Udo Zimmermann's 'Weiße Rose' Opera Frees Scholls from Political Myth

The article reviews Udo Zimmermann's opera 'Weiße Rose', which premiered simultaneously in East and West Germany in 1986. The work reinterprets the story of Sophie and Hans Scholl, members of the White Rose resistance against the Nazis, liberating them from political instrumentalization by both East and West German narratives. The opera opens with Hans speaking softly into an abyss, followed by dissonant piano chords, percussion on a metal block, and bass trombone and piccolo flute imitating the sound of a guillotine. The famous fate motif from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is referenced. Sophie then prays alone, later joined by Hans in a fugato, singing a paraphrase of a Psalm of David: 'Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death.' The article emphasizes how the opera strips away the mythologized portrayals of the siblings.