Lüth was drafted as a soldier and was captured, becoming a prisoner of war in Italy. During his imprisonment, he was editor of the Prisoner Of War camp newspaper, "Lagerpost von Ghedi" until his release in 1946.
He became Director of the National Press Office in Hamburg until 1953 and then again from 1957 until his retirement in 1964. From 1953 to 1957, Lüth was head of the Press Division of the German Theatre Association.
Luth is the author of numerous books on Israel and participated in peace talks between Germany and Israel in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv.
In 1984 he was awarded the by the Hamburg Senate. His name is known today mainly in connection with a legal case from 1950, whose background Lüth"s boycott against the film Immortal Beloved, based on the novel Aquis submersus by Theodor Storm. In 1951, sued for an injunction against Lüth for publicly calling for a boycott of Unsterbliche Geliebte(Immortal Beloved).
The District Court in Hamburg granted Harlan"s suit and ordered that Lüth forbear from making such public appeals.
However, the lower court decision was ultimately overturned in 1958 by the Federal Constitutional Court because it infringed on Lüth"s right to freedom of expression. This was a landmark decision because it clarified the importance of the constitutional civil rights in disputes between individuals.