Rites
of remembrance
In
Western societies in general, and particularly in present-day
Germany, we can observe a tendency towards an ahistorical view of
human existence, obliterating the complexities of past and present.
In contrast to this tendency, Germany, although undergoing a rapid
process of transformation from – in relative terms – a culturally
and ethnically homogeneous country into a heterogeneous multiethnic
and multicultural society, is preserving a „national“ perspective
regarding the country´s history. Whether, in the future, a
„national“ narrative is apt to provide a „collective memory“
for a „modern immigrant society“ - the political goal proclaimed
by the Berlin government – remains open to question.
Up
to now, in historical and political education, the focus lies on
Germany´s bitter past of Nazism and the Holocaust. To a lesser
degree, historical tribute is paid to the legacy of the anti-Nazi
resistance. Aside from the failed plot of July 20, 1944, as an
outstanding historical event, the student resistance group of the
„Weiße Rose“ serves as a shining example of courage and ethical
purity. Again, in events commemorating their martydom, the motives of
the Scholls and their friends are rarely elaborated in full scope but
elevated to an abstract ideal. Not by chance, in various films and
exhibitions, the role of Sophie Scholl as a female resister is given
particular emphasis.
It
is to be noted, too, that there exist two separate - in fact,
politically divergent - societies dedicated to preserving the ethical
and political heritage of the „Weiße Rose“. In general, memorial
events are staged by the „Weiße Rose Stiftung e.V.“ founded in
1987 by Inge Scholl and surviving members of the resistance group.
Minor attention is attracted by the „Weiße Rose Institut“ set
up, in 2003, by other family members of the group at the Abbey St.
Bonifatius in Munich.
To
further illustrate the intricacies of „Gedenkkultur“
(commemorative culture), the role of Alexander Schmorell,
half-Russian by descent and born in Orel, Russia, in the
revolutionary year 1917, tends to recede in the background. As a
fellow medical student at the University of Munich, Schmorell became
Hans Scholl´s closest friend. In the spring and summer of 1942, the
two of them coauthored and spread the first leaflets titled „Die
Weiße Rose“. In the second trial against members of the resistance
group staged at the „Volksgerichtshof“ in Munich in April 1943,
Schmorell, together with Kurt Huber and Willy Graf (killed some
months later), was sentenced to death and executed, two months after
the Scholls´ and their friend Christoph Probst´s execution. In
2012, Schmorell was canonized as „Alexander of Munich“ by the
Russian Orthodox Church.
The
commemoration of the „Weiße Rose“ heroism may also lead to
overlooking the specific situation in February 1943, when the Munich
group stepped up its actions of leaflets and graffitti
(„Freiheit“, „Nieder mit Hitler“). In false optimism, they
hoped for a general upheaval against the Nazi regime in reaction to
the catastrophic defeat of the 6th
German Army at Stalingrad. In
particular, their hopes were spurred by spectacular scenes of
protests among Munich students triggered by a primitive speech of the
Munich Gauleiter Paul Giesler at an academic event. Under strong
emotional pressure, Hans and Sophie, on the morning of February 18,
dared upon their last and fatal action of emptying a suitcase and a satchel filled with leaflets
from the gallery into the entrance hall of Munich University. The
text itself, written by Professor Kurt Huber and edited by Hans
Scholl, called for action against Europe´s subjection to Nazi
terror. It was imbued with patriotic fervor appealing to the „spirit
of 1813“.
On
February 22, 1943, Sophie Scholl fearlessly addressed the notorious
Roland Freisler president of the „Volksgerichtshof“ at Munich: „I
am of the opinion still of having done the best I could do for my
people, in particular now. Hence I do not regret my way of actions,
and I am prepared to face the consequences arising from my actions.“
Patriotic words like these are likely to sound strange and
politically inappropriate to young Germans today, removed from Nazism
and World War II by several generations.
Ricarda
Huch´s concept of a Memorial Book
There
is an abundance of literature on the „Weiße „Rose“. And yet,
its legacy is exposed to a fading
historical memory in general and to a narrowed emphasis on politische
Bildung („political
education“). Against this background, a small book written by the
historian Klaus-Rüdiger Mai, author of a biography of the Catholic
Jewish martyr and saint Edith Stein, stands out for widening our
perception of the „Weiße Rose“:
Klaus-Rüdiger
Mai:
Ich würde Hitler
erschießen. Sophie
Scholls Weg in den Widerstand, Paderborn (Bonifatius Verlag) 2023,
192 pages.
In
the summer of 1946, the violincellist Susanne Hirzel happened to read
an appeal by Ricarda Huch (1864-1947). The author and poet Huch,
thanks to her son-in-law Franz Böhm, an economist, herself connected
with a group of resisters on Freiburg, asked for collecting material
for a Memorial Book in remembrance of those „heroic persons“ who
had risked the attempt to overthrow the „astutely established regime
of horror“. (After Huch´s decease in 1947, the collection of
papers was edited and published titled by the dramatist Günther
Weisenborn, himself affiliated with the resistance group of the „Rote
Kapelle“. The book titled „Der lautlose Aufstand. Bericht über
die Widerstandsbewegung des deutschen Volkes 1933 – 1945“ first
appeared in 1953.)
