Fun notes and serious comments
As respite from the long posts associated with White Rose historiography, here's a collection of fun notes from years past, with some serious comments for balance. Real people!
Want some great background music while reading this post? Click here. It's Christoph Probst on cello. Grandson of “that” Christoph Probst. Playing Mendelssohn's Klaviertrio d-moll opus 49, 1st movement... Deep breath and enjoy!
October 1912: An Italian-Jewish mathematician, physicist, and politician named Vito Volterra enjoyed great prominence in the early decades of the twentieth century. The Rice Institute of Houston, Texas invited Dr. Volterra as one of its initial guest lecturers at its grand opening in October 1912.
At a time when American universities worshipped all things European, Volterra told the New York Times of astounding progress in math and science made right here in the United States of America. A genius in his own right - equally influential in mathematics and physics for his groundbreaking work - he saw and celebrated American know-how when we ourselves deferred to researchers outside our borders.
1931: Volterra was one of the earliest opponents of Fascism in Italy. In 1931, he and eleven other professors refused to sign the Oath of Loyalty to Benito Mussolini - while another 1,238 did so. His words upon declining to sign the oath are worth repeating:
“Empires die, but Euclid's theorems keep their youth forever.”
February 22, 1943: My favorite Hans Scholl quote of all time was found on a single scrap of paper in those Gestapo interrogation transcripts. Someone (likely Agent Schmauss) wrote in a fast scribble that “Hans Scholl described today’s proceedings as ‘an utter farce’” - an Affentheater. Truer words…
1999: At a speech in Philadelphia, Dr. Ernestine Schlant mentioned a German writer named Ralph Gehrke. In 1995, Gehrke published an essay based on his PhD dissertation in the Osnabrücker Jahrbuch Frieden und Wissenschaft, entitled “Elternspuren: Autobiographische Versuche über das NS-Trauma” [roughly, Traces of Parents: Autobiographical Attempts [to understand] Nazi Trauma]. Schlant paraphrased one of Gehrke's conclusions, and it's stuck with me: “It is not true that history cannot teach us anything. She only needs students.”
January 2012: The Associated Press (quoted in the New York Times) quietly noted that Turkish television showed Claude Lanzmann's Shoah, the nine-hour documentary, the first time a majority-Muslim country voluntarily broadcast that masterpiece on public television. The Aladdin Project (based in Paris) subtitled the film in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, so its meaning would not be missed. Aladdin Project seeks to “promote understanding between Jews and Muslims.” More like this!
May 23, 2013: Eli Chazan noted in HaGalil.com that in Israel, it's no longer taboo to root for a German soccer team. FC Bayern has an official fan club in Israel, with German soccer (“football”) matches broadcast in Hebrew. — 2023 note: This is more than appropriate! Kurt Landauer, born in Planegg near Munich, played for FC Bayern beginning in 1901. He moved into management as club president in 1913.
World War I interrupted even soccer. The German-Jewish Kurt Landauer served with distinction, earning the Iron Cross. Once peace was declared, he resumed his duties as president of FC Bayern. Although soccer was still an amateur sport in Germany, Landauer ensured that FC Bayern hired the best coaches and trainers. June 1932, FC Bayern won the champtionship title.
Despite Landauer and other Jewish athletes associated with FC Bayern’s historic championship win, the Nazis did not spare them. Many were killed in concentration camps. Landauer appeared safe for a while, that is, until Kristallnacht. He fled the country, living in Switzerland from 1939-1945. He lost four siblings to the extermination camps.
Nevertheless, Landauer returned to Munich in 1947. That same summer, he regained his post as president of FC Bayern. He served in that capacity until 1951. Landauer remained in Munich until his death in 1961.
Although Kurt Landauer was an integral part of FC Bayern for its first fifty years, his legacy was quickly forgotten. The German historian Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling penned a book about soccer and racism and reminded his fellow countrymen of Kurt Landauer’s story, along with other Jewish-Germans who were erased from sporting history.
This brief mostly-happy story about Israelis cheering on a soccer team in Munich combines material linked above from Hagalil, as well as an excellent article from Times of Israel about Kurt Landauer.
May 31, 2013: The New York Times reported that Germany is thi-is close to electing its first ever Black member of the Bundestag. Mr. Karamba Diaby from Senegal stands a very good chance of becoming exactly that. — 2023 update: Mr Diaby was indeed elected and has held office since September 2013. Diaby’s office in Halle was shot at in January 2020.
September 2013: Another Senegalese-German named Charles Huber was also elected to the Bundestag this same year. Huber resigned and did not stand for reelection in 2017. Fun fact - Huber was born and raised in Munich and was an actor before getting into politics.
A funny story, and true:
While working on a book unrelated to White Rose, we turned to Family Tree Maker for a good timeline of “big events” in the life of our Sachs family. Nothing nails down dates better than knowing when cousin Joey was a baby. “Yes, that house was built in 1953. Joey wasn't walking yet.”
I impulsively searched for a Scholl family tree. It would have been more than humorous, after all, if the “Marguerite Scholl” identified by our grandmother as LaRue Sachs' best friend in 1920 had been related to the Scholls of Forchtenberg and Ulm. And in a more serious vein, it could have answered dozens of open questions about the Scholl silence regarding aunts, uncles, and cousins during the Third Reich.
Imagine our surprise and merriment when we found that three separate genealogists had posted family trees for Hans and Sophie Scholl, showing that their grandfather Wilhelm Scholl of Steinbrück had emigrated to Philadelphia shortly after Robert Scholl's birth! One genealogist had posted irrefutable evidence supporting his claim, namely a ship’s passenger list. Sure enough, Wilhelm Scholl of Steinbrück, Germany. Shortly after landing, he married an American woman.
For all of ten minutes, that was going to be the lead story for this post. We floated ironic, humorous, satirical, and politically incorrect headlines, each guaranteed to generate enormous buzz.
Buzzkill: The genealogist overlooked a single critical detail when posting the ship's passenger list. That Wilhelm Scholl hailed from Steinbrück in Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony), while Robert Scholl's father was from Steinbrück in Baden-Württemberg. An understandable mistake, especially since both Wilhelm Scholls were born in 1856.
A pity, really, because the “Philadelphia Scholl” family would have made a beautiful extended story arc. You see, that Wilhelm Scholl had cousins or uncles or siblings who came to the United States to fight for the Union. One died in a Confederate prison in the Deep South, while another was captured in Texas, where he settled after the end of the Civil War.
That would have been a story worthy of Rod Serling!
Serious words worth quoting — go out thinking: “She appeared awfully tiny to me in her chair. Her beautiful blue eyes burned in their dark caverns. Death was near her, in her, around her. We hardly dared to move, lest we touch her frailty with our youthful power.” (Lieselotte Fürst-Ramdohr, Freundschaften in der Weiβen Rose, remembering Clara “Muhmi” Harnack in December 1942 after she learned of the execution of her son Arvid Harnack.)
© 2012, 2013, 2023 Denise Heap. Please contact Exclamation! Publishers for permission to quote.