Christoph Probst
Christoph Probst (November 6, 1919 - February 22, 1943) was a student of medicine at the University of Munich during Adolf Hitler's reign in Germany. During his studies, Christoph Probst became aquainted with Hans Scholl, founder of the White Rose (Weiße Rose) resistance group. Probst and Scholl shared a dislike for facsism, for Hilter, and for the unfair treatment that the Jews were receiving at the time. The "White Rose" consisted of Hans and his sister, Sophie Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graff, and Professor Kurt Huber. Probst soon became a member, but because of his young family, he was kept from doing anything that could raise suspicion. Probst, along and a member of the White Rose (Weiße Rose) resistance group.
Life
Christoph Probst was blessed by a family who believed in equality, education, and the right for freedom and liberty for all. Christoph's father, Hermann Probst, was Christoph's greatest influence. He shared his ideas about cultural and religious [[Freedom (philosophy)|freedom], and taught his son to treasure these ideas and hold to them throughout life. Hermann Probst earned his living through Sanskrit research. He was also regarded highly as a scholar. Throughout his interactions with other scholars and researchers, Hermann came in contact with several artist that the Nazis deemed "decadent." He was married twice. The first marriage ended soon after it began. His second marriage, to Christoph's mother, resulted in a family. Hermann was a political man, an honest man, and an open man. He shared his ideas with Christoph, and from a young age, Christoph knew the Nazi ideals of an aryan race were wrong, cruel, and violated human dignity. Christoph's sister, Angelika, remembers how forcefully Christoph opposed the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
As a young man, Christoph Probst attended liberal and philosophical boarding schools at Marquartstein and Schondorf. The method used in educating the young men did not foster the ideas of the Nazi Third Reich. At the age of 17, Probst completed his Abitur (the test given in Germany that denotes a graduation from secondary education, and ability to enter the university). He was required to offer time in the military service, and afterwards he began his medical studies with great earnestness. Christoph Probst was regarded by the members of the "White Rose" as being very mature for his age. In The White Rose by Inge Scholl, she states, "Christl admired and greatly respected his late father, a self-taught scholar. It may be that his father's early death accounted in large measure for Christl's exceptional maturity. He alone of the group of students was married; he had two sons, aged two and three. For this reason he was carefuly excluded from political acts whic might bring him into danger." [1]. Christoph's wife was Herta Dohrn.
White Rose
White Rose was the name of a resistance group in Munich in the time of the Third Reich. The group, founded in June 1942, consisted of students from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, and distributed leaflets against the Nazis' war policy. Christoph Probst belonged, along with the Scholl siblings, Willi Graf and Alexander Schmorell to the tightest circle, into which university professor Kurt Huber also came.
Christoph Probst came rather later into the White Rose as he did not belong to the same student corps as Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell and Willi Graf, and stayed for the most part in the background, as he had to think of his family. He did not write any of the White Rose's leaflets, only the design for the sixth one which Hans Scholl was carrying with him when he and his sister Sophie went to the university on February 18, 1943 to distribute leftover copies of the sixth leaflet.
When the Scholl siblings were arrested at the university, the Gestapo thereby had proof against Christoph Probst, who because of it was executed on February 22, 1943 along with Hans and Sophie Scholl, even though he had asked for clemency during interrogation and the trial for the sake of his wife and three children (Herta Probst was sick with childbed fever). helped to publish and distribute leaflets under the group name of the White Rose non-violent resistance movement in Nazi Germany. As a young college student, Scholl often questioned the role of a dictator such as Adolf Hitler and his brutal policies against the Jews. After being arrested for distributing the group's sixth leaflet, Hans Scholl, along with his sister Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst were convicted of treason. They were soon made a public example and all were executed by guillotine only a few hours later. The White Rose consisted of Hans, Sophie, Christoph, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Professor Kurt Huber. The main purpose of their leaflet production was to denounce the rise of the Nazi regime. They began by anonymously mailing the leaflets to doctors, scholars, pub owners and other names that they took from the phone book. Their actions took on a level of more danger, however, when they personally began leaving them on two different campuses, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, where they studied, and the University in Hamburg. They plead with the German citizens to actively resist the measures and tactics that were being used to govern their country.
The members of White Rose put together, printed and distributed, at the risk of their lives, six leaflets in all. On 18 February 1943, the Scholls were distributing the sixth leaflet at the university when they were discovered by the caretaker, who delivered them to the Gestapo.
Death
At the time of his execution he was allowed a visit by a Catholic Priest and was baptized into the Catholic Church. His decision to embrace the Church was, no doubt, stimulated by the ideas of another member of the White Rose, Willi Graf, who was a devoted and intellectual Catholic. Probst was executed by guillotine on February 22, 1943.
He is buried at Perlach Cemetery, Stadelheimer Strasse, Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
On 22 February 1943, Christoph Probst and the Scholls were tried and sentenced together at the Volksgerichtshof by judge Roland Freisler, who was known for often determining sentences even before the trial, and all three were sentenced to death by guillotine. Their sentences were carried out on the very same day at Stadelheim Prison in Munich.
Their grave may be found in the graveyard bordering the execution place, "Am Perlacher Forst."
Legacy
A trafficway in Innsbruck was named for Christoph Probst. Two signs in the square in front of the university indicate Christoph-Probst-Platz.[1]
Notes
- ↑ [Scholl, Inge, and Dorothee Sölle. 1983. The White Rose Munich, 1942-1943. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press]
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Melon, Ruth Bernadette. 2007. Journey to the White Rose in Germany. Indianapolis, IN: Dogdeer Publishing. ISBN 1598582496
- Hanser, Richard. 1979. A Noble Treason: the revolt of the Munich students against Hitler. New York: Putnam. ISBN 0399120416
- Scholl, Inge, and Dorothee Sölle. 1983. The White Rose Munich, 1942-1943. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 0585371008
External links
- Christoph Probst Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
- Hornberger, Jacob G. The White Rose: A Lesson in Dissent Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
- Christoph Probst Jlrweb.com. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
- Ginder, John. 2001. The White Rose: Student Resistance in Germany During WWII Wagingpeace.org. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
- Photos: The White Rose Fcit.usf.edu. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
- Keeler, Bob. 1993. Anti-Nazi Movement Still Inspires Germans recall rare courage of White Rose Jlrweb.com. Retrieved December 8, 2007.
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