Gedächtnisvorlesung von Bundespräsident Joachim Gauck aus Anlass des 70. Jahrestags der Hinrichtung von Mitgliedern der Widerstandsgruppe „Weiße Rose“ am 30. Januar 2013 in München

Kurt Tucholsky

________ hat mal gesagt, in Deutschland ist es die Person, die anwendet Derjenige, der auf den Dreck hinweist, ist viel gefährlicher als derjenige, der darauf hinweist.

Demokratie

________ ist manchmal auch eine anstrengende Form des Zusammenlebens.

Einstellung

________ können also eine wichtige Rolle spielen, der Wille, die Fähigkeit und der Mut, mir als Person klar zu werden, welche berechtigten Zwecke und Ziele es sind, Widerstand zu leisten.

Hass

Der Kampf gegen Vorurteile, Verachtung und ________ ist manchmal eine unangenehme, beschwerliche und mancherorts wahrscheinlich immer noch gefährliche tägliche Herausforderung.

This is what Sophie Scholl said to Roland Freisler's face on February 22, 1943

the dreaded president of the so-called "People's Court," and he sentenced her to death and executed the same day

They made the injustice public

with such modest resources

"Someone has to start after all"

These words contain all the despair and loneliness, but also all the hope and courage of the young woman and her colleagues

declarations of powerlessness disguised as questions

"What can an individual do

In fact, if they are meant honestly and are not simply disguised escapism, we also encounter a form of rationality in them that only want to dedicate their own actions and energies to an actually achievable goal

because who wants to make an effort for "nothing" or put themselves in danger for "nothing"

In this context, I once said in 1996

"Germans will seldom go as far as the Poles, who have a different tradition of freedom

The answers expressed admiration for the young people who had the courage to stand up for their own opinion

and even to risk their own lives for it

70 years after the end of the White Rose, it is also not surprising that historical findings and knowledge are crumbling

even though there have been a surprising number of films about this period and also about the White Rose in recent years

Among the student statements, I noticed one in particular

"It's great that there are people like this."

Um Not to ask yourself the question

"What did I actually do? "

It was Fritz Bauer who achieved in 1952 that for the first time a West German court the military resistance of July 20, 1944 rated as serving "the good of Germany"

and not For example as a "betrayal of the fatherland"

It is referred to in Article 20 (4) of our Basic Law

Namely against anyone who undertakes it, the To abolish the liberal democratic basic order, "everyone has Germans have the right to resist."

In the meantime, our position on the former Another one for resistance fighters

Today we admire them people, because they allow us to believe that not all Germans were silent and cowardly followers back then

Raul Hilberg once wrote

"There were two types of help

Of course

It is inconvenient to be reminded of what would have been possible, sometimes even with simple humanity, without great ideology, without a big program

Our admiration for the brave and selfless back then is always fed by a perhaps unnoticed but secret suspicion against ourselves

Would we have had the strength to have such courage and selflessness

I know what I'm talking about

I'm talking about myself

And I kept asking myself at this young age

How would you have acted back then

Would we believe ourselves if we said

I would have been willing to die so that someone else would survive

Sophie Scholl's boyfriend, Fritz Hartnagel, wrote in a Munich student newspaper as early as 1947

"The certainly honest effort to preserve their memory carries the risk of them standing on a monument pedestal far above our daily lives

In particular, we avoid a much more uncomfortable insight

We cannot expect each other to become heroes or even martyrs

but

"What can I do today

We could remember

Resistance isn't, resistance will

And above all, understand

I have a choice

I can silently complain about things that I think are wrong or need improvement

or I can address them where change is possible

I can stand aside

but I can also act consistently

Now we are once again looking at the members of the White Rose, and also at other resistance fighters

We notice that we can become strong and able to act if we carry our values not only as a ratio in our heads, but deep within ourselves, in our hearts

Hans Scholl with his cry "freedom," seconds before his death, Kurt Huber with his defense speech in court

"I am reclaiming freedom for our German people

After all, history is not something inevitable, but the result of countless individual actions

or even omitted actions

I would like to encourage them all

Don't be lukewarm

He declares his claims

and is annoyed if they do not fulfill them

But the core message remains true and current

that the very word disenchantment with politics is treacherous

It drives apart what belongs together

politicians and citizens, that is not two different things

Perhaps he should have added

", and very hard work."

But it is the order that comes closest to our image of man as the free and equal, and I would even say

the only order that really corresponds to this image of man

Hatred and prejudice undermine and destroy the most important foundation of this community

the respectful cooperation of the many different people

Even today, more than a year after it was discovered who was behind these brutal murders, there remains bewilderment

and many

Questions not only to the authorities, but also to the media, to the public, perhaps to ourselves

Why did it seem so plausible to many people to search for perpetrators in the context of organized crime

How can the lost trust be restored

including trust in the institutions that are supposed to protect our Constitution and our state

And finally, most importantly

How can we protect not only our constitution and values, but above all people

We do not tolerate ostracism or violence

by no one against no one, regardless of whether it comes from local minorities or immigrants

What I really hope is that we Germans, in conjunction with our European neighbors and friends, contribute our experiences

certainly the good ones, but also the terrible ones

I am pleased that Germany will be able to do this again in the next three years as a member of the UN Human Rights Council

and I am looking forward to my visit there in February

Federal and European

this is how the Kreisau Kreis, as did the White Rose and many, many other opponents of the Nazis, once dreamed of the future, for which they were so optimistic, even though they knew that Hitler's Nazi Germany could also brutally rob them of their own future with their lives

And we can promise to keep in our hearts and minds and to move on to what we learn

from those who escaped back then

One person for whom the death of friends and fellow students became a lifetime assignment is among us

It is Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, two days younger than Sophie Scholl

She is here as a member of the association "Against Forgetting

for Democracy" and as a supporter of the "Show Face" initiative, as a politician and as a citizen

When asked why she was "showing her face," she said

"Because I experienced as a young person that looking away and the 'I can't change anything' mentality towards persecution, anti-Semitism and dissenters became the fault of almost all Germans."

Passing on her insights

that is our task, especially as the number of witnesses of this time is becoming fewer

The following applies today and in the future

We will then be witnesses to the witnesses

But at the same time, it is an invitation to us today to use our strength to stand up for what they gave their lives for back then

for humanity and decency, for freedom and the rule of law

Her story shows us what is humanly possible

in the worst as well as in the best

And do we hear them say

"Someone has to start doing it after all! "