Sophie Scholl

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Bust of Sophie Scholl in the Walhalla (since 2003)

Sophia Magdalena "Sophie" Scholl (born May 9, 1921 in Forchtenberg ; † February 22, 1943 in Munich ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism . Because of her involvement in the White Rose resistance group, she and her brother Hans Scholl were sentenced to death by National Socialist judges and executed on the same day .

Life

Forchtenberg town hall, where the Scholls lived from 1920 to 1930

Sophie Scholl grew up in a religiously and politically liberal , Protestant family with her siblings Inge (1917–1998), Hans (1918–1943), Elisabeth (1920–2020) and Werner (1922–1944); Until 1930 in Forchtenberg, People's State of Württemberg , from 1930 to 1932 in Ludwigsburg and from 1932 in Ulm . The siblings were raised to Christian values by their mother Magdalena (1881-1958), who had been a deaconess until the marriage , and their father Robert Scholl (1891-1973), a liberal.

Participation in youth organizations

Sophie Scholl, like her two and a half years older brother Hans Scholl, initially believed in the community ideal propagated by the National Socialists and in 1934 she joined the Association of German Girls (BDM). She got involved with her young girls group and became a squad leader. Like her brother, Sophie organized tests of courage and endurance tests to demand the utmost from herself and the others. Later she turned away from the youth organizations of the NSDAP . After the “ Reichsparteitag der Ehre” in 1936, she and her brother Hans took part in the group life of the German Youth Association on November 1, 1929 (“dj.1.11” for short), a youth association founded by Eberhard Koebel , which was in the early phase of the Third Reich tried to continue to exist despite the ban. In autumn 1937, Sophie and her siblings were arrested for a few hours because her brother Hans was being persecuted for continuing to participate in the Bündische Jugend .

Also in 1937 she met Fritz Hartnagel , the four years older son of a small entrepreneur in Ulm, at a dance event. During his officer training, both remained in contact by letter. Shortly before the outbreak of war , they spent a holiday together in northern Germany and later lived together for a few weeks when Hartnagel was a training officer in Weimar .

After graduating from high school in March 1940 , Sophie Scholl began in May 1940 at the Protestant kindergarten teacher seminar in Ulm-Söflingen, which was headed by Emma Kretschmer .

Then, in August 1940, she completed a four-week internship at the Froebel seminar in Ulm in the Kohlermann children's sanatorium in Bad Dürrheim . After this training was not recognized as a Reich Labor Service Replacement (RAD), she was ordered to the RAD in Krauchenwies near Sigmaringen in the spring of 1941 .

Religious Influences

Sophie Scholl read in the spring of 1941, while she was doing her Reich Labor Service, in the works of the church father Augustinus von Hippo . This reading earned her some "derisive remarks" from the women who did the RAD with her. The turning point and reversal in Sophie Scholl's life happened in the spring of 1941, from then on she found an orientation in the Augustinian writings.

In the years 1941 to 1943, Otl Aicher had the greatest influence on the development of the faith of Protestant Sophie . In addition to reading Augustine texts, she was impressed by Georges Bernanos ' diary of a country pastor . Sophie, her siblings and Aicher (her future brother-in-law) pledged to “open up for their lives” the faith that the book conveys.

Kindergarten teacher in Blumberg

On October 7, 1941, she got a job at the NSV day care center in Blumberg , where she had to do military service until the end of March 1942, which had meanwhile been introduced for those willing to study. During her time in the place, which was brutally converted from a village into a mining town by the National Socialists, her turn to the religious also developed into a socially and politically motivated attitude.

Studied in Munich

In May 1942 Sophie began studying biology and philosophy at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Her fiancé visited her there in May before he had to do military service in the German-Soviet war . During the semester break (summer 1942) she had to work in an armaments factory in Ulm.

Through her brother, who studied medicine at the same university, she got to know students who encouraged her to reject Nazi rule. Her brother Hans wanted to keep her out of the circle of resistance against the Nazi regime; Sophie managed to join the group. Determined to publicly criticize, she took part in the production and distribution of leaflets for the student resistance group “ White Rose ”, which called for clear decisions against Hitler's dictatorship .

