 | 8 am, Sophie Scholl skips Professor Gerlach's
physics class. |
| Hans and Sophie Scholl arise between 8:30 and 9 am and eat breakfast.
Unlike most mornings, Wilhelm Geyer does not join them today. Mail is
delivered around 9:30 am. |
| 10 am, Gisela Schertling, Traute
Lafrenz, and Willi Graf go to Prof. Huber's lecture. |
| Around 10:30 am, Wilhelm Geyer meets with a painter and potential customer
(the painting is the "Guardian Angel") in Stuttgart. |
| 10:30 am, Hans and Sophie Scholl leave
for the university, carrying between 1,500-1,800 leaflets in a suitcase and
briefcase. |
| About fifteen minutes before class ends, Traute and Willi leave Prof.
Huber's class to make it to Prof. Bumke's class in the Nervenklinik
across town. They run into Hans and Sophie. |
| While Alex Schmorell is standing watch outside, Hans and Sophie distribute
most of the leaflets by stacking them in front of classrooms. |
| Though students are beginning to leave class and the Lichthof is
hardly empty, Hans and
Sophie decide to go up to the third floor to throw leaflets down from the
balustrade. |
| In the streetcar on the way to Prof. Bumke's class, Traute and Willi
discuss their discomfort at what Sophie and Hans were doing at the university.
They fear the worst. |
| Shortly before 11 am, Jakob Schmid (janitor) sees the Scholls throwing the
leaflets over the balustrade and starts up the stairs after them. |
| Hans and Sophie see Schmid approaching. Sophie quickly hides the key to
Manfred Eickemeyer's studio in Room 238 (likely the women's restroom) in an
ottoman. Hans does not dispose of the incriminating evidence in his
pocket: Christoph Probst's leaflet draft, and cigarette coupons directly
traceable to the Geyer family. ~ Hans and Sophie make no attempt to escape out
the back way, but rather stand and wait for Schmid to reach them. |
| 11 am, Otl Aicher goes to the Scholls'
apartment as arranged to meet them for lunch. He finds it locked up, so
leaves. |
| Schmid takes Hans and Sophie to Haefner's office, and the Gestapo is
called. The university is immediately locked down. |
| Hans tries to destroy Christl's leaflet draft by tearing it up into little
pieces and throwing it on the floor. His act is noticed and the pieces are
collected as evidence. |
| Leo Samberger is in a upper level law course and hears the commotion. When
he comes out, he learns that (to him as yet unknown) students had done
something with leaflets. Police presence everywhere. He suspects these are the
same students who had mailed him deliciously seditious leaflets only two days
earlier. |
| Prof. Huber witnesses the turmoil. He makes eye contact with another
student (an in-law) and later tells her that he was afraid that Hans'
recklessness and drug use would result in something like this. |
| Traute and Willi can hardly concentrate on Bumke's lecture. She says that
he usually sleeps through this class, but today he is restless. |
| Gestapo agent Robert Mohr arrives at the university around 11:20 am.
Initial (undocumented) interrogations begin. |
| 11:30 am, the Gestapo begins its
search of the Scholls' apartment. Otl comes back and is immediately taken into
custody. He remains at the apartment while they search. |
| 12 noon, Alex Schmorell shows up at
Lilo Ramdohr's apartment, and tells her what happened. (She knew in advance
what Hans and Sophie were planning and had advised Alex against participating
in their scheme.) |
| Coincidentally, Prof. Richard Harder's extraordinarily accurate
psychological profile of the White Rose writers arrived at Gestapo
headquarters about this time. |
| Shortly after noon, Hans and Sophie are led away from the university. Hans
calls out to Gisela Schertling. The Gestapo mistakenly thinks he was
addressing a student named Metternich and arrests him on the spot. |
| The university rector (Wuest) appears to the students waiting inside the
locked-down university and tell them what has happened. His announcement of
the arrest of these "criminals" is met with applause. |
| 1 pm, Prof. Bumke's lecture is
mercifully over. Willi returns to the barracks and Traute goes to the Scholls'
apartment, but does not go inside. |
| 1 pm, the first batch of students are
released from inside the university. Among them is Gisela Schertling. She goes
to the Scholls' apartment and is immediately taken into custody, and to
Gestapo headquarters. (Otl is still in custody, but evidently inside the
Scholls' apartment.) |
| Around 1 pm, Jakob Schmid gives his statement to the Gestapo. |
| The first interrogations of Hans and Sophie Scholl, and Gisela Schertling,
begin shortly after 1 pm. |
| Tilly Hahn shows up at the Scholls' apartment with a new duplicating
machine. She is warned not to go inside by a female student (Traute?). |
| The Gestapo in Ulm goes to the Scholls' house. At this time they only
collect correspondence and do not perform a thorough search. They do not tell
the parents about their children's arrest. |
| 2 pm, Alex calls Josef Soehngen to
warn him about Hans' arrest. |
| Lilo works on getting Alex a fake passport so he can leave the country.
She calls on her neighbor Miele Roters to assist. |
| Mohr nearly releases Hans and Sophie. Reich Studentenfuehrer Scheel
tells him of his conversation with Sophie and warns Mohr against doing
anything against a fellow German student. |
| 3:15 pm, Alex calls Willi Graf and
asks to meet him. |
| 3:45 pm, Willi meets up with Alex.
Together, they try to call Hans Scholl. |
| 4 pm, university lockdown is finally
lifted. |
| Shortly after 4 pm, Willi Graf leaves for the Munich suburb of Pasing to
have dinner with his cousins, the Luible family. |
| Some of the evidence (such as a typewriter) is brought back to Gestapo
headquarters and processing begins. |
| Around 5 pm, the Gestapo completes its search of the Scholls' apartment.
They bring the remaining evidence along with Otl Aicher back to headquarters.
Otl still does not know what is going on. |
| When Otl is led into the Wittelsbacher Palace, he briefly sees Hans Scholl. |
| Mohr is told about the damning evidence found in the Scholls' apartment.
He is shocked, because he still believes them innocent. |
| Break in the interrogations for supper. Contrary to Else Gebel's post-war
narrative, Hans and Sophie were allowed to eat too. |
| Sophie meets Else Gebel for the first time. [Else was likely a Gestapo
"plant" and not the heroine she made herself out to be after the war.] |
| 6:30 pm, Metternich is released,
having sufficiently proven his Nazi credentials. |
| Gerhard Feuerle is arrested under suspicion of having created the
templates used in the graffiti campaign. |
| The Gestapo shows up at Wilhelm Geyer's house in Ulm to take him into
custody. He is still in Stuttgart. |
| Willi Graf eats supper with the Luibles and asks them about new contacts
who may be amenable to ideas of resistance. |
| 10 pm, the Gestapo searches Willi
Graf's room (he is not there). |
| The Gestapo pieces together Christl Probst's (unpublished) leaflet. |
| Wilhelm Geyer gets home late. Inge Scholl appears at the Geyers' door to
ask him to take a message to Hans and Sophie in Munich the next day (Hans
Hirzel's warning from February 17, the day before!). |
| Midnight, Willi Graf comes home. He
and his sister Anneliese are arrested. |
