Next time you are in Munich, be sure to visit the White Rose museum. It honors the White Rose resistance group and Sophie Scholl during the Nazi rule.

Next time you are in Munich, be sure to plan a visit to the White Rose Museum. Everywhere you turn in Munich you stumble across reminders of how embedded the Nazis and Hitler were in this beautiful Bavarian area. Thus, it was not surprising that the White Rose resistance group of students and professors came from the university in Munich.

We took a look at the rather inconspicuous “fliers” seemingly scattered across the paving stones in front of the building in our story, “Sophie Scholl Memorial: tribute to White Rose student resistance.” This is a subtle, very easily missed, but supremely poignant memorial to the brave students and their professor who headed an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign – until they were tracked down by the Nazis. The 75^th anniversary of the 1943 beheading of the Scholl siblings and their fellow anti-Nazi resistance members was in February 2018. This White Rose (Weisse Rose) movement was one of many key steps that helped publicize Nazi tyranny.

White Rose Museum exhibit awaits inside university doors

But there is more to see once inside the University of Munich building on Ludwigstrasse in the Schwabing area of Munich. Rather unimpressive from the outside, take a stroll into the building, but don’t stop there. Go to the right to find the entrance of the White Rose Museum exhibit in a small basement room of the university building. This new White Rose Museum exhibit was opened in February 2017. The link to it on the tourist information site is only in German, unfortunately, although the exhibit itself is multi-lingual and very well done – definitely worth your time if you have any interest in history, WWII, Nazi resistance, NS dictatorship or the like. There is however a PDF download of a brief history in English. Plus, you can plug into the exhibit even from afar by downloading an audio guide from the Weisse Rose Foundation website.

In a series of panels, audio recordings, videos and memorabilia, you can read and experience first-hand not only the history of those involved with the White Rose resistance based in Munich, but also university-based resistance fighters around the country. In addition, with a nod to the school groups and students who come to visit the museum on official field trips, there is a section on speaking up and resisting and what that means or why you would want to do it.

There is also a library and other reference materials. Since the exhibit is meant as an educational tool the “White Rose Foundation” offers a traveling version of the exhibit, which has made stops in several countries.

HITT TIP: The nearest underground (U-Bahn) stop for the White Rose Museum is Universität (University) on either the U3 or U6. Head for the exit labeled “Geschwister Scholl Platz” where the university building is set back from the street with a semi-circle area in front. The Sophie Scholl fliers are on the pavement in front and the White Rose memorial exhibit inside. You can walk into the building and around it for free, of course, as well as visit the museum inside. 

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