In resistance

Start of activities

The members of the "White Rose" sent out their appeals, put them in telephone booths and parked cars, and gave them to fellow students in other cities for distribution . In January 1943 Scholl was involved in the production of a leaflet for the first time. The pamphlets, which were also distributed in Cologne , Stuttgart , Berlin and Vienna , caused a sensation and led to an intensified search for the authors. In February the Gestapo suspected the authors of the leaflets to be in Munich student circles. In mid-February 1943 the sixth leaflet was completed and sent out with the call to overthrow the Nazi regime and to build a “new spiritual Europe”. The leaflet came to Great Britain through Helmuth James Graf von Moltke . It was reprinted there in the autumn of 1943, dropped from British planes over Germany and broadcast by the BBC .

arrest

Atrium of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , 2005

On February 18, 1943, Sophie Scholl was discovered by the house fitter and lecture hall clerk Jakob Schmid , an SA man, at around 11:15 a.m. during a leaflet campaign in which she and her brother Hans distributed around 1,700 leaflets at Munich University and handed over to the rectorate. After several hours of interrogation by the university syndicate Ernst Haeffner and the rector of the university, Professor Walther Wüst , both were arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo.

Sophie Scholl on a photo from 1942, attached to the fence in front of which the photo was taken.

In the Munich Gestapo headquarters in the Wittelsbacher Palais on Brienner Strasse , Sophie Scholl was interrogated by Chief Criminal Secretary Robert Mohr from February 18 to 20. As the Gestapo interrogation protocol shows, she tried consistently to protect her friends by portraying herself and Hans as the main actors.

Death sentence

Four days later, on February 22nd, she was sentenced to death in Munich by the People's Court under the chairmanship of Judge Roland Freisler , who had traveled from Berlin, for “treasonous favoring the enemy, preparation for high treason [and] degradation of military strength ” . At around 5 p.m. she was beheaded with the guillotine by the executioner Johann Reichhart, together with Hans Scholl and her fellow student Christoph Probst , who was arrested on February 20, in the Munich-Stadelheim prison under the supervision of the head of the enforcement department of the Munich regional court, Walter Roemer . Reichhart later stated that he had never seen anyone die as bravely as Sophie Scholl. The Nazi propaganda reported the execution in a very brief form:

“On February 22nd, 1943, the People's Court sentenced the 24-year-old Hans Scholl, the 21-year-old Sophia Scholl, both from Munich, and the 23-year-old Christoph Probst from Aldrans near Innsbruck in the jury chamber of the Palace of Justice in Munich for preparation for high treason and for Enemy favoring to death. The judgment was carried out on the same day. "

- Report in the Salzburger Zeitung of February 24, 1943
The graves of Hans and Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst

The graves of Sophie and Hans Scholl as well as Christoph Probst are located in the Perlacher Forst cemetery next to the Stadelheim correctional facility (grave no. 73-1-18 / 19).

Scholl's letters and diary entries reflect the image of a young woman of high sensitivity for the beauties of nature and of deep Christian faith. The following quote from Jacques Maritain appears several times in her letters: “Il faut avoir l'esprit dur et le cœur tendre” (“One must have a hard mind and a soft heart”). She dealt intensively with the harmony of the soul: "I notice that one can proliferate with the spirit (or the intellect), and that the soul can starve to death".

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Sophie Scholl's death, the correspondence between her and her fiancé Fritz Hartnagel, who married her sister Elisabeth in 1945, was published.

Fonts

  • Inge Jens (Ed.): Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl. Letters and Notes. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-10-036402-3 .
  • Thomas Hartnagel (eds.): Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel. So that we don't lose each other. Correspondence 1937–1943. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-10-000425-6 .

