Infringement of personal liberties
August 1937 - March 1938.
Late summer 1937, Sophie Scholl began a habit that would serve her well. She and a few (unidentified) close friends took to the mountains. Things still seemed free. Restrictions placed on Jewish neighbors did not yet impact everyday Germans.
One Scholl was not having a wonderful summer. Werner Scholl found himself the victim of Ernst Reden’s unwanted affections. Ernst was twenty-three. Werner was fourteen. Ernst took advantage of an “altercation” in the Scholl household to invite Werner to find a bit of peace and quiet along the shores of the Danube. Instead of letting Werner vent, Ernst began to sexually assault him. When Werner resisted, Ernst backed off.
A few days later, Ernst repeated his assault on Werner, unzipping his pants and attempting to fondle him. Werner fought back — again, this was in public — and Ernst eventually left him alone. Also in late summer 1937, Hans Scholl returned to his rapes of Werner’s friend. When the young boy protested, Hans did not back off, but rather intensified his attacks. It is ironic that about this time, Magdalena Scholl told Hans about Ernst’s reputation. Hans immediately advised his younger brother to Stay pure and be mature, a Hitler Youth mantra.
Since the Scholls were in no way religious, they would not have paid much attention to ongoing news about German Methodists in the Ulmer Sturm. Bishop Melle of the aligned German Methodist Church published a nationwide response to those awful Confessing Christians who followed Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemöller. Melle was not only one of Hitler’s best fundraisers abroad — the American Methodist church donated substantial funds to the NSDAP cause — but he served as an effective apologist, denouncing all who insulted their beloved Führer.
News coverage of Melle’s speeches and essays blanketed Germany from July through October 1937. Even with the irreligious nature of the Scholl household, it’s surprising that we see none of the diatribe in published letters and diary entries.
That autumn as hard cider and potatoes filled basements, most Germans did not notice (or care) when teachers had to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler, when streets were renamed in the Führer’s honor, when an extra month was tacked onto Reich Labor Service duties. There’s no mention in any published letters from Hans or Sophie Scholl about their new address. Olga Straβe was now Adolf-Hitler-Ring.
Nor do we read anything about the hubbub when the editors of Julius Streicher’s Stürmer took offense at the inscription over the doorway of the synagogue in Ulm (photo). After a few weeks of discussion, Ulm’s city council decreed that the synagogue had to remove that inscription, which read, “My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations.” In late November 1937, the synagogue complied. It should be noted that the inscription was carved into the stone, not affixed as signage.
As the world had slowly disintegrated for the Scholls’ Jewish neighbors, whom they saw every day in their small apartment building on Adolf-Hitler-Ring, it only seemed to improve for Sophie and Hans Scholl.
After completing Reich Labor Service, Hans volunteered for the cavalry on November 4, 1937, not waiting to be drafted. He was stationed in Bad Cannstatt near Stuttgart, close to family friends. (See photo.) Hans’ excellent marksmanship and riding skills caught the attention of his captain. Life was good, so very good!
Until they experienced the first taste of infringement on their personal liberties.
About a week after Hans joined the cavalry, Inge, Werner, and Sophie Scholl found themselves detained by the Gestapo, suspected of maintaining and promoting bündische traditions. The initial crackdown focused solely on non-Hitler Youth groups, nothing more. Inge and Werner were taken to Stuttgart. They had nothing to fear, since Stuttgart Gestapo Chief Mussgay was their father’s close friend. No arrest, merely grilling about what they knew of bündische activities in Ulm. Curiously, the Gestapo did not suspect them of such activities. They only wanted to know what Inge and Werner knew, especially about Ernst Reden, the focus of their investigation.
Sophie remained in Ulm. Her detention had been a mistake, as the Gestapo thought she was a boy. As soon as they realized she was not, she was free to go.
Since Inge truly knew little about her siblings’ activities, the Gestapo let her go fairly quickly. Werner? He was a different matter. He “confessed” to the times Ernst had assaulted him in broad daylight. The Gestapo released Werner, as they were not interested in victims. Ernst Reden was their target.
Once Sophie, Inge, and Werner were back in the safety of their home on Olga Straβe — oops, Adolf-Hitler-Ring! — life quickly returned to normal. At least for the siblings.
Sophie was so very smitten with the handsome soldier, Fritz Hartnagel, that she began a flirty, audacious exchange of letters with him. The first letter we are allowed to see, she pretended that she was writing him because Annelies was too shy to do so. Annelies was planning a party, and the girls wanted dates to accompany them. Sophie advised Fritz that in fact, she and her sister Lisl “still need men (not husbands!),” and if he knew any, he should please invite them too.
It is a funny, silly letter, so typical of a giddy sixteen-year-old in love for the very first time. Sophie wrote, “We don’t want to fight, so we will stop now. Annlis doesn’t have anything clever to say.” Annelies added in a different handwriting, “What Sofer said at the beginning isn’t true.” Under pretext of not having an official invitation to send Fritz, Sophie let him know that he would be hearing from them again.
In keeping with the girls’ patriotic sentiments, Sophie closed her letter, “With a German greeting,” while Annelies stuck with the more traditional but equivalent “Heil Hitler.”
Initially, the Gestapo had left Hans Scholl alone. His captain knew that military personnel were not subject to interrogation by the Gestapo and protected his protégé. While Inge, Werner, and Sophie were questioned by the Gestapo, Hans’ fun days in Bad Cannstatt continued, his spirits high.
But Hans’ luck would soon run out. On November 22, 1937, Hans Scholl was removed from the barracks and interrogated in Gestapo headquarters in Stuttgart.
The atmosphere in the Scholl household was understandably tense after the Gestapo spirited away three children, although no harm came to any of them. Despite that edgy mood, Sophie and Annelies Kammerer stayed out past midnight on November 26, 1937. Unbeknownst to Sophie, someone locked the glass door to their apartment, a door which had never been locked before the detentions.
Afraid of her father’s reaction, Sophie rang the doorbell anyway. When Robert Scholl appeared — relieved instead of angry — Sophie was ecstatic that they did not get in trouble.
Sophie wrote Fritz about the after-midnight scare, and how she and Annelies were plotting to spend Christmas at the same resort Fritz and his parents frequented. Pietist Magdalena Scholl would be a hard sell, so Sophie and Annelies tried an (unsuccessful) end-around by enlisting Annelies’ father in their scheme.
The Gestapo’s “harsh” treatment of the Scholl siblings did nothing to diminish their enthusiasm for the Nazi cause or Hitler Youth organizations. Sophie also gave Fritz all the details about the December 8 party Inge was giving in honor of Charlotte Thurau (“Scharlo”), a greatly admired Bund deutscher Mädel (BDM) leader. Sophie invited Fritz to be her date to that party.
That same day, the chief prosecutor in Stuttgart filed Section 175(2) charges against Hans Scholl, indicting him for the homosexual assault of a young boy under one’s direct command. The indictment noted that Hans Scholl had not been directly interrogated about the §175(2) acts, because Hans was a (protected) member of the armed forces.
Notwithstanding the severity of the charges leveled against Hans Scholl, high-ranking people working behind the scenes kept him out of prison until December 13. For reasons not contained in the official files, the indictment was amended to a Section 175 charge only, removing the “under one’s direct command” clause.
As Sophie’s passion for Jungmädel leadership and BDM leaders remained strong, Susanne Hirzel began to distance herself — both from BDM/Jungmädel participation, and from her friendship with Sophie. Despite threats of retaliation against her for “abandoning” her role as Jungmädel leader, Susanne opted to move her membership to BDM, where she could passively participate. And take part in older girls’ athletic competitions! She missed Sophie, but…
December 11, Sophie gave Fritz a detailed, animated account of Inge’s party in honor of Scharlo on the 8th. Her narrative became a bit subdued, however, when she broached the touchy subject of Fritz’s strained relationship with Scharlo. After passing the Abitur and gaining acceptance to the university in Heidelberg, Scharlo had disappeared without saying goodbye. From one day to the next, gone.
But not before borrowing money from Fritz and his brother, promising to repay them, and failing to do so. Sophie therefore played up Scharlo’s “illness” for Fritz, asking him, “Hey Fritz, do you have any influence with Scharlo? If so, influence her with regards to her health.”
Apart from the party they had had three days prior, Sophie remained primarily focused on the ski trip she, Annelies, and Lisl were still trying to negotiate to coincide with the one the Hartnagel family had planned. Although since her last letter, Hans and Werner Scholl had decided to join the fun as well. Inge was the only Scholl sibling not planning to ski in Schindelberg after Christmas.
Sophie told Fritz that no matter what happened to that plan, the four Scholls would at the very least take off somewhere over New Years — to ski, of course! — and he was welcome to join them. Once again, Sophie advocated on behalf of the disgraced Scharlo. Could she come too? They would have to make sure she didn’t catch cold.
In the end, Sophie didn’t care whether they went to Schindelberg or someplace else. “I will be really happy when I get out of this jam [Schlamassel] and outside in the snow.”
Hans’ stint with the military was also fulfilling and energizing. The gods must be smiling on him, or his stars were aligned just right. His marksmanship scores were practically perfect. Two days earlier, they had had to fall out for nocturnal exercises, which he seemed pleased with.
Best of all, a tailor in Stuttgart had saved the last piece of fabric just for him — for him, Hans Scholl! — at a time when cloth was hard to come by. Hans had ordered custom trousers that would cost around $375 in our currency, trousers like those the officers wore. He advised his father that he needed the money right away, because he anticipated a promotion shortly.
On December 12, 1937, Hans wrote his parents about these events, along with the “send more money” message. On December 13, 1937, he was arrested for homosexual activities, no longer a mere indictment. During the interview, he admitted to a relationship with a young boy entrusted to his care and named the teen (preteen at the time of assaults). Less than forty-eight hours after brashly asserting his certainty of advancement, he found himself in custody with the possibility of losing everything he had worked so hard to earn.
In under fourteen days, the Gestapo had rounded up practically every person who had associated with Hans Scholl and Ernst Reden in the d.j.1.11 troop in Ulm. Gustel Saur’s twin brothers were picked up during class.
Robert Scholl and Hans’ captain spent the last three weeks of 1937 working behind the scenes to procure Hans’ release. They pulled strings and called in favors. Hans was released from prison and permitted to spend the first two days of 1938 with his family. No thoughts of skiing or plotting to be with Fritz. Hans’ predicament took precedence.
When Hans returned to Bad Cannstatt, his visits to the home of the Remppis family increased. Magdalena Scholl’s sister lived in the same house as Lisa Remppis and her family. Lisa and Sophie were great friends, although Lisa was two years younger than Sophie. As Hans’ trial for homosexual behavior progressed, he increasingly spent time with Lisa.
It is instructive that Hans’ relationship with Lisa Remppis “happened” at the same time that the Gestapo accused him of homosexual behavior. His courtship of a girl — a minor girl at that — five years his junior established a pattern for his subsequent romantic involvements that only worsened over time. Lisa was pretty enough, but not too pretty; she was smart, but not too smart; she had an independent streak, but yielded completely to his wishes; though the liaison was long-term by his standards, it did not last long; the sexual component or physical connection played a major role in their courtship; and, she was one of Sophie’s friends.
Later on, Hans would sleep with women who were not already Sophie’s friends, but he never dated any of them. Of all his ‘conquests,’ Traute Lafrenz was the only one who did not match the well-established profile. If you carefully observe Hans’ “girlfriends” through the next three years, you will notice the marked difference when he starts going out with Traute. She alone was special. And yet even Traute was merely his beard.
By January 1938, Sophie’s cheerful spirit had returned. Now that things with Hans appeared to be resolved and he was safe, she and Annelies could return to their scheming. Despite Annelies’ concussion that was keeping her out of school, the two teens found ways to have fun. Scharlo and her brother joined Sophie in an impromptu visit to the injured Annelies. The absence of Annelies’ parents made the day especially enjoyable.
Sophie tried to entice Fritz to join her at two upcoming events. Now that he was in Augsburg and not Potsdam, he didn’t have an excuse! On January 22, there was going to be a dance party. And on the 29th, the Red Cross Ball was taking place. Couldn’t Fritz make it to at least one of those events? She mentioned that she and Scharlo were going to the Red Cross Ball.
For reasons unexplained, Sophie apparently had a falling out with Scharlo soon thereafter. She commiserated with Fritz over that erstwhile friend. “I don’t understand her any more, believe me when I say I have tried and I keep on trying.” Sophie still greatly admired Scharlo, but with reservations.
And Annelies? That poor friend had recovered from her concussion only to break her fibula. “She is fantastically clumsy,” Sophie told Fritz. Without Annelies around, her hiking in the forest had come to an end, as she simply would not hike alone. “I don’t hike alone on principal. I’ve had a bad experience.” She did not say why Inge and Lisl were not available for said hikes.
Although Inge’s unavailability may have had something to do with a fairy tale play she was writing for Jungmädel, that is to say (although Sophie did not say so) with the adaptation of a well-known Grimm Brothers fairy tale for Jungmädel theater. She was engrossed with the story of King Drosselbart and the snoddy princess. Sophie was to play the role of King Drosselbart when the play premiered.
Besides complaining about Werner’s singing Russian songs way too loudly in the next room (“I can’t think”), she told Fritz about the Medusa she had painted in school that day. “I tell you, it was ghastly. If anyone looks at it, they would faint dead away.” And she threatened to hike to Augsburg one day to visit him, of course after Annelies was well.
A couple of weeks later, Sophie wrote Fritz her first ever “happy birthday” letter. She penned it on February 2, so he would be sure to receive it by the 4th. It was a momentous day, as he turned twenty-one! She teased him that — since he was four years older than she — she would catch up with him in four years.
Once again, she complained about the dullness of school, and as usual, she was writing during a boring class. “Otherwise you wouldn’t get such a long letter.”
A character trait that would show up increasingly in Sophie’s letters appeared here in infant form, namely her inability to love herself, her low self-esteem. At this time, it was nothing serious. Just her frustration with herself for not getting anything done, for being ‘too lazy.’
She was happy that her brother Hans had been home on leave a few days earlier (she did not mention it to Fritz, but his leave coincided with a brief lull in the bündische trial against him), and equally happy that Fritz would be in Ulm in another week. They still were not a couple, still were not “in love,” just smitten, but it’s clear that Sophie enjoyed Fritz’s company immensely.
Sophie’s February 26 letter makes it equally clear that Fritz did not consider them a couple, at least not yet. Sophie may have looked forward to Fritz’s visit to Ulm, but she obviously was not prepared to find him with another woman during Fasching when he was in town! Despite the fact that in her earlier letter, she had told Fritz that she and Scharlo were going to the Fasching ball together, it’s clear she thought he would stay in Augsburg.
Seeming to recognize that she had no claim on him, she followed her comment that she was “a materialist” with an event to prove her point. “For example, I can stand the woman you were with at Fasching because she sold me a book for RM 1.05 [$8.40] cheaper than it cost. She knows something about books. May I tell her hello from you?”
She admitted that she was writing him this late-night letter “in a mood,” something she usually did not do. “You are certainly surprised that I am writing you such filth,” she conceded. For some reason that even she could not understand, she felt compelled to pour out her heart to him, unfiltered, and force him to make sense of it all.
This letter also marks the first time that we have a record of one of Sophie Scholl’s dreams. She put great stock in dreams, both the pleasant ones and nightmares, though she did not try to interpret them.
She explained that she had been asleep, but this dream woke her up. She had to tell someone, so she wrote him about it. Like most of her dreams, she said, this one was about traveling, or more specifically, camping. A woman took her out into the middle of a great lake in a boat. Though it was nighttime, she could tell that the sky was overcast. But the moon was in front of the bank of clouds. Yet the lake remained a dull gray despite the brilliance of the great orb.
She spied a small red dot behind the clouds. The woman told her that was the sun, and that they lived in the only place on earth where you could see the sun and the moon at the same time.
“Now I’ll go to sleep and dream I am on a trip,” she concluded. “I will think out all kinds of nice possibilities. Even nonsense. I want to draw again, sketch out all of my filth. No one has to see the finished product. Good night. Sofie.”
By late February 1938, a new wrinkle had been added to the case against Hans Scholl. One of the boys who had gone with Hans’ d.j.1.11 troop to Sweden let it slip that Hans had smuggled Swedish currency into Germany in a Nivea can. At the time, it had been a big joke. Suddenly it took on momentous proportions.
Now Hans faced a trial with four separate charges on the indictment: belonging to a bündische club, homosexual activity, homosexual activity with a minor (the Section 175(2) charge was reinstated), and foreign exchange fraud. In a (censored) letter to his parents, he mentioned that he wanted to transfer to a different squadron, ostensibly because they ribbed him about “the foreign exchange business.” The next day, he took Lisa Remppis to the park.
The Fasching incident where Sophie saw Fritz with another woman must have upset Sophie more than she cared to allow, because shortly thereafter, Sophie and Lisa Remppis made good on Sophie’s threat to hike to Augsburg to visit Fritz. They showed up unannounced at his barracks.
Although it was against the rules, Fritz had to let them stay with him in barracks, since they had no place else to go. He smuggled them out the next morning.
Sophie apparently never wrote Fritz about the surprise visit (or if she did, the letter has not been published), nor did Fritz refer to it. Mere fragments, joking tidbits mention things that happen.
Fritz told her days after she was back in Ulm that his “boy” had found Lisa’s hair barrette. “Hopefully he found it in your bed,” she ribbed him.
Or her favorite memory from that scandalous weekend, as she and Lisa stood outdoors in Augsburg freezing, making a call to Fritz from a pay phone. “Lisa asked to talk to Lieutenant Ha-Ha-Ha: Please excuse me, [said Lisa], I have to laugh.” — To be young and in love!
While Hans waited — not in prison, but at the military base in Bad Cannstatt — for his trial, news came of the annexation of Austria. Hans’ squadron anticipated the event so much that they readied their vehicles and weapons as though it were a sure thing. “Nights on the town in Vienna, walks along the Danube,” they could taste the thrill of victory and the adulation of the crowds. But in the end, the Führer mainly chose Bavarian troops for this prestigious distinction. Hans and his comrades were left to fantasize about the “vacation” they had missed out on.
Nazis in Ulm pulled out all the stops that March 12, 1938. Ulm and Vienna had been linked by the ribbon of water we call the Danube. The Ulmer Schachtel or flat-bottomed boats had plied that river for centuries. Reunification with Austria called for a celebration. So the city renovated an old Schachtel and sailed it to Vienna, filled with flowers. Austria had indeed come home.
Sophie remained firmly in the NSDAP fold. Yet small, unspoken doubts arose. Not enough to jiggle her loose from the hold of Jungmädel leadership. But she saw the detentions of herself, plus Werner and Inge, along with Hans’ arrest, as “completely unjustified.”
Now that their personal liberties were being infringed, the gold-plating slowly appeared tarnished.
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Excerpted from White Rose History, Volume I. See below for copyright information. Please contact us for permission to quote.
Image credits: Top photo--Frillensee near Eibsee. © 2024 Denise Elaine Heap. Second photo--From Zeugnisse. Photo of the inscription over the doorway to the synagogue. 1937. Third photo (postcard)--Military base in Bad Cannstatt. Public domain. Fourth image--Artist’s rendtion of an Ulmer Schachtel in Ulm. Public domain.
Bottom image--Example of damnatio memoriae, an early form of shunning. The Severan Tondo, c. 199 AD tondo of the Severan family, with portraits of Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, and their sons Caracalla and Geta. The face of one of Severus' and Julia's sons has been erased; it may be Geta's, as a result of the damnatio memoriae ordered by his brother Caracalla after Geta's death.
I included this bottom image as a reminder that Sophie and Elisabeth Scholl, as well as Susanne Hirzel, were banned from their leadership positions with Jungmädel. There's no evidence that Inge used any of her considerable influence to change their status.
The above information is fully footnoted in our White Rose histories. Please purchase them for access to that material! To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume I: Coming Together (January 1933-April 30, 1942), click here. To order digital version of White Rose History, Volume II, click here. WRH1 is © 2002, 2003, 2007 by Denise Elaine Heap. WRH2 is © 2002, 2007 by Denise Elaine Heap.
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