Sophia Magdalena Scholl[a] (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active in theWhite Rose non-violentresistance group inNazi Germany.[1][2]
Raised in a politically engaged family, Scholl initially joined theBund Deutscher Mädel, the female branch of theHitler Youth, but later became critical of the Nazi regime. Influenced by philosophy, theology, and the writings ofTheodor Haecker, she became involved in passive resistance efforts alongside her brother,Hans, and fellow students. The White Rose distributed leaflets calling for opposition to the Nazi state, citing ethical and philosophical arguments against its policies. In February 1943, after being caught distributing leaflets at theUniversity of Munich, she and her brotherHans were arrested by theGestapo, interrogated, and convicted of hightreason in a show trial presided over byRoland Freisler. They were sentenced to death andexecuted byguillotine.
After her death, copies of the final White Rose leaflet were air-dropped over Germany by the Allies. In the decades following her death, numerous schools, streets, and memorials have been named in her and her brother's honor for their role inanti-Nazi resistance. Her story has been depicted in several films, books, and other media, including theOscar nominated filmSophie Scholl – The Final Days.
Scholl was brought up in theLutheran church. She started school at the age of seven, learned easily, and had a carefree childhood. In 1930, the family moved toLudwigsburg and then two years later toUlm where her father had a business consulting office.
The Town Hall inForchtenberg, the birthplace of Sophie Scholl
In 1932, Scholl began attending a secondary school for girls. At the age of 12, she joined the female branch of the Hitler Youth,Bund Deutscher Mädel (League of German Girls), as did most of her classmates. Her initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to criticism. She was aware of the dissenting political views of her father, friends, and some teachers. Her brother Hans, who had at first participated enthusiastically in theHitler Youth program, became entirely disillusioned with theNazi Party.[8] Political positions had become an essential criterion in her choice of friends. The arrest of her brothers and friends in 1937 for participating in theGerman Youth Movement left a strong impression on her.
An avid reader, she developed a growing interest in philosophy and theology. She had a talent for drawing and painting, and came into contact with a few so-called "degenerate" artists. All of the Scholl children had a deep interest in art, and befriended many artists of the time, particularly controversial ones who stood against National Socialism and explored such themes in their work. One such artist,Otl Aicher, helped Sophie learn to sketch and helped her revise her drawings. He later married her sister Inge.[9]
Sophie was first arrested by the Gestapo at the age of 16, after her brother Hans was discovered to be active in an anti-Hitler Youth group calledDeutsche Jungenschaft vom 1.11.1929. The Gestapo arrested Hans at his military post and other security agents arrested his siblings Inge, Werner and Sophie at their home shortly thereafter. Sophie was released later the same day, while Inge and Werner were jailed for a week. Hans spent a full three weeks in prison where he underwent interrogation. He was released only after the intervention of his cavalry officer. This experience further solidified Sophie's anti-Nazi convictions.[9]
In spring of 1940 she graduated from secondary school, where the subject of her essay was "The Hand that Moved the Cradle, Moved the World, a poem byWilliam Ross Wallace". Scholl almost did not graduate, having lost all interest in participating in classes that had largely become Nazi indoctrination.[8] Being fond of children, she became a kindergarten teacher at theFröbel Institute inUlm. She also chose that job in the hope that it would be recognized as an alternative service in theReichsarbeitsdienst (National Labor Service), a prerequisite for admission to university. This was not the case, and in spring of 1941 she began a six-month stint in the auxiliary war service as a nursery school teacher inBlumberg. The quasi military regimen of the Labor Service caused her to rethink her understanding of the political situation and to begin practisingpassive resistance.
After her six months in the National Labor Service, she enrolled in May 1942 in theUniversity of Munich as a student of biology and philosophy.[10] Her brother Hans, who was studying medicine at the same institution, introduced her to his friends. Although this group of friends eventually became known for their political views, they were initially drawn together by a shared love of art, music, literature, philosophy, and theology. Hiking in the mountains, skiing, and swimming were also important to them. They often attended concerts, plays and lectures together.