Susanne
Hirzel, daughter of a Lutheran minister in the city of Ulm, and
Sophie Scholl had been friends, as 14-year-old girls of the same age,
since 1935. In the second trial against the „Weiße Rose“ she got
away with a sentence of six months.
Bringing
to mind Sophie´s courage in the face of death, Susanne Hirzel in a
long letter responded to Huch´s request. She recalled that, in
January 1943, Sophie Scholl had told her of her Munich friends´
pamphlets denouncing the Nazi regime. Somebody had to take courage in
commencing action. „If I had a chance of shooting Hitler, I would
do it, even though being a girl.“
Dictatorship
and Romantic Sensitivity
Like
in other Scholl biographies, the basic theme of May´s book is the
siblings´ mental and moral development from early enthusiasm for
Hitler towards uncompromising resistance, triggered by specific
encounters with despotic arbitrariness. The Scholls´ road to
resistance cannot be separated from its historical setting.
Germany´s
political atmosphere in the final phase of the Weimar Republic is
illustrated by two quotations. In the year 1931, the author Curzio
Malaparte, himself rooted in Italian fascism, observed that Hitler
was about „to skip the ´risky´ role of Catilina [convicted by
Cicero of plotting against the Roman Republic, in 63 B.C.] and to
adopt the less risky role of a plebiscitary dictator“. Other
observations came from the French socialist Pierre Vinot in his book
„Uncertain Germany“. He wrote about the collapse of the civic
order and an abnormal propensity to self-analysis“. In addition, he
diagnosed the inveterate penchant for a welfare state
(„Fürsorgestaat“) as an idea „certainly not belonging to civic
culture. We are entering here into the wide field of socialism.“
The
French writer was referring to the idea of the community of the
people („Volksgemeinschaft“), removed from party politics and
transcending class barriers. This romanticist concept was popular in
the various „leagues“ („Bünde“) of the German youth
movement, where the love of nature was merged with nationalism and
social idealism. One of the heroes revered by the „Bünde“ was the
poet Stefan George who, in 1927, proclaimed his dream of „Das Neue
Reich“. With ideas and emotions of this sort, the „Bünde“ were
not very far from the promises of national socialism. As a young army
officer, Count Stauffenberg, famed for his attempt to assassinate
Hitler on July 20, 1944, was swayed, too, by the enthusiasm generated
by a column of SA stormtroopers celebrating Hitler´s ascendance to
power (by appointment as Reichskanzler, January 30, 1933). In 1933,
the law professor Ernst Forsthoff – becoming a half-hearted
opponent of Nazism some years later -, in his book „Der totale
Staat“ („The Total State“) proclaimed that the „bourgeois age
was to be liquidated“. In the prospect of a „better future, “
it was necessary to exhaust the last reserves of the people.“
Inspired
by their surroundings – school, church, and peers - the Scholl
siblings were caught up in the nationalist euphoria. Inge Scholl, the
eldest of the five sisters, brandished a picture of Hitler in her
room. She was keen to see her brother Hans and his „club“, i.e.
the Ulm YMCA, joining the Hitler Youth. Also,
she was the first of the siblings to be appointed leader in
the girls´ branch of the Hitler Youth („Bund deutscher Mädel“,
BdM, League of German Girls).
Hitler
Youth and „bündisch“ activities
The
siblings´ enthusiasm for the Hitler Youth was in part due to the
pubertarian desire of detaching themselves from their parental home.
Hans Scholl entered into a permanent conflict with his father Robert
Scholl, an agnostic pacifist anti-Nazi. Later, in 1942, at the time
when Hans and Sophie were about to enter their fateful career as
resisters, Robert Scholl was betrayed by his secretary for calling
Hitler "a scourge of God.“ He was sentenced to four months in
jail and barred from working as a tax consultant. Again, in Mai 1943,
he was sentenced to eighteen months in jail for listening to foreign,
i.e. „enemy“ radio stations.
Despite
quarrels during adolescence, family ties remained intact, with mother
Magdalena Scholl, of pietist faith and trained as a „Diakonisse“
( the Protestant equivalent of a nun), sedating emotions. At every
stage on their children´s road to resistance, the family provided
emotional support. Also, we find no trace of antisemitic sentiments
in that family. Young Sophie Scholl is quoted saying: „Anyone who
does not know Heinrich Heine, doesn´t know German literature.“
Hans´
character, exhibiting strong self-will and a hungry intellect, can
best be described as a „firebrand“. Sophie, too, her artistic
talent and poetic sensitivity notwithstanding, drew attention among
Ulm citizens as a „boyish“ BdM enthusiast. Yet, in one aspect, by
cultivating specific youth movement traditions, the youngsters
deviated from the rules and rites of the Hitler Youth. Inspiration
came from Eberhard Koebel (tusk), the nonconformist leader of
a group named d.j.1.11 (German Youth of November 11, 1929), who,
after clashes with Nazi rivals - involving arrest and torture in
Berlin in the spring of 1933 – emigrated to England via Sweden in
1934.
