Hans Scholl

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Hans Fritz Scholl (born September 22, 1918 in Ingersheim an der Jagst / Württemberg , today part of Crailsheim ; † February 22, 1943 in Munich ) was a co-founder and formative member of the student resistance group active in 1942/43, which published its first leaflets with white Rose , a German resistance fighter against National Socialism . Together with his friend Alexander Schmorell, he is considered the main author of the leaflets against the Nazi dictatorship distributed by the group .

Because of these activities, he was sentenced to death in the first trial against the members of this resistance group before the People's Court under the chairmanship of Roland Freisler , his sister Sophie Scholl and his friend Christoph Probst for " undermining military strength ", " favoring the enemy " and "preparing for high treason " and executed that same day. After the unjust Nazi judgments were overturned, the judgment and execution are now considered unlawful.

Life

Memorial for the "White Rose" in front of the LMU Munich

Hans Scholl grew up with his siblings Inge (1917–1998), Elisabeth (1920–2020), Sophie (1921–1943) and Werner (1922–1944), as well as the half-brother Ernst Gruele (* 1915) until 1930 in Forchtenberg , from 1930 to 1932 in Ludwigsburg and from 1932 in Ulm and was raised by his mother Magdalena (1881-1958), who was a deaconess until the marriage , and his father Robert Scholl , a liberal, to Christian values.

At the age of twelve, Hans Scholl became a member of the Christian Association of Young Men (YMCA) . Hans Scholl had initially become an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth on April 15, 1933, against the declared will of his father , and initially held leadership positions in the young people of the Hitler Youth. He belonged to the Jungbann Donauland of the German Young People. The Ulmer Jungvolk, in which Hans Scholl took over management tasks from October 1933, was built up by Max von Neubeck. This was a former member of the German Youth Association from November 1, 1929 (dj.1.11), an alliance youth group. The group therefore used other styles, e.g. B. the Kohtenzelt , other songs (including Russian) and carried a different flag than the Hitler Youth or the Jungvolk. That von Neubeck turned away from the self-introduced forms and ideas of the Bundische Jugend / dj.1.11 after his promotion to the regular leader of the Ulmer Jungvolks, angered Hans Scholl against him. On May 1, 1935, he was promoted from Jungzugführer to Fähnleinführer. Assisted by Ernst Reden (1914–1942) from Cologne, who served as a soldier in Ulm, Hans Scholl and his flag in the HJ led a dj.1.11 daycare center of around ten students, which is why he and his siblings Inge, Sophie and Werner im December 1937 were imprisoned for a short time. Hans Scholl himself was arrested on December 14, 1937 in the barracks in Bad Cannstatt on December 14, 1937, following a criminal complaint under Section 175a of the Criminal Code (homosexual activity) . Another reason for Hans Scholl's 1938 indictment by the special court in Stuttgart were allegations of homosexual acts with another boy. Proceedings were opened against Hans Scholl and others under § 174 and § 175 as well as for the continuation of the Bundische Jugend. On December 30, 1937, Hans Scholl was released after the arrest warrant of December 15, 1937 was repealed. On January 6, 1938, he was back in the barracks. On June 2, 1938, the Stuttgart Special Court discontinued the criminal proceedings against Hans Scholl according to the Law on Exemption from Punishment of April 30, 1938, which is to be regarded as an amnesty ; Speech, on the other hand, was sentenced to three months in prison.

In 1935 he took part as one of three standard-bearers from Ulm in the "Reich Party Rally of Freedom" of the NSDAP from September 10 to 16, 1935 in Nuremberg. However, during this time his attitude towards the Nazi regime gradually began to change. A first reason was that the fanaticism promoted in the Hitler Youth and the unconditional submission to the power structures ruling there became more and more repugnant. From August 9, 1936 to September 3, 1936, Scholl took part with Rolf Futterknecht and eight other boys on a trip to the north of the country to Swedish Lapland.

The Abitur on March 16, 1937 was followed by half a year of Reich Labor Service in Göppingen and the conscription for military service with the Wehrmacht ( Cavalry Regiment 18 ) in Bad Cannstatt.