In Munich, Scholl met a number of artists, writers and philosophers, particularlyCarl Muth andTheodor Haecker. The question they pondered most was how the individual must act under a dictatorship. During the summer of 1942, Scholl had to do war service in a metalworking plant in Ulm. At the same time, her father was serving time in prison for having made a critical remark to an employee aboutAdolf Hitler.[11]
Between 1940 and 1941, Sophie Scholl's brother Hans, a former member of the Hitler Youth, began questioning the principles and policies of the Nazi regime.[12] As a student at the University of Munich, Hans met two Roman Catholic men of letters who gave him a new orientation in life, inspiring him to turn from studying medicine to the pursuit of religion, philosophy and the arts.[12] Together with like-minded friends,Alexander Schmorell,Willi Graf and Jurgen Wittenstein, he eventually adopted a strategy of passive resistance toward the Nazis by writing and publishing leaflets that called for the overthrow ofNational Socialism.[13] The anonymous authors called themselves the "White Rose".
The activities of theWhite Rose began in June 1942. By mid-July 1942, Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell had written the first four leaflets. Quoting extensively from theBible,Aristotle, andNovalis, as well asGoethe andSchiller, the iconic poets of the German bourgeoisie, they appealed to what they considered the Germanintelligentsia, believing that such people would be easily convinced by the same arguments that motivated the authors themselves. The leaflets were left in the telephone books in public telephone booths, mailed to professors and students, and taken by courier to other universities for further distribution.[14]
Sophie is believed to have first learned about the White Rose in July 1942, but Fritz Hartnagel remembers her asking him in May 1942 if he could get her a pass to buy a duplicating machine (which could not be obtained in Nazi Germany except by permit),[15] which suggests that she may have known about the activities earlier.[14] Whenever she joined, she proved to be valuable to the group because, as a woman, she was less likely to be randomly stopped by theSS.
On 18 February 1943, Sophie and Hans Scholl went to Ludwig Maximilian University to leave flyers out for the students to read. The Scholls brought a suitcase full of leaflets to the university main building, and hurriedly dropped stacks of copies in the empty corridors for students to find when they left the lecture rooms. Leaving before the lectures had ended, the Scholls had some copies left in the suitcase and decided to distribute them. Sophie flung the last remaining leaflets from the top floor down into the atrium. This spontaneous action was observed by the university maintenance man,Jakob Schmid, a self-avowed Nazi, who had joined theNazi Party in 1937.[16]
Hans and Sophie Scholl were taken into custody by theGestapo. A draft of a seventh pamphlet, written byChristoph Probst, was found in the possession of Hans Scholl at the time of his arrest. While Sophie Scholl was able to hide incriminating evidence in an empty classroom just before being captured, Hans tried to destroy the draft of the last leaflet by tearing it apart and swallowing it.[15] The Gestapo recovered enough of it to read what it said and, when pressed, Hans gave the name of the author, Christoph Probst. In the record of his second interrogation, he stated, "The piece of paper that I tore up following my arrest this morning originated with Christoph Probst... All other persons with the exception of Probst are in my opinion not guilty."[17] Christoph Probst was captured on 20 February 1943.
The main Gestapo interrogator wasRobert Mohr, who initially thought Sophie was innocent. However, after Hans had confessed, Sophie assumed full responsibility in an attempt to protect other members of the White Rose.
Incourt before JudgeRoland Freisler on 22 February 1943, Scholl was recorded as saying these words:
Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.[18]
This was their only defense; they were not allowed to call witnesses.[19]
On 22 February 1943, Scholl, her brother Hans, and their friend Christoph Probst were found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. They were all beheaded by guillotine by the executionerJohann Reichhart in Munich'sStadelheim Prison. Sophie wasexecuted at 5:00 p.m., Hans at 5:02 p.m. and Christoph at 5:05 p.m.[15] The execution was supervised byWalter Roemer, the head of enforcement of the Munich district court. Prison officials were impressed by the condemned prisoners' bravery, and let them smoke cigarettes together before they were executed.