Appreciation

Memorial for the White Rose in front of the LMU Munich, 2005
The former elementary school for girls in Ludwigsburg , which Sophie Scholl attended from 1930–1932, has been the Sophie Scholl School since 2019
  • Several streets, paths and squares in Germany were named after the Scholl siblings. A particular accumulation can be seen in the former GDR .
  • In 1961 , the GDR's Deutsche Post issued a stamp in honor of Sophie and Hans Scholl (face value: 25 + 10 Pfennig, first issue date: September 7, 1961, circulation: 2,000,000). In 1964 , the Deutsche Bundespost dedicated a stamp from a stamp pad designed by E. and Gerd Aretz to Sophie Scholl on the 20th anniversary of July 20, 1944 (face value: 20 Pfennig, first issue date: July 20, 1964, edition: 6,941,000). Gerd Aretz, the draft for dates in 1991 appeared mark the stamp series Women in German history (Rated at 150 Pfennig, Inception: February 15, 1991, edition: 35436000).
  • In 1968 the political science institute of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich was renamed the Geschwister Scholl Institute . The square in front of the LMU main building is called Geschwister-Scholl-Platz.
  • 60 years after her death, on February 22, 2003, Sophie Scholl was honored with a bust in the Walhalla . The Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber paid tribute to it in a ceremony as a "global symbol for the uprising of conscience against National Socialist injustice".
  • On July 21, 2006, the square north of Ulm City Hall was named "Hans-und-Sophie-Scholl-Platz".
  • The General Student Committee (AStA) of the LMU Munich chose their picture as their logo and called for the university to be renamed “Geschwister-Scholl-Universität”.
  • Sibling Scholl schools as well as kindergartens and day-care centers named after the siblings
  • In December 1945 the renowned Königliche Augusta-Schule, Berlin, founded in 1886, was renamed the Sophie-Scholl-Schule.
  • In 2008 the Sophie-Scholl-Gasse in Vienna - Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after her.
  • In the streetcar Ulm a wagon bears her name.
  • In 2014 a modern language high school in Trento was named after her.
  • The former girls' elementary school at Ludwigsburger Schulgasse 8, located on Schulbückele , where Sophie Scholl attended third and fourth grades from 1930–1932, was renamed Sophie-Scholl-Schule in 2019 on the occasion of a merger .
  • By resolution of the German federal government, a 20 euro commemorative coin was issued in 2021 on the occasion of Sophie Scholl's 100th birthday .
  • With the initial issue date 6 May 2021 which gave German Post AG to mark the 100th birthday of Sophie Scholl, a special stamp in the denomination out of 80 euro cents. The design comes from the graphic artist Detlef Bär from Cologne. There is printed next to a portrait a quote from the day of her death: “Such a wonderful, sunny day, and I should go. Why is my death when thousands of people are shaken up and awakened by our actions? "

Film, theater, multimedia

The life story of the resistance fighter was portrayed several times on film and in theater plays.

Movie

theatre

  • 2006: Sophie Scholl - The Last Days , stage version based on the film script by Fred Breinersdorfer, world premiere: February 28, 2008 at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg under the direction of Betty Hensel, who also dramatized the script.
  • 2014: Name: Sophie Scholl , play by Rike Reiniger , world premiere on October 29, 2014 in the Vienna Regional Court, director: Melika Ramic, production: werk 89 / Dschungel Wien, German premiere on June 9, 2015 in the Memorium Nuremberg Trials , director: Silke Würzberger, Production: Gostner Hoftheater , Swiss premiere on September 25 and 30, 2017 in the Junge Theater Solothurn. The piece links the conflict of conscience of today's law student with the life of the historical Sophie Scholl. It was awarded the Prize of the Law Faculty of the University of Regensburg. Name: Sophie Scholl was published as a book by Klak-Verlag Berlin.
  • 2017: Sophie / Clara , play for young people by Christoph Busche , world premiere on March 25, 2017 at Theater Kiel (Werftparktheater), directed by Astrid Großgasteiger. The piece consists of two parts and juxtaposes the biography of Sophie Scholl with that of Clara Sabrowski, a staunch National Socialist. It deals with different ways of life and the importance of decisions of conscience during the Nazi era.

multimedia

Under the title @ichbinsophiescholl of started Südwestrundfunk and Bayerischer Rundfunk early May Instagram project during Scholls 100th birthday. The last months of life are simulated with Instagram postings as if Scholl had posted them himself.

Exhibitions

  • The White Rose Memorial in Munich. (Permanent exhibition in the main building of the LMU, Munich.)
  • 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 a Friendship. (Traveling exhibition of the Freiburg cultural initiative)
  • In the wax museum of Madame Tussauds in Berlin there is a life-size figure by Sophie Scholl.

