''Die Weiße Rose'' (''The White Rose'') is a 1982 CCC Film production about the

White Rose The White Rose (german: Weiße Rose, ) was a Nonviolence, non-violent, intellectual German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students (and one professor) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, ...

resistance to the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s led by university students in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

in 1942–1943 whose members were caught and executed in February 1943, shortly after the German capitulation at Stalingrad. Actress

Lena Stolze Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in ...

, who played Sophie Scholl, reprised that role in ''The Last Five Days,'' also released in 1982. That film was later remade as '' Sophie Scholl: The Final Days'' in 2005.

Plot

Munich 1942: The student group White Rose, among them the Scholl siblings, calls for resistance against Hitler and his regime with leaflets. Risking their lives, they take leaflets to other cities and write slogans such as "Down with Hitler" on the walls of houses at night. As the Gestapo's noose tightens around the students, they make contact with other resistance groups and even with high military officials. In early 1943, the Gestapo strikes. Hans and Sophie Scholl are arrested in the courtyard of Munich University. The People's Court under its chairman Freisler sentences them to death. The sentence is carried out on February 22, 1943. In the credits, the director points out that the death sentences of the People's Court were still legally valid at the time the film was completed. It was not until 1998 that the sentences of the People's Court were repealed by the Law on the Repeal of National Socialist Unjust Sentences in the Administration of Criminal Justice.

Director and stars

Director

Michael Verhoeven Michael Verhoeven (born 13 July 1938) is a German film director. Life and work Verhoeven is the son of the German film director Paul Verhoeven (not to be confused with the Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven). He married actress Senta Berger in ...

released another film dealing with the Nazi era, ''

The Nasty Girl ''The Nasty Girl'' (german: Das schreckliche Mädchen) is a 1990 West German drama film based on the true story of Anna Rosmus. The original German title loosely translates as "The Terrible Girl." The film was selected as the German entry for the ...

''.

, the actress portraying

Sophie Scholl Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 – 22 February 1943) was a German student and anti-Nazi political activist, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of high treason after having bee ...

, one of the White Rose participants, performed the starring role in ''The Nasty Girl''.

Distribution

Distribution of the film beyond

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

was delayed. This was because, at the time, the wartime German legal decision that outlawed the White Rose group effectively banned foreign distribution of the film, and this had to be rescinded before it could be released.

References

External links

* 1982 films 1982 drama films German drama films West German films 1980s German-language films Films directed by Michael Verhoeven Films set in Germany Films set in Munich Films about the German Resistance Films about capital punishment White Rose Cultural depictions of Hans and Sophie Scholl 1980s German films {{1980s-Germany-film-stub