Hans Scholl

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Lore & Background

Born on 22 September 1918 in Ingersheim (now part of Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg), Scholl was the second of six children. His father, Robert, later became mayor of Forchtenberg am Kocher; his mother was Magdalena. His siblings included Inge, Elisabeth, Sophie, Werner, and Thilde. Raised Lutheran, he briefly considered converting to Catholicism. Against his father’s wishes, he joined the Hitler Youth on 15 April 1933 and held leadership roles in the Deutsches Jungvolk, but quickly grew disillusioned. In 1935, he was one of three standard-bearers from Ulm at the Nazi Party’s Reich Party Rally in Nuremberg. Over time, the Hitler Youth’s fanaticism and demand for total obedience repelled him. At trial, he was also charged under Paragraph 175, which criminalized homosexual acts. He admitted to two sexual relationships, one with Rolf Futterknecht (who had informed on him) and one with Ernest Reden, who had also approached his brother Werner. The judge dismissed the youth group membership as “youthful exuberance” and the homosexual allegations as a “youthful failing,” letting Scholl go without a conviction. Reden received three months in prison and three months in a concentration camp. After the trial, only Scholl’s parents and older sister Inge knew of the charges, and they never discussed them. There, he met professors and students with Christian-ethical and anti-regime views, which made him question his own beliefs. During a semester break, he served as a medical sergeant in the French campaign. Frontline experience hardened his opposition to the regime and the war. At university, he met two Catholic intellectuals who steered him toward religion, philosophy, and the arts. After witnessing mass murder in Poland and the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, Scholl and Schmorell felt they had to act. They left leaflets in phone booths, mailed them to professors and students, and sent them to other universities. Two more leaflets were produced and distributed in Munich, Hamburg, and Ulm, and mailed to doctors, scholars, and pub owners. On 22 February 1943, Hans Scholl was executed by the Nazi regime.

Reader's Guide

Hans Scholl co-founded the White Rose resistance movement alongside Alexander Schmorell and was its principal writer. The group’s leaflets, quoting Aristotle, the Bible, Novalis, Goethe, and Schiller, appealed to the German intelligentsia by using the same arguments that had convinced the authors. These pamphlets were left in public phone books, mailed to professors and students, and carried to other universities. The movement paused between July and October 1942 while Scholl, Schmorell, and Willi Graf served on the Soviet front; after their return, Graf became a core member, and Sophie Scholl and Kurt Huber joined last. The leaflets were distributed at the University of Munich, the University of Hamburg, and in Ulm, and were also mailed to doctors, scholars, and pub owners across Germany. Scholl’s earlier disillusionment with the Nazi regime began in the Hitler Youth, where he grew repulsed by fanaticism and unconditional subordination. His medical studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München brought him into contact with Christian-ethical and regime-critical figures, and frontline service as a medic in France and the Eastern Front—where he learned of mass murder in Poland and the Soviet Union—reinforced his opposition. The White Rose’s suppressed literature later became a powerful indictment of Nazi crimes. Scholl was executed in 1943 after being caught distributing leaflets at the university.

Did You Know?

• Hans Scholl joined the Hitler Youth on 15 April 1933 and was one of three standard-bearers from Ulm at the Nazi Party’s Reich Party Rally in Nuremberg in 1935.
• After witnessing mass murder in Poland and the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, Scholl felt compelled to act against the Nazi regime.
• Hans Scholl was executed on 22 February 1943 at Stadelheim Prison in Munich.