Sophie's last known words are disputed, althoughElse Gebel remembers the last words Sophie said to her as:
How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause... It is such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go. But how many have to die on the battlefield in these days, how many young, promising lives. What does my death matter if by our acts thousands are warned and alerted. Among the student body there will certainly be a revolt.[18][20][21]
As for her last words, they were most likely either "God, my refuge unto eternity" or "The sun still shines."[22][15]
Fritz Hartnagel was evacuated fromStalingrad in January 1943, but did not return to Germany before Sophie was executed. In October 1945, he married Sophie's sisterElisabeth.[6]
After Scholl's death, a copy of the sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia to England by the German juristHelmuth James Graf von Moltke, where it was used by theAllied Forces. In mid-1943, theRoyal Air Force dropped millions of copies of the tract, retitledThe Manifesto of the Students of Munich, over Germany aspropaganda.[23]
The playwrightLillian Garrett-Groag said inNewsday on 22 February 1993, "It is possibly the most spectacular moment of resistance that I can think of in the twentieth century ... The fact that five little kids, in the mouth of the wolf, where it really counted, had the tremendous courage to do what they did, is spectacular to me. I know that the world is better for them having been there, but I do not know why."[24]
In the same issue ofNewsday, theHolocaust historianJud Newborn observed, "You cannot really measure the effect of this kind of resistance in whether or not X number of bridges were blown up or a regime fell ... The White Rose really has a more symbolic value, but that's a very important value."[24]
Bust of Sophie Scholl
On 22 February 2003, a bust of Scholl was placed by the government ofBavaria in theWalhalla temple. She was the fifth[b] woman to receive that honor.[25][26]
The Geschwister Scholl Institute of Political Science at the University of Munich is named in honour of Sophie and Hans Scholl. The Institute is home to the university's political science and communication departments, and is housed in the formerRadio Free Europe building close to theEnglischer Garten.
Many schools as well as countless streets and squares in Germany and Austria have been named after Scholl and her brother.
In 2003, Germans were invited by television broadcasterZDF to participate inUnsere Besten (Our Best), a nationwide competition to choose the top ten most important Germans of all time. Voters under the age of 40 helped Scholl and her brother Hans to place fourth, aboveBach,Goethe,Gutenberg,Bismarck,Willy Brandt, andAlbert Einstein. If the votes of young viewers alone had been counted, Sophie and Hans Scholl would have been ranked first. Several years earlier, readers ofBrigitte, a German women's magazine, voted Scholl "the greatest woman of the twentieth century".[27]
On 9 May 2014,Google depicted Scholl for itsGoogle Doodle on the occasion of what would have been her 93rd birthday.[28]
In April 2021, the German Ministry of Finance issued a commemorative sterling silver €20 coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of Scholl's May birth[29] and a commemorative stamp in May.[30][31]
In the 1970s and 1980s, there were three film accounts of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose resistance. The first TV filmDer Pedell [de] (1971) focused on the university maintenance manJakob Schmid, who denounced Scholl and the other White Rose members. The TV film was produced for the West German ZDF.[32]Percy Adlon'sFünf letzte Tage (Five Last Days, 1982) presentedLena Stolze as Scholl in her last days from the point of view of her cellmate Else Gebel. Stolze repeated the role inMichael Verhoeven'sDie Weiße Rose (The White Rose, 1982). In an interview, Stolze said that playing the role was "an honour".[33]
In February 2009,The History Press publishedSophie Scholl: The Real Story of the Woman who Defied Hitler by Frank McDonough.[35][36]
In February 2010,Carl Hanser Verlag releasedSophie Scholl: A Biography (in German), by Barbara Beuys.[37]
InLibba Bray's 2025 novelUnder the Same Stars, "Sophie Scholl" is the name of Jenny and Lena'squeerpunk rock band in the 1980s West Berlin storyline. The story behind the real-life Sophie Scholl is later conveyed.[38]
Later in life, Whitney Seymour, his wife Catryna, and their daughters Tryntje and Gabriel, co-wrote and produced Stars in the Dark Sky, a one-act play about Hans and Sophie Scholl and their role in the White Rose resistance group in Nazi Germany in the 1940s. The play, which took around five years to write, was released in 2008 (when Seymour was 85) and it was performed off Broadway five times.
