Geschichte des Vereins

Hin­ter dem Stu­den­ten­wohn­heim Geschwis­ter Scholl e.V. steht der 1956 gegrün­de­te, gleich­na­mi­ge Ver­ein (Stu­den­ten­wohn­heim Geschwis­ter Scholl e.V.). Er ist Eigen­tü­mer des Wohn­heims und ver­wal­tet es seit des­sen Eröff­nung 1960.

History of the association

The dorm Geschwis­ter Scholl e.V. is owned and mana­ged by the asso­cia­ti­on with the same name (Stu­den­ten­wohn­heim Geschwis­ter Scholl e.V.), which was foun­ded in 1956. It owns the dor­mi­t­ory and has mana­ged it sin­ce it’s ope­ning in 1960.

The initial situation (1946 to 1956)

Aerial photograph in the area of Schwere Reiter Straße in 1945, the Schollheim property is marked in red. Source: StaMü FS-1945–7125

After the Second World War, half of the buil­dings in the city of Munich were des­troy­ed. As a result, about 300,000 peo­p­le were home­l­ess. When the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty (TUM) resu­med tea­ching in April 1946 and the Lud­wig Maxi­mi­li­an Uni­ver­si­ty (LMU) in June 1946, the con­s­truc­tion of stu­dent dor­mi­t­ories was not the city’s num­ber one prio­ri­ty; much more pro­ble­ma­tic was the crea­ti­on of housing in gene­ral to eli­mi­na­te the grea­test need. To achie­ve this goal, the allo­ca­ti­on gui­de­lines for social housing excluded the ren­ting of rooms to stu­dents. At the same time, howe­ver, the num­ber of stu­dents at both uni­ver­si­ties was gro­wing, and by 1949 the­re were alre­a­dy about 15,000 matri­cu­la­ted stu­dents in Munich. Rising stu­dent num­bers now fur­ther increased the housing shorta­ge in Munich. By the ear­ly 1950s, the situa­ti­on had beco­me even more acu­te. Sin­ce the pro­mo­ti­on of stu­dent housing was not a prio­ri­ty in housing poli­cy due to the gene­ral housing shorta­ge, an impro­ve­ment of the stu­dent-spe­ci­fic situa­ti­on was only pos­si­ble through pri­va­te initiative.

The foundation of the association (1956)

Then as now, child­ren of all finan­cial back­grounds should have the chan­ce to attend col­lege. A pre­re­qui­si­te for this is, of cour­se, the avai­la­bi­li­ty of afforda­ble housing.

In order to achie­ve this, the non-pro­fit asso­cia­ti­on „Stu­den­ten­wohn­heim Geschwis­ter Scholl e.V.” was foun­ded on June 13, 1956 in an adjoi­ning room of the Café Ode­on on Munich’s Ode­ons­platz. The sole aim of the association’s sta­tu­tes: the con­s­truc­tion and main­ten­an­ce of a stu­dent dormitory.

The idea of buil­ding a stu­dent dor­mi­t­ory had ori­gi­na­ted in the Arbeits­ge­mein­schaft Sozi­al­de­mo­kra­ti­scher Aka­de­mi­ker (Working Group of Social Demo­cra­tic Aca­de­mics). The sug­ges­ti­on to found an asso­cia­ti­on came from Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel, a mem­ber of the SPD and the Sozia­lis­ti­scher Deut­scher Stu­den­ten­bund (SDS). Vogel, who was 30 at the time, was a dis­trict court judge and an employee in the sta­te chan­cel­lery of Bava­ri­an Prime Minis­ter Dr. Wil­helm Hoe­g­ner, and later beca­me Munich’s mayor and fede­ral Minis­ter of Jus­ti­ce. Through the working group and pri­va­te acquain­tances, Vogel was able to win over three per­so­na­li­ties to sup­port the plan to build a stu­dent dormitory: 

  • the der­ma­to­lo­gist and rec­tor of the LMU, Dr. Alfred Mar­chio­ni­ni,
  • the Bava­ri­an Sta­te Minis­ter of Jus­ti­ce, Fritz Koch, and
  • the board mem­ber of the then Baye­ri­sche Hypo­the­ken- und Wech­sel­bank, Adolf Eugen Samstag

The invi­ta­ti­on to the com­mit­tee led by Alfred Mar­chio­ni­ni was accept­ed by 28 indi­vi­du­als, inclu­ding poli­ti­ci­ans, pro­fes­sors, entre­pre­neurs, trade unio­nists, ban­kers, publishers, wri­ters, jour­na­lists and seni­or civil ser­vants. Many of them were pro­mi­nent oppon­ents and per­se­cu­tees of Natio­nal Socia­lism, most of them becau­se of their Social Demo­cra­tic com­mit­ment, becau­se they hid Jews or hel­ped them escape. They repre­sent the „other” Ger­ma­ny around the time of World War II.