In
the above-mentioned letter, Susanne Hirzel described the ideals and
the emotions prevailing in those „bündisch“ groups: „In the
final analysis, it was all about ´freedom´. We were resolved to
dedicate our lives to this goal, although no one could have given a
closer definition of what this ´freedom´ really meant.“
Klaus-Rüdiger Mai provides an interpretation of his own by seeing
the Scholls´ and their friends´ emotions in the romantic tradition
of the eighteenth-century „Sturm und Drang“ period, backing up
his view with a quotation from Jack Kerouac´s „On the Road“.
Kerouac writes about those „ crazy ones, crazy for life“. „What
were such people called in Goethe´s Germany?“ On his last way,
being marched to the guillotine, 24-year-old Hans Scholl exclaimed:
„Es lebe die Freiheit!“ (Long live freedom!)
From
1936 onward, nonconformist traditions in and outside the Hitler Youth
were no longer tolerated but criminalized as „bündisch activities“
(„Umtriebe“/activities in the sense of „disturbances“).
Questioned by the Gestapo in February 1943, Sophie explained her
early break with Nazism „above all“ with her and her siblings´
arrest in the late autumn of 1937 for charges of „bündische
Umtriebe“. Charges against Hans Scholl and Inge´s friend Ernst
Reden involved violations of the penal code § 175 banning
homosexual practices. Referring to emotional uncertainties in the
phase of puberty, the historian Mai refutes the theologian Robert
Zoske, who, in his biographies, has attempted to elaborate on
bisexual behavior of Hans and to detect latent lesbian tendencies in
Sophie Scholl.
(https://www.theeuropean.de/herbert-ammon/eine-neue-deutung-des-lebensweges-von-hans-scholl/
;
https://www.theeuropean.de/herbert-ammon/neue-biografie-ueber-sophie-scholl/)
Like
Zoske in his biography of Hans Scholl, May, in his biographical essay
on Sophie, fails to mention the Scholl family´s close relationship
with Richard Scheringer, noteworthy for his biography. As a
lieutenant, Scheringer, together with two other young officers, was
convicted, in March 1930, for spreading Nazi propaganda in the
Reichswehr (army). While serving his sentence, he converted to
communism without abandoning his nationalist sentiments. Aside from
minor brushes with the regime, he emerged unscathed from the Nazi era
on his farm near Ingolstadt. The Scholl children occasionally spent
their holidays there. Elisabeth, one of the five siblings, was
employed as a maid in the Scheringer family at the time of the Munich
drama.
Christian
Faith
Standing
out as a firmly established motive of the young Scholls´ road
to martyrdom was their Christian faith, differing, to be sure, in
certain features as regards Hans and his younger sister Sophie. When
Hans, before, in late 1937, being captured himself, learned
about his siblings´ arrest, he sent a letter thanking his mother for
sending him a „wonderful“ word from the Bible. „It helped me to
regain my old composure.“ Around 1939/1940, Hans Scholl (and
somewhat later Sophie) was introduced by their brother Werner´s
Catholic friend Otto Aicher (who had been barred from graduating at
his school for refusing to join the Hitler Youth) to the Munich
circle of Catholic intellectuals centered around Carl Muth and the
convert Theodor Haecker. Thus, thanks to Aicher, himself intending to
make converts of the Scholls, the siblings came to know the ideas of
the French Rénouveau catholique inspired by authors like
George Bernanos, Paul Claudel, and Jacques Maritain.
The
author Mai is far from diminishing the intellectual and religious
relevance of the Munich circle of the anti-Nazi opponents around Carl
Muth. Nonetheless, he sees the Scholl siblings´ road to resistance
in the tradition of Protestantism. Before being murdered on the
scaffold on February 23, 1943, they received the Last Supper from a
Lutheran pastor. In contrast to Luther, who, at his trial before the
Imperial Diet at Worms in 1521, could expect salvation from the
Elector of Saxony, there was no mighty secular power to hold a
protecting hand over young Hans and Sophie Scholl.
Note:
The
above article is an enlarged version of my review of Mai´s book on
my Globkult
blog
https://herbert-ammon.blogspot.com/2023/02/21-februar-2023-zum-gedenken-sophie.html.
This text again is based on my review in the Catholic newpaper „Die
Tagespost“ of February 22, 2023,
https://www.die-tagespost.de/kultur/literatur/klaus-ruediger-mai-das-buergerliche-zeitalter-wird-liquidiert-art-235803
For
additional reading see my articles and reviews:
https://www.globkult.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/471-die-geschichtliche-tragik-der-rweissen-rosel-und-die-politische-moral-der-nachgeborenen
https://www.theeuropean.de/herbert-ammon/eine-neue-deutung-des-lebensweges-von-hans-scholl/
https://www.theeuropean.de/herbert-ammon/neue-biografie-ueber-sophie-scholl/
https://www.globkult.de/geschichte/rezensionen/1932-eckard-holler-auf-der-suche-nach-der-blauen-blume-die-gro%C3%9Fen-umwege-des-legendaeren-jugendfuehrers-eberhard-koebel
https://www.globkult.de/geschichte/rezensionen/2151-fritz-schmidt-juergen-reulecke-hans-scholl