Under the title@ichbinsophiescholl the German broadcasters Südwestrundfunk and Bayerische Rundfunk launched an Instagram project to commemorate Scholl's 100th birthday in May 2021. The last months of Scholl's life are featured on Instagram posts and stories which are styled as if Scholl herself was posting them. Swiss actressLuna Wedler plays Sophie Scholl and she illustrates the last year of her life in the style of a modern digital influencer.[47][48]
The project was criticized for blurring the distinction between historical fact and fiction, with some viewers struggling to differentiate the dramatized Scholl from the real historical figure. Critics noted that the portrayal encouraged an emotionalized response, leading followers to defend the fictionalized Scholl as a heroine when the project was questioned. More specific criticism from historians included arguments that the series altered historical events for dramatic effect and placed greater emphasis on storytelling than on conveying Scholl's core ideals and historical context.[49] Some commenters on the project identified closely with the dramatized Scholl and engaged with the story as if it were unfolding in real-time. Reviewers of the project noted that many users shared sentimental stories about their grandparents in the comment section, often portraying them as victims rather than discussing their roles within Nazi Germany. Critics argued that these interactions reinforced a "German victimhood" narrative, particularly as discussions of Nazi crimes were less emphasized in the project.[50] Céline Wendelgaß ofBildungsstätte Anne Frank noted that the project lacked an educational framework and nourished problematic narratives, such as the belief that there was a lot of resistance in Germany, and that German soldiers were exclusively portrayed as traumatized persons without any mention of thewar crimes which they committed.[50]
Aretz, Bernd.Sophie Scholl. Der Mut, sich selbst treu zu sein. Ein Lebensbild. Munich: Neue Stadt Verlag, 2013,ISBN978-3-87996-987-6
Bald, Detlef."Wider die Kriegsmaschinerie". Kriegserfahrungen und Motive des Widerstandes der "Weißen Rose". Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2005,ISBN3-89861-488-3
Beuys, Barbara.Sophie Scholl. Biografie. Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag, 2010,ISBN978-3-446-23505-2
Leisner, Barbara."Ich würde es genauso wieder machen". Sophie Scholl. Berlin: List Verlag, 2005,ISBN3-548-60191-X
Selg, Peter."Wir haben alle unsere Maßstäbe in uns selbst." Der geistige Weg von Hans und Sophie Scholl. Dornach: Verlag des Goetheanums, 2006,ISBN3-7235-1275-5
Vinke, Hermann.Das kurze Leben der Sophie Scholl. Ravensburger Buchverlag 1980,ISBN978-3-473-58011-8
Vinke, Hermann."Hoffentlich schreibst Du recht bald." Sophie Scholl und Fritz Hartnagel, eine Freundschaft 1937–1943. Ravensburg: Maier Verlag, 2006,ISBN3-473-35253-5
Waage, Peter N. Trans. Antje Subey-Cramer.Es lebe die Freiheit! – Traute Lafrenz und die Weiße Rose. Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 2012,ISBN978-3-8251-7809-3
^abDumbach, A. (2007).Sophie Scholl and the White Rose. Oneworld. p. 43.ISBN978-1-85168-536-3.
^Jens, Inge, ed. (2017).At the Heart of the White Rose, Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Plough Publishing House. p. 221.ISBN978-0-87486-029-0. 'Sophie was at last able to join her brother in Munich and begin reading biology and philosophy at Munich University'.
^Jens, Inge, ed. (2017).At the Heart of the White Rose, Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. Plough Publishing House. p. 227.ISBN978-0-87486-029-0.
^abBush, Elizabeth (2016). "We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler by Russell Freedman".Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books.69 (8):414–415.doi:10.1353/bcc.2016.0312.ISSN1558-6766.S2CID201771219.
^Schmid, Jakob.Gestapo Interrogation Transcripts: Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell, Hans Scholl, and Sophie Scholl. ZC13267, Volumes 1–16. Schmaus. 18 February 1943. E-Document.
^Frey, Reed (2019). "Conscience before Conformity: Hans and Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Resistance in Nazi Germany by Paul Shrimpton".Newman Studies Journal.16 (1):124–125.doi:10.1353/nsj.2019.0012.ISSN2153-6945.S2CID201765330.
^abKeeler, Bob; Ewich, Heidi (22 February 1993). "Anti-Nazi Movement Still Inspires Germans recall rare courage of 'White Rose'".Newsday. p. 13.
^Schallenberg, Jörg (22 February 2003)."Ein neues Gesicht für Walhalla".taz archiv (in German). No. 6987. taz.de. Retrieved27 February 2022.Heute kommt nun eine fünfte dazu, um deren Aufnahme lange gerungen wurde: Sophie Scholl wird im Rahmen einer feierlichen Zeremonie am Samstag um 11 Uhr in die Walhalla einziehen.
^"Sophie Scholl in der "Walhalla"".Der Standard (in German). derstandard.at. 22 February 2003. Retrieved27 February 2022.Sie ist erst die fünfte Frau, deren Büste unter rund 130 Büsten von Persönlichkeiten in der Ruhmeshalle am Donauufer aufgestellt wurde.