Contemporary witness reports

Literature (selection)

Web links

Commons : Sophie Scholl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Sophie Scholl  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Resistance fighter Scholl: Last sister died
  2. ↑ Bernd Aretz: Sophie Scholl. A picture of life. Neue Stadt Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-87996-987-6 , p. 149.
  3. ^ Biography of Sophie Scholl: From the BDM to the resistance ZEIT ONLINE. February 11, 2010, accessed August 13, 2019 .
  4. ↑ See Bernd Aretz: Sophie Scholl. A picture of life. Pp. 29-30.
  5. ↑ Manfred Berger: Women in the history of the kindergarten. Brandes & Apsel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-86099-255-4 , p. 113 f.
  6. ^ Joachim Sturm: Sophie Scholl in Blumberg. In: Joachim Sturm (Ed.): The history of the city of Blumberg. Dold-Verlag, Vöhrenbach 1995, ISBN 3-927677-06-X , p. 232.
  7. ↑ Maren Gottschalk: The halo is gone. Interview with Frank Weiffen. In: Leverkusener Anzeiger . September 25, 2012, Retrieved October 8, 2016.
  8. ↑ See Bernd Aretz: Sophie Scholl. A picture of life. Pp. 50-65.
  9. ↑ Barbara Beuys: Sophie Scholl. Biography. Carl Hanser, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-446-23505-2 , p. 261.
  10. ^ Joachim Sturm: Sophie Scholl in Blumberg. In: Joachim Sturm (Ed.): The history of the city of Blumberg. Dold-Verlag, Vöhrenbach 1995, p. 233. ISBN 3-927677-06-X ; cf. also: Florian Kech: Sophie Scholl experienced a turning point in the Black Forest , in: Badische Zeitung , May 1, 2021 .
  11. ↑ hsozkult.de / Christine Hikel: Review
  12. ↑ She no longer saw her fiancé: when she was executed, he was lying wounded in a hospital in Lemberg.
  13. ↑ The 6th leaflet as an original copy (more under web links) VI. (PDF; 141 kB)
  14. ↑ interrogation report Sophie Scholl on mythoselser.de
  15. ↑ Sophie Scholl's death sentence on mythoselser.de
  16. ↑ Executions every three minutes . Article about Johann Reichart in the Augsburger Allgemeine from November 14, 1996.
  17. ↑ Execution of death sentences. In:  Salzburger Zeitung. Salzburger Landeszeitung. Salzburger Volksblatt , February 24, 1943, p. 5 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / szt
  18. ↑ Letters and Notes , p. 245.
  19. ↑ Information flyer for the documentation boards on the history of the Pallasstrasse bunker, September 2009, publisher ask! Association for Encounter and Remembrance e. V.
  20. ↑ Liceo Linguistico Sophie M. Scholl on linguisticotrento.it (Italian)
  21. ↑ In 1936 this school was renamed the Hans Schemm School, in 1945 it became the Mozart School and in 1966 the Anton Bruckner School.
  22. ↑ How it all began ... at sophie-scholl-schule-ludwigsburg.de .
  23. ↑ www.bundesfinanzministerium.de
  24. ↑ Annual program 2021 - Federal Ministry of Finance - Postage Stamps. Retrieved May 7, 2021 .
  25. ↑ Betty Hensel Staging , accessed on October 8, 2012.
  26. ↑ Sophie Scholl - The Last Days. In: Remember.at .
  27. ↑ Name: Sophie Scholl / Reiniger, Rike. Retrieved January 25, 2021 .
  28. ↑ Name: Sophie Scholl. Theater monologue and materials | KLAK VerlagKLAK Verlag. Retrieved January 25, 2021 .
  29. ↑ Descriptions and photos of the play Sophie / Clara on the website of the Theater Kiel
  30. ↑ Homage to the resistance fighter , Der Tagesspiegel from May 4, 2021, accessed on May 6, 2021
  31. ↑ White Rose Memorial at the atrium of the LMU, Munich
  32. ↑ The traveling exhibition can be borrowed in several languages
  33. ↑ br.de 2017: White Rose Exhibition modernized
  34. ↑ The White Rose Monument in Ulm
  35. ↑ The White Rose - Faces of a Friendship
  36. ^ Sophie Scholl's wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Berlin
  37. ↑ Sophie Scholl - In spite of all violence on programm.ard.de
personal data
SURNAME Scholl, Sophie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Scholl, Sophia Magdalena (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter against the dictatorship of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Forchtenberg
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1943
PLACE OF DEATH Munich