Sophie Scholl and the St Matthew Passion

If you live in London and are free on Thursday – or somewhere near Coventry and are free on Saturday – you could catch the German Choir of London’s play-cum-concert celebrating what would have been Sophie Scholl’s 100th birthday.

And if you don’t know who Sophie Scholl was (I certainly didn’t) she was a student who, in 1942 with her brother Hans, formed a group called the White Rose printing  and distributing leaflets calling for passive resistence to Nazi-ism and the toppling of National Socialism. In February 1943, while distributing leaflets in the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich they were arrested by the university maintenance man, a self avowed Nazi. At their trial, in an attempt to protect the other members of the White Rose, Sophie assumed full responsibility for their actions. Sophie, her brother Hans and the author of one of the pamphlets, Christoph Probst, were found guilty and executed by guillotine on the 22nd February.

Although little known in the UK, Sophie is revered in Germany. Every town has a street or a square named after her and her story is a set part of the German history curriculum in every school.

For this celebratory concert the German Choir has commissioned a play to accompany J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. The concert will tell the story of Sophie, confined in Stadelheim Prison, Munich in the period before her death. An original libretto by playwright Ross McGregor, combines letters, newspaper articles, the White Rose leaflets and court protocols with the music of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

To book for the London concert in Southwark cathedral on Thursday 17th – go here.

To book for the Coventry concert in Coventry Cathedral on Saturday 19th – go here.