Alexander Schmorell (16.9.1917 Orenburg/Russia – 13.7.1943 Munich-Stadelheim)

Alexander Schmorell came from a Russo-German family. Half-orphan Alexander Schmorell lived with his father, the doctor Hugo Schmorell, and his father's second wife in Munich from 1921 onward. Their connection to their Russian roots was strong, and Russian was the language spoken in the home. Schmorell joined the SA in 1933 and the Hitler Youth in 1934. However, the regimentation of thought there repelled the young man, and he distanced himself from National Socialism in 1937.

In 1939, following his military service, he started studying medical science in Hamburg, where he met Traute Lafrenz, who later studied with him in Munich and took the third ‘White Rose‘ flyer to Hamburg in the fall of 1942. From the winter semester of 1939 onward, Schmorell continued his medical studies at the University of Munich. There, in the fall of 1940, he met Hans Scholl in the Second Student Company of the Army Medical Squadron. A strong friendship and intellectual and ideological bond developed between them through their collective reading and discussion of philosophical and theological texts, including at Schmorell's parents' house.

Schmorell wrote the first four ‘White Rose‘ flyers together with Hans Scholl. Together with Scholl and Willi Graf, Alexander Schmorell was sent to the Eastern Front for a ‘field traineeship‘ at the end of July 1942. What he experienced there made a deep impression on him. The war of annihilation in the East kindled in him a sense of solidarity with the local population, for instance. Upon their return from the Eastern Front, the friends from the White Rose circle resumed their resistance activities. The fifth flyer was created in collaboration with Munich-based philosophy professor Kurt Huber and distributed. Moreover, Schmorell, Scholl, and Graf daubed slogans such as ‘Freedom‘ and ‘Down with Hitler‘ on Munich house facades at night.

After the arrest of the Scholl siblings at the university on February 18, 1943, Schmorell was featured on a wanted poster. He was spotted, denounced, and arrested in a Munich air raid shelter only a few days later on February 24, 1943. Along with Willi Graf and Kurt Huber, Alexander Schmorell was sentenced to death by the People's Court on April 19, 1943 and guillotined in Munich-Stadelheim Prison on July 13, 1943.