"There are a few images in the collective consciousness of the story of the Scholl siblings: above all, the scene in which their leaflets flutter through the atrium of Munich University. Now the Stadttheater Fürth is adding the world premiere of the musical SCHOLL-The Bud of the White Rose new, unknown pictures from the life of Hans and Sophie Scholl. The focus of the story is the skiing holiday with students from the circle of friends of the siblings: constructed from true events, original poems by Hans Scholl and historical records. It was New Year's Eve 1941/42, near Ehrwald in Tyrol, in a cold hut. Their wooden beams hang heavily over the small company throughout the play (stage design: Stephan Prattes), represent bed or sofa, and evoke impressive associations with the cross and swastika. 

Hoffmann wrote and directed the libretto and lyrics with expert historical support. The music is by Thomas Borchert, the orchestra sits far back on the stage in the typical cast for musicals (conducted by Robert Paul).

 

Hans Scholl's poems

 

Any reservations about telling the fate of the young resistance group in the form of a musical quickly evaporate. The poems by Hans Scholl alone provide a touchingly lyrical framework for the lives of these young people with quite different attitudes towards National Socialist ideology. (...)

Hoffmann skilfully avoided merely conveying the chronological sequence with the execution under the guillotine as the theatrical climax. Instead, new flashbacks and foresights emanate dramaturgically skilfully from the ski hut New Year's Eve: back to the time of the Scholls in the Bund Deutscher Mädchen (BDM) and the Hitlerjugend (HJ), surprising at the time when Hans Scholl was preparing for his trial because of Paragraph 175 (homosexuale activity) and continuation of the forbidden Bundische Jugend - it was the time when he began to write poems. (...) Traute has a special role among the seven young people: she keeps hoping in vain that Hans would marry her; she was then suspected of complicity in the resistance and sentenced to one year in prison. In the USA, to which she emigrated in 1947, she died shortly before the start of rehearsals for the musical 103-year-old. On the stage in Fürth, the best members of the musical offspring also realize her memories (...) Judith Caspari, Alexander Auler, Sandra Leitner, Fin Holzwart, Karolin Konert, Dennis Hupka and Lina Gerlitz are absolutely perfect in their stage presence, in their vocal possibilities , and never allow the events to come close to being sentimental kitsch. Fürth: again a focal point for contemporary musicals. And the audience is excited. <UWE MITSCHING 17.04. 2023