As of: February 2, 2024, 6:00 p.m
By: Magnus Reitinger
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Invitation to the memorial concert on the anniversary of the death of the Scholl siblings in the Weilheim city theater: (from left) Thomas Ritter from the theater group “Die Wolken”, Weilheim's cultural advisor Ragnhild Thieler and pianist Jürgen Geiger.
© Rudder
A memorial concert on February 23rd in the Weilheim City Theater will commemorate the courageous resistance fighters of the “White Rose”.
In staged readings by young actors, the Scholl siblings' connections to Weilheim are also discussed.
Weilheim
- The touching artistic commemoration of the anniversary of the deaths of Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl and Christoph Probst - all three were sentenced to death by National Socialist judges in Munich on February 22, 1943 and executed on the same day - could be experienced for the first time in the Weilheim City Theater in 2023.
And Ragnhild Thieler, the cultural officer of the Weilheim city council, wants it to be a permanent event.
The issue has “unfortunately become even more topical” due to the rise of right-wing extremist politicians and increasing anti-Semitism: “We are all called upon to resist,” says Thieler, who, at the age of 78, serves as a city council member.
Messages from the young resistance fighters - and “Questions for Today”
If the memorial concert becomes an institution in Weilheim, there will be “something new” in terms of content next year, reveals Thieler, who is organizing the event as chairwoman of the “ClassicConcerts” association.
This year, on Friday, February 23rd, the evening after the 81st anniversary of the death of the Scholl siblings, a slightly different version of the production can be experienced that deeply impressed over 250 visitors to the city theater last year: the Weilheim church musician and concert pianist Jürgen Geiger plays Piano music by, among others, Beethoven (the “Storm Sonata”), Rachmaninoff and Chopin as well as his own improvisations.
The twelve-member Munich theater and performance group “Die Wolken” accompanies the music with quotes, scenes and biographical notes from the young resistance fighters.
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The carefully selected piano pieces have a “meditative character,” explains Geiger, who is internationally renowned as an organist and pianist: “At the same time, they exude inner strength, movement and turmoil.” The theater group does not “re-enact scenes,” like director Thomas Ritter emphasizes: In an abstract representation and with movement sequences, finely coordinated with the music, the aim is to convey the central messages of the “White Rose” and also ask “questions about today”.
Contacts between the Scholl siblings and their colleagues and Liesl Königer from the Gmünder Hof in Weilheim are also discussed.
The concert took place in the atrium of the Munich University for years
This is also why the memorial concert – which Jürgen Geiger and “Die Wolken” previously performed for years in the atrium of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich – is ideally located in Weilheim, says Ritter.
The theater maker is enthusiastic about the local city theater and touched by the audience reactions last year.
In Weilheim he experienced a very dense atmosphere and “great openness to this form of commemoration”.
Anyone who missed it last time now has a new chance.
And anyone who was there in 2023 will certainly experience new impulses in the experienced pianist and the young actors' in-depth examination of the “White Rose” and its legacy.
The memorial concert
begins on Friday, February 23rd, at 8 p.m. in the Weilheim City Theater.
Admission is free, but donations are requested to finance the project.