When the asso­cia­ti­on was foun­ded, the fol­lo­wing posi­ti­ons were elected:

  • Chair­man: Prof. Dr. Alfred Marchionini
  • Depu­ty Chair­man: Minis­ter of Sta­te Dr. Fritz Koch
  • Asse­sors: Adolf Eugen Sams­tag and Erwin Essl, mem­ber of the sta­te par­lia­ment and dis­trict lea­der of IG Metall Bava­ria, also chair­man of the Socia­list Workers’ Youth in Schwein­furt until 1933
  • Mana­ging direc­tor: Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel

The Bava­ri­an Minis­ter Pre­si­dent Dr. Wil­helm Hoe­g­ner beca­me patron of the association.

The assem­bly deci­ded to appoint ano­ther asses­sor by way of addi­tio­nal elec­tion in order to com­pen­sa­te for the domi­nan­ce of Social Demo­cra­tic mem­bers of the asso­cia­ti­on on the board. This was Dr. Rolf Roden­stock, Pre­si­dent of the Bava­ri­an Employ­ers’ Asso­cia­ti­on and mem­ber of the Fede­ra­ti­on of Ger­man Industries.

Photo gallery of the leading founding members

Other foun­ding mem­bers included:

It is striking that many of the asso­cia­ti­on and board mem­bers also had per­so­nal rela­ti­onships with each other:

Patron Wil­helm Hoe­g­ner and the father of the Scholl siblings, Robert Scholl, knew each other per­so­nal­ly; they were neigh­bors on the same street. A fri­end­ship deve­lo­ped out of the neigh­bor­hood, and the Hoe­g­ner and Scholl fami­lies fre­quent­ly visi­ted each other.

Fur­ther­mo­re, Alfred Mar­chio­ni­ni was a fri­end and sup­port­er of Hans-Jochen Vogel, who in turn knew Jus­ti­ce Minis­ter Koch very well from his work from 1952 as an asses­sor in the Minis­try of Jus­ti­ce and the Bava­ri­an Sta­te Chan­cel­lery. Vogel’s cir­cle of fri­ends also included the edi­tor-in-chief of the Bava­ri­an sta­te news­pa­per, Dr. Karl-Heinz Lange.

The naming (1956)

In addi­ti­on to alle­via­ting the housing shorta­ge for stu­dents, the­re was ano­ther moti­ve for buil­ding a stu­dent dor­mi­t­ory. The Bava­ri­an SPD chair­man and depu­ty fede­ral chair­man at the time, Wal­de­mar von Knoe­rin­gen, wan­ted to trans­form the SPD from a class par­ty into a people’s par­ty by, among other things, making it elec­ta­ble for aca­de­mics. The Arbeits­ge­mein­schaft Sozi­al­de­mo­kra­ti­scher Aka­de­mi­ker (Working Group of Social Demo­cra­tic Aca­de­mics) the­r­e­fo­re con­side­red that a stu­dent dor­mi­t­ory could be built to pro­mo­te the SPD and to inspi­re young peo­p­le, future aca­de­mics, to sup­port social democracy.

This idea was decisi­ve in cho­sing the dormitory’s name as „Geschwis­ter Scholl:” by hono­ring two cou­ra­ge­ous young peo­p­le who sacri­fi­ced their lives for free­dom and demo­cra­cy, the cur­rent gene­ra­ti­on of stu­dents should be moti­va­ted to com­mit them­sel­ves to the values of demo­cra­cy and basic law. The­r­e­fo­re, the working group sought cont­act with Robert Scholl, the father of the Scholl siblings, and recei­ved his appr­oval. This decis­i­on was cer­tain­ly also pro­mo­ted by the fri­end­ship that con­nec­ted the patron Hoe­g­ner with Robert Scholl.

Opening of house 1 and Monument unveiling (1956 to 1960)

The chair­man of the asso­cia­ti­on Alfred Mar­chio­ni­ni and other pro­mi­nent com­ra­des-in-arms suc­cee­ded, through the wealth of their con­nec­tions, in fund­rai­sing the neces­sa­ry equi­ty capi­tal to be able to app­ly for govern­ment aid and bank loans for the con­s­truc­tion of House 1 in just two years. After the archi­tect Wer­ner Wir­sing had been sel­ec­ted, con­s­truc­tion took a litt­le more than a year. On Janu­ary 7, 1960, the first stu­dents moved into House 1; 144 afforda­ble living spaces had been suc­cessful­ly created.

The ope­ning speech by Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel was atten­ded by pro­mi­nent guests: Mr. and Mrs. Hoe­g­ner, Robert Scholl, Prof. Dr. Theo­dor Maunz (Bava­ri­an Minis­ter of Cul­tu­re from 1957–1964), Prof. Dr. Max Kneissl (Rec­tor of the TUM), Prof. Dr. Egon Wiberg (Pro­rec­tor of the LMU), Tho­mas Wim­mer (Lord Mayor of Munich), the Wir­sing cou­ple, Mat­hil­de Mar­chio­ni­ni, Hans Deme­ter (Chair­man of the Munich SPD) and Man­fred Schmidt (Depu­ty Fede­ral Chair­man of the SDS).

