Hildegard Kronawitter, chairwoman of the “White Rose” Foundation, looks at a monument in front of the main entrance of the university that commemorates the resistance group around the Scholl siblings. This shows leaflets, portrait photos and a farewell letter from Willi Graf. She says: “Telling this story is also always a question to myself. How do I behave in everyday life? Am I really what I want to be in terms of civil courage? Do I show people enough humanity? I’m getting a little stuck here Moral. But you can’t do without morality in a democracy. We need this morality, which tells us we have to be tolerant and we have to take sides. Take sides, also in the very literal sense, namely to be there for others.”
It is 80 years since Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friend Christoph Probst were arrested and murdered. The members of the student resistance group against the Hitler regime had been seen throwing leaflets in the university atrium. They were the first of the group to be executed. Because the “White Rose” had many sympathizers and supporters. The leading minds were the medical students Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. The close circle included Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, the university professor Kurt Huber and Hans’ sister Sophie Scholl. Kurt Huber and Alexander Schmorell were executed in July, Willi Graf in October.
Hildegard Kronawitter, former SPD member of parliament and widow of Munich’s long-serving mayor Georg Kronawitter, was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Friday for her commitment to commemorating the Nazi dictatorship. For the SZ podcast “Munich Personally” she sets out to describe important places of right-wing terror and resistance in the city.
Palace of Justice on Prielmayerstrasse
The entrance hall in the Palace of Justice in Munich.
(Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa)
“The trial on February 22, 1943 was scheduled at very short notice. The arrest took place on February 18. The trial began at 10 a.m. and lasted two and a half hours. Roland Freisler and his People’s Court had traveled all the way from Berlin. He himself has parts of the leaflets, that was the most incriminating part. We like to imagine how Scholl must have smiled when he heard his texts, an indictment of the system, here. One of the litigants noted that Hans Scholl described the proceedings as monkey theatre ” reports Kronawitter.
The accused
The undated photos show Hans and Sophie Scholl.
(Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb)
At the trial, Hans and Sophie were 24 and 21 years old. In the room, Judge Freisler shouted until his voice cracked. Sophie Scholl was unimpressed by this and said to the audience: “What we wrote and said, you all think that too, you just don’t have the courage to say it.” But where did the young people get this courage from? “One can only speculate about that. I think it had something to do with your upbringing. You learned to speak freely in the family, to develop your own opinion. Your conscience was also a kind of seismograph for you,” says Hildegard Kronawitter.
Munich-Stadelheim Prison
Light installation on the prison wall of faces of murdered prisoners like Sophie Scholl in 2021.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
A light installation on the prison wall on the day of remembrance two years ago shows Sophie Scholl’s face. A few hours after the trial, Probst and the Scholl siblings were beheaded there. Kronawitter: “I find it moving to read how the Scholl parents managed to get their children into prison. The guards probably allowed this without any major formalities. The execution was merciless and almost mechanical. On the pre-printed form with Hans Scholl is handwritten: ‘He cried: Long live freedom!'”
Fence at Ostbahnhof
On July 23, 1942, Sophie Scholl said goodbye to her brother Hans Scholl as well as Alexander Schmerell and Willi Graf at this fence in front of the loading station of the Ostbahnhof on Orleanssstrasse. The plaque hangs on the metal fence on Orleans Street across from number 63.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
Perhaps the best-known photo of the “White Rose” was taken at Munich Ostbahnhof. Hans Scholl is waiting with Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf in front of the Ostbahnhof loading station for the train that will take them to their medical service on the Eastern Front near Moscow. Sophie Scholl can be seen in the background. Kronawitter: “The fifth leaflet was based on the conviction that, despite all the lies and all the propaganda, the war was lost. Some of the medical students who were members of the group had to experience cruelty beyond anything imaginable shortly before the defeat at Stalingrad.
Apartments in Schwabing
A plaque on this house on Franz Joseph-Strasse commemorates Hans and Sophie Scholl.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
A commemorative plaque on Mandlstrasse in Schwabing commemorates Willi Graf.
(Photo: Catherine Hess)
Franz-Joseph-Straße 13, rear building, and Mandlstraße 28 – plaques remind of their former residents Scholl and Graf. “It wasn’t luxurious living conditions, but the students had to rely on someone renting them a room. Of course you went to the university, listened to lectures there, but you also worked towards expanding the leaflet campaigns. It all made an enormous difference Work. In the White Rose Memorial at the university we are showing how a leaflet was created. You didn’t just go to a copy shop, but the text had to be painstakingly written on matrix and printed off with a simple device. Then it had to be dried . There is a statement from Willi Graf that he came to the Scholls’ apartment one afternoon, and then the four of them worked for hours. When he left, they had only made about 2000 prints,” says Hildegard Kronawitter .
Street names in the student city
The Hans-Leipelt-Strasse in the student town.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
As early as 1946, the city of Munich began to include the memory of the resistance group in the city map. “It is incredibly exciting that there was already a registered letter in June 1945 to the then Lord Mayor Scharnagl. Streets should be named after the Scholl siblings, Kurt Huber and Alexander Schmorell in order to honor them for their deeds, it said. Then there there was another letter three months later. Another citizen turned to the mayor and said that the city of Munich was obliged to honor all people who suffered under the National Socialists,” reports the chairwoman of the “White Rose” foundation . The roundabouts in front of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University became Professor-Huber-Platz and Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, and a square in Harlaching became Alexander-Schmorell-Platz. In 1963 the city decided that the resistance fighters Willi Graf, Christoph Probst and Hans Leipelt should give their names to streets in the new student town of Freimann. Small information boards with the CVs are attached under the street signs. A sports hall was later named after Hans Scholl. And the renovated Blue House becomes the Sophie Scholl House.