In the summer of 1937 Fritz Stelzer designed a letterhead coat of arms for Hans Scholl. Scholl had concrete ideas and wanted a horizontal sword with a flower and the word satellite underneath as a cliché . Stelzer placed the flower on a sign and a printing block was created. The Trabant symbolically stretches a flower towards the enemy, which has the sword underneath, which unites the statement of beauty and strength.

After graduating from high school, Scholl studied medicine at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich from the spring of 1939 . At the university he came into contact with professors, teachers and students who clearly represented positions that were Christian-ethical and critical of the regime, and Hans Scholl began to question his own ideological position more critically. Many of his often contradicting impressions and the examination of Christian attitudes pressed for answers. “I long for a closed worldview”, he confessed to his friend Rose Nägele. During the semester break he was drafted as a medic for front duty and took part in the French campaign with the rank of medical sergeant . What he experienced during the direct frontline operations reinforced his personal stance against the rulers and the war in particular.

As a result, Hans and his siblings turned away from National Socialism . Hans Scholl's youth came to an end and he made the acquaintance of girls, philosophy, and religion. Hans Scholl described this turning point in a letter to the Catholic journalist Carl Muth on December 22, 1941:

“I am filled with the joy of actually celebrating Christmas in a Christian way for the first time in my life. The traces of childhood were probably not gone when you looked carelessly into the lights and the radiant face of your mother. But shadows have fallen over it; In an empty time, I tormented myself in useless tracks, the end of which was always the same abandoned feeling and always the same emptiness. Two deep experiences that I still have to tell you about. And finally the horrific war, this Moloch that crept up into the souls of all men from below and tried to kill them, made me even more lonely. Then one day the solution fell from somewhere. I heard and heard the name of the Lord. My first meeting with you took place at this time. Then it got lighter from day to day. Then it fell from my eyes like scales. I pray. I feel a safe background and I see a safe goal. Christ was born again to me this year. "

Encounters with theologians such as Theodor Haecker (1879–1945) and the writer Carl Muth (1867–1944) were later reflected in the texts of the pamphlets. The philosophical views of Nikolai Berdjajew (1874–1948) in the writings The New Middle Ages or The Meaning of History also found resonance with him . This branded the state as an "all-devouring idol". So, according to Berdjajew, man stands at the “crossroads” and has to choose between God and the emperor or the “Führer”. In order not to lose his “intellectual freedom”, man has to act, which Hans Scholl emphasized by double underlining in the text. In mid-1941 it had become clear to him that at that time it was no longer a question of freedom of thought, but of resistance to action. In February 1942, Hans Scholl began to organize reading evenings for a small select group of students. Lectures and discussions were held on these evenings, and it was not uncommon for them to be controversial. This was also the case on June 17, 1942, when the psychologist, musicologist and later member of the resistance group Kurt Huber (1893–1943) took part. The discussion flared up on the topic of how to counter “the destruction of inner values”. “You have to do something, and still today,” Huber is said to have shouted desperately.

The ultimate trigger that led Hans Scholl to actively resist the Nazi regime is still not fully known today. Some clues can be found in the letters, notes and memories of people around him. But some conclusions can also be drawn from the minutes of the Gestapo and from the court documents. In this case, however, finding the truth is made more difficult by the fact that these are documents from his opponents and that Hans Scholl concealed facts, contexts and, above all, persons involved in the interrogations at the Gestapo. Obviously, many building blocks, including the sermons of the Bishop of Münster, Clemens August Graf von Galen , with whom he also dealt, played an important role. In them the bishop reported on the killing of the mentally ill and called for perseverance against the "brown terror". The Scholl family found copies of these sermons in their mailbox in Ulm. It is also certain that Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell dealt very intensively with the radio speeches by Thomas Mann (1875–1955) broadcast on Radio BBC from March 1941 and oriented themselves towards the topics and content. Because it was also his goal to win people over to the "passive resistance". Similar to Thomas Mann in a text from December 1941, Hans Scholl argued that National Socialism raped people, "put each one individually in a mental prison" and called for: "offer passive resistance ... before it is too late".

