Die Weisse Rose – Ein Musical über Umdenken, Verantwortung und Mut von Alex Melcher & Vera Bolten

A musical about changing one’s mindset, responsibility, and courage

“You have to have a strong mind and a soft heart,” Sophie Schollwrotein a letter to her friend Fritz Hartnagel shortly before her arrest.

The clarity and determination with which she, her brother Hans, and their fellow activists Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, and Prof. Kurt Huber fought against the Nazi regime—and appealed to readers’ intelligence and humanity through leaflets—developed over a long period of time.

In the play, we get to know Hans and Sophie as committed members of the Hitler Youth and, together with them, experience harassment, injustice, cruelty, and arbitrariness.

We come to understand both their initial enthusiasm and their doubts, as well as their eventual break with the regime. We share in the suspense as they produce and distribute the leaflets, and as they are arrested and sentenced.

“The White Rose” is also a play about coming of age—about first love, discovering one’s own personality, and searching for and finding one’s own path in life during a dark period of our history.

Today, when more and more people are choosing to address the world’s problems with simplistic slogans rather than truly seeking to solve them, “The White Rose” serves as a reminder of each individual’s responsibility for justice and humanity in our society.

At this year’s “Musical Theater Award 2025,” the musical took home a total of seven awards. It won in the following categories: Best Lighting Design, Best Overall Musical Production, Best Choreography, Best Direction, Best Book, Best Lyrics, and Best Musical