An excerpt from Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel’s speech at the ope­ning of the Scholl­heim on Janu­ary 7, 1960:

„The­se days, the Fede­ral Repu­blic of Ger­ma­ny is trou­bled by a wave of anti-Semi­tic and neo-Nazi graf­fi­ti. This should be all the more reason for us to unequi­vo­cal­ly ack­now­ledge the vic­tims of Natio­nal Socia­lism and its atro­ci­ties. I belie­ve, Mr. Mayor Scholl, that espe­ci­al­ly in the­se times, it makes pro­found sen­se to name our dor­mi­t­ory after your child­ren who were mur­de­red by this despi­ca­ble system.”

(Trans­la­ted from German)

Hans Jochen Vogel 1960
Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel with his wife at the commemoration ceremony for the unveiling of the monument.

Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel’s speech has lost none of its rele­van­ce over time. The stu­dent dor­mi­t­ory was to be a place of remem­brance; the asso­cia­ti­on deci­ded to erect a memo­ri­al to the mur­de­red Scholl siblings and to hold a com­pe­ti­ti­on for its design. The sculp­tu­re by the artist Chris­ti­ne Stad­ler was award­ed a pri­ze and rea­li­zed. The memo­ri­al is one of the artist’s best-known works. It was finan­ced by a dona­ti­on of 1,500 DM from IG Metall Bayern.

At the unvei­ling of the monu­ment on Febru­ary 17, 1962, the his­to­ri­an and asso­cia­ti­on mem­ber Prof. Dr. Alex­an­der Schenk Graf von Stauf­fen­berg, brot­her of Claus von Stauf­fen­berg, said, among other things, as follows:

Am Denkmal (v.l.): Vereinsvorstand Prof. Dr. Marchionini und Prof. Dr. Alexander Graf von Stauffenberg
At the memorial (from left): Association Chairman Prof. Dr. Marchionini and Prof. Dr. Alexander Graf von Stauffenberg

„For it seems to me that the true secret of [the Scholl sibling’s] sacri­fice and their hea­vy and proud death, which occur­red 19 years ago today, was the mea­ning of their dif­fi­cult and self-cho­sen path impo­sed upon them in the prime of their youth, expres­sed in a sin­gle word, „ato­ne­ment”: that they have cle­an­sed the tain­ted earth and res­to­red the lost self-respect to the rest of us, who have, through cowar­di­ce, tole­rance and com­pla­cen­cy, beco­me accom­pli­ces in the cala­mi­ty, num­be­ring in the thou­sands and tens of thousands.”

(Trans­la­ted from German)

Many pro­mi­nent peo­p­le were pre­sent to cele­bra­te the unvei­ling of the monu­ment. The chair­man of the asso­cia­ti­on, Prof. Dr. Alfred Mar­chio­ni­ni, was able to wel­co­me, among others, Dr. Wil­helm Hoe­g­ner, Munich’s Lord Mayor Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel, Robert Scholl and Erwin Essl, repre­sen­ting IG Metall.

In addi­ti­on to Prof. Dr. Alfred Mar­chio­ni­ni, the mana­ging direc­tor of the asso­cia­ti­on, Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel, was ano­ther dri­ving force behind the foun­ding of the asso­cia­ti­on, the fund­rai­sing and the con­s­truc­tion of House 1. In 1960, he was elec­ted Lord Mayor of the sta­te capi­tal of Munich, at the time just 34 years old.

Picture gallery of the unveiling ceremony of the memorial of the Scholl siblings by Christine Stadler on February 17, 1962

Management under Robert Jenisch (1960 to 2016)

Photo gallery of the chairmen of the association

Sin­ce Dr. Vogel was unable to con­ti­nue the association’s busi­ness, the asso­cia­ti­on had to sel­ect someone new for this task. Robert Jenisch, a lawy­er by pro­fes­si­on, who had been a mem­ber of the asso­cia­ti­on from the very begin­ning as a young stu­dent of the SDS, was cho­sen. During the foun­ding peri­od, he had been signi­fi­cant­ly invol­ved in the pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for the con­s­truc­tion of House 1 and was alre­a­dy actively sup­port­ing the manage­ment for some time. In Decem­ber 1960, he was elec­ted by the gene­ral mee­ting as Vogel’s suc­ces­sor as mana­ging direc­tor. He imme­dia­te­ly began fund­rai­sing for House 2. Only four years after the ope­ning of the Geschwis­ter Scholl stu­dent dor­mi­t­ory with House 1, the exten­si­on buil­ding named House 2 on the neigh­bor­ing pro­per­ty with 98 addi­tio­nal rooms was occu­p­ied at the begin­ning of 1964.

The chair­man of the asso­cia­ti­on, Prof. Dr. Alfred Mar­chio­ni­ni, lived to see the com­ple­ti­on of House 2, but unfort­u­na­te­ly could not enjoy the suc­cess of the asso­cia­ti­on for long. He died on April 6, 1965, at the age of only 66.

The association’s gene­ral mee­ting elec­ted the bio­che­mist Feo­dor Lynen, then direc­