In view of the war that began in September 1939 and under the influence of Christian opponents of the Nazi ideology, Hans Scholl and friends who, like him, rejected the National Socialist regime, helped to form a resistance group at Munich University. Together with Alexander Schmorell he produced the first leaflets and distributed them under the name The White Rose . According to a not clearly confirmed interpretation, the choice of the name refers to the novel "The White Rose" (1929) by B. Traven (1882–1969). Hans Scholl read and appreciated B. Traven's work. The said novel is about the struggle of Indians for the Mexican hacienda "Rosa Blanca" which they have to wage with very unequal means against a Mr Collins who wanted to usurp this land. It seems that the choice of the name “White Rose” was more “emotional”. This name combined the religious with the revolutionary. But as vividly as this headline was on the first leaflets, Hans Scholl's circle of friends, who professed resistance, never formed a group under this name. That is why it was not a problem that the following leaflets 5 and 6 came out with new headings, so "leaflets of the resistance movement in Germany". They saw the first leaflets as the prelude to more intense resistance. These four leaflets were produced within 16 days between June 27 and July 12, 1942. In an edition of around 100 copies each, they were sent to “selected” people, most of whose addresses came from “telephone and address books”. The first begins with the words: “Nothing is more unworthy of a cultured people than to be 'ruled' without resistance by an irresponsible and obscure instincts of rulers.” At the end, passive resistance is called for. The second leaflet reports on the murder of 300,000 Polish Jews : "Here we see the most terrible crime against human dignity, a crime that nothing similar in the entire history of mankind can stand alongside." The third becomes urgent sabotage asked. The fourth leaflet ends with the words: “We are not silent, we are your bad conscience; the white rose won't leave you alone! "

From the end of July to the beginning of November 1942, Hans Scholl and his colleague Alexander Schmorell were assigned to the "Eastern Front" , where the contact with the 24-year-old Willi Graf, established on June 13, 1942, was further strengthened. Willi Graf took part in her actions after returning from the front line in Munich, as did Sophie Scholl, who had moved from Ulm to Munich in May 1942 to study. In addition, the 49-year-old musicologist and Munich university professor Kurt Huber , who was respected by opposition members , was won over to the group. The group made contact with other resistance groups in Saarland and Hamburg . In Ulm, a group of schoolchildren led by Hans Hirzel and Franz J. Müller distributed the leaflets and contacts had been made up to liaison officers of the Harro-Schulze-Boysen / Arvid-Harnack group in Berlin . Alexander Schmorell's friend Lilo Ramdohr brokered this through Falk Harnack in November 1942 .

Further radicalized through the fifteen-week front-line deployment in Russia and the experience on the way there of how the Warsaw ghetto was dealt with the Jewish population had even more clearly strengthened the will to act. In a letter dated August 17, 1942, Hans Scholl communicated in encrypted form that this misery “made a very decisive impression on everyone”, but that far away he was doomed to “inactivity”. After her return from the front in November 1942, the tone of the leaflet texts intensified from apocalyptic polemics to political vision: the fifth leaflet, written by Hans Scholl and improved by Kurt Huber, speaks programmatically of the resistance movement in Germany . The reason for the sixth and final leaflet was the outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad . The group called for a fight against the NSDAP .

On February 18, 1943, when Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie had distributed the Stalingrad leaflet at the Munich University and Sophie threw the rest of the leaflets into the atrium of the entrance hall, he was discovered by the caretaker Jakob Schmid and sent to the Secret State Police ( Gestapo). Both, and subsequently other group members, were arrested by this. Four days later, on February 22nd, she and Christoph Probst were sentenced to death by the guillotine by the People's Court under the direction of Roland Freisler . The sentence was carried out on the same day in the Munich-Stadelheim prison under the supervision of Walter Roemer , head of the enforcement department of the Munich regional court, by Johann Reichhart . Hans Scholl's last words are said to have been: "Long live freedom!"

Grave of Sophie and Hans Scholl as well as Christoph Probst

The Protestant prison chaplain, Karl Alt , who visited Hans Scholl before the execution, reports in his book death row inmates of the young convict's deep confidence in faith, who asked him to read the Song of Songs (1 Corinthians 13) , the 90th Psalm and the Lord's Supper to celebrate with him.

