Polylactide (PLA) as one of the most important biobased thermoplastic polymers gained progressive importance in the last period for all types of plastics application, among them, film production by uniaxial or biaxial stretching, thermo (vacuum) forming or blow molding. Here, the deformation behavior of the material at elevated temperatures, but below the melting temperature of the crystalline phase, is of importance. So, the deformation behavior of PLA was investigated in dependence on temperature, especially in the glass transition temperature range, and in dependence on the deformation rate. A PLA grade was used with Mw=120,000 g/mol. The specimens for stress-strain investigation, thermal and structural characterization were produced by injection molding or extrusion, respectively. Uniaxial tensile tests were operated at temperatures between 40 and 80 °C as well as deformation rates between 0.1 and 20 s-1. Furthermore, some biaxial stretching tests were performed. On the basis of thermal characterization via DSC and structural investigation by WAXS the mechanisms of structure changes during deformation in dependence on temperature and deformation rate were discussed. It was found that at stretching of PLA molecular alignment is accelerated at higher temperatures, because of the higher segmental mobility that forces the stress-induced crystallization, but it is superimposed by the annealing effect. The optimum temperature of the deformation process is directly above the glass temperature of the PLA. Higher temperatures result in more strain softening, because the relaxation processes dominate the strain hardening. Increasing deformation rate results in constraint molecular recovery and that causes higher molecular orientation. Both effects result in improved mechanical properties of the material. However, an optimum of temperature and deformation rate exists, at which desired shaping is smoothly achieved but with high mechanical ultimate strength of the product.