White Rose memorial at LMU Munich

New commemorative plaque for the leaflet campaign

Before the White Rose memorial concert on February 24, 2025, LMU President Professor Bernd Huber and Hildegard Kronawitter, Chairwoman of the White Rose Foundation, unveiled a new memorial plaque in the atrium of LMU.

The memorial plaque marks the exact spot where the siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl threw their leaflets against the Nazi regime over the parapet into the atrium on February 18, 1943. A historical investigation led by Professor Hans Günter Hockerts had reconstructed the course of the action. The Scholl siblings were discovered and eventually handed over to the Gestapo.

Commemoration of the White Rose at the LMU

Since 1953, a bronze relief in the atrium has commemorated the seven executed members of the student resistance group:

• the siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl
• fellow students Willi Graf, Hans Leipelt, Christoph Probst and Alexander Schmorell
• Professor Kurt Huber

The stone memorial in front of the main entrance to the university displays flyers, portrait photos and a farewell letter from Willi Graf. There is a bust of Sophie Scholl in the atrium of the university near the entrance to the White Rose memorial.

The square in front of the LMU main building was renamed “Geschwister-Scholl-Platz” in 1946, and the square opposite was named after Professor Kurt Huber.

Permanent exhibition with interactive media stations

The permanent exhibition on the White Rose in the LMU atrium was completely revised in 2017: It sheds light on the resistance activities of the group around Hans and Sophie Scholl in the context of the National Socialist dictatorship and Nazi crimes during World War II.

Nine interactive media stations introduce the protagonists of the White Rose and also explain how the group's resistance to the Nazi regime spread beyond Munich. A separate area in the exhibition is dedicated to the history of remembrance of the White Rose from 1943 to the present day.

The bilingual exhibition is on the latest research and meets modern museum didactic standards.

Extensive program of events

The White Rose Foundation, which initiated the memorial, additionally offers an extensive program that is often accompanied by educational activities:

• From time to time, lectures and readings take place, which take a closer look at the work of the members from various perspectives.
• Also book presentations and cinema films, which deal, for example, with the topic of right-wing extremism, are part of the offer.
• Furthermore, there are commemorative concerts, which are usually performed on the so-called "White Rose Organ". This organ in the atrium of the university represents a sounding monument to the brave resistance fighters. It was installed in 1960.

Six leaflets against the Nazi regime

The first four leaflets went to writers, professors, booksellers, friends and fellow students in Munich. The fifth leaflet was distributed by members in 1943 and was also intended to appeal to the general public.

On February 18, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl threw a stack of the sixth leaflet, designed by university professor Kurt Huber, from the second-floor gallery into the atrium of the LMU. Thereupon they were arrested, sentenced to death.

On February 22, 1943, they were executed together with fellow student Christoph Probst. Also with Kurt Huber and the members of the White Rose Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorell were executed in the same year.