Hans Scholl's body was buried in grave no. 73-1-18 / 19 in the Perlacher Forst cemetery. On February 27, all family members were sentenced to “kin detention”. In memory of the White Rose , the Geschwister-Scholl-Prize is awarded every year in Munich .

Movies

Exhibitions and commemorations

  • Munich Memorial White Rose (permanent exhibition in the main building of the LMU, Munich, traveling exhibition can be borrowed in several languages)
  • Ulm Memorial White Rose (permanent exhibition in the foyer of the Ulm Adult Education Center , traveling exhibition in German can be borrowed)
  • The White Rose - Faces of Friendship (touring exhibition of the Freiburg Cultural Initiative)
  • During Expo 2000 , Hans Scholl was one of the people whose larger-than-life busts were exhibited in the German pavilion.
  • Acted decently in his special exhibition . Resistance and Volksgemeinschaft 1933–1945 until March 2013 , the House of History Baden-Württemberg showed the typewriter on which Hans Scholl typed leaflets 4–6 of the White Rose.
  • A tram car in Ulm bears his name.
  • Play Long live freedom for the 100th birthday of Hans Scholl, Authors: Jörg Neugebauer , Elvira eavesdroppers and Thomas Longer
  • The new memorial for Hans Scholl was opened in Crailsheim in 2018.

literature

  • Sibylle Bassler : The White Rose - Contemporary witnesses remember. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2006, ISBN 978-3-498-00648-8 .
  • Ulrich Chaussy, Gerd R. Ueberschär: "Long live freedom". The history of the White Rose and its members in documents and reports . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-18937-3 .
  • Barbara Ellermeier: Hans Scholl. Biography. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-455-50244-2 .
  • Bernd Hamacher: The poetry in war. Thomas Mann's radio broadcasts. in: Thomas Mann Yearbook 14 , publisher Thomas Mann Society Lübeck eV
  • Ulrich Herrmann : From the Hitler Youth leader to the White Rose. Hans Scholl before the Stuttgart special court 1937/38. Beltz Juventa, Weinheim and Basel 2012, ISBN 978-3-7799-2650-4 ( reading sample online as PDF).
  • Eckard Holler: Hans Scholl between Hitler Youth and dj.1.11 - The Ulm satellite. Publishing house of the youth movement, Stuttgart 1999.
  • Inge Jens : Letters and notes from Hans and Sophie Scholl. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-10-036402-3 .
  • Michael Kißener :  Scholl, Hans. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 445 f. ( Digitized version ). (Text under Scholl, Sophie ).
  • Jakob Knab : I'm not silent. Hans Scholl and the White Rose . wbg Theiss, Darmstadt 2018. ISBN 978-3-8062-3748-1 .
  • Henning Petershagen: The Scholl siblings. Edited by the city of Ulm. Central Services, Public Relations and Representation, No. 3, 2001.
  • Fritz Schmidt: In Ulm, around Ulm and around Ulm. Illegal dj.1.11 in Stuttgart and Ulm 1933–1938. In: ders .: dj.1.11 trilogy. Edermünde 2005.
  • Inge Aicher-Scholl : The White Rose. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1952 (= Fischer-Taschenbuch. Volume 88); extended new edition 1994, ISBN 3-596-11802-6 .
  • Harald Steffahn: The White Rose. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1992, ISBN 3-499-50498-7 .
  • Peter Normann Libra: Long live freedom! - Sweet Lafrenz and the White Rose. Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-8251-7809-3 .
  • Sönke Zankel : With leaflets against Hitler. The resistance group around Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell. Böhlau, Cologne 2007.
  • Robert M. Zoske : Longing for the light - On the religious development of Hans Scholl. Unpublished poems, letters and texts. Herbert Utz, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-8316-4321-9 .
  • Robert M. Zoske: Be a flame! Hans Scholl and the White Rose - A Biography. CH Beck, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-70025-5 (reading sample online as PDF).

Web links

Commons : Hans Scholl  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Hans Scholl  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The death sentence and the rationale. In: Federal Center for Political Education . April 20, 2005.
  2. ^ Resistance fighter Scholl: Last sister died
  3. ↑ a b The turning point in the lives of Hans and Sophie Scholl - How the Nazi regime turned supporters into opponents swr.de, SÜDWESTRUNDFUNK, SWR2 AULA, April 14, 2013, PDF.
  4. ↑ Biography on rosa-winkel.de , accessed on April 4, 2017.
  5. ↑ Robert M. Zoske: Longing for the Light - On the religious development of Hans Scholl: Unpublished poems, letters and texts , Herbert Utz Verlag, 2014, p. 407.
  6. ↑ Robert M. Zoske: Be a flame! Hans Scholl and the White Rose - A Biography. CH Beck, Munich 2018, pp. 30 and 31.
  7. ↑ Robert M. Zoske: Flame to be !: Hans Scholl and the White Rose . CH Beck, 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-70026-2 , pp. 40 ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2019]).
  8. ↑ Robert M. Zoske: Longing for the Light - On the religious development of Hans Scholl: Unpublished poems, letters and texts . Herbert Utz Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8316-4321-9 , p. 217 ff . ( google.de [accessed on May 15, 2019]).
  9. ↑ a b Hans Scholl. (No longer available online.) In: weisse-rose-stiftung.de. White Rose Foundation eV, archived from the original on January 12, 2017 ; accessed on January 13, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / weisse-rose-stiftung.de
  10. ↑ Munich May 22, 1941 in: Robert M. Zoske: Flamme sein! Hans Scholl and the White Rose - A Biography. CH Beck, Munich 2018, p. 129.
  11. ^ Sönke Zankel : With leaflets against Hitler: The resistance group around Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell , Cologne 2007, pp. 236-240.
  12. ^ Letter to his sister Elisabeth from February 28, 1943 in: Robert M. Zoske: Flamme sein! Hans Scholl and the White Rose - A Biography. CH Beck, Munich 2018, p. 129.
  13. ^ Huber's defense speech in: Alexander Schmorell, Christoph Probst: Gesammelte Briefe , edited by Christiane Moll (= series of publications of the German Resistance Memorial Center, series B: Sources and Testimonies, Vol. 3). Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86732-065-8 , p. 490.
  14. ^ Interrogation of Hans Scholl on February 20, 1943 in: Ulrich Chassy, ​​Gerd R. Ueberschär: Long live freedom. The story of the White Rose , Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 293.
  15. ↑ Excerpt from the 1st leaflet from June 1942 in: Robert M. Zoske: Flamme sein! Hans Scholl and the White Rose - A Biography. CH Beck, Munich 2018, p. 288ff.
  16. ↑ B. Traven: The White Rose . Gutenberg Book Guild, Berlin 1929.
  17. ↑ Sabine Kaufmann: Knowledge questions about the Scholls , accessed on October 31, 2018.
  18. ↑ Robert M. Zoske: Be a flame! Hans Scholl and the White Rose - A Biography. CH Beck, Munich 2018, p. 288ff.
  19. ↑ Hans Scholl's interrogation on February 21, 1943 in: Ulrich Chaussy, Gerd R. Ueberschär: Long live freedom. The history of the White Rose and its members in documents and reports , Frankfurt am Main 2013, pp. 239 and 351.
  20. ^ Letter from Hans Scholl of August 17, 1942 to Kurt Huber in: Robert M. Zoske: Flamme sein! Hans Scholl and the White Rose - A Biography. CH Beck, Munich 2018, p. 177.
  21. ↑ Guillotine Scholl Stadelheim ( memento from January 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on br.de
  22. ↑ This is how Ulm commemorates the <sic!> 100th birthday of resistance fighter Hans Scholl . In: Schwäbische Zeitung, Ulm edition, September 21, 2018, accessed on October 31, 2018.
  23. ↑ Martin Miecznik: Play about Hans Scholl , swr.de, accessed on October 31, 2018.
  24. ↑ Review notes on Hans Scholl at perlentaucher.de
  25. ^ Reviews by Josef Henke: From the perspective of the Gestapo. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 16, 2008; Michael Kißener: Review of Zankel's »With leaflets against Hitler. The resistance group around Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell «. In: H-Soz-Kult , July 22, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Scholl, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scholl, Hans Fritz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter in the time of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Ingersheim (now part of Crailsheim )
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1943
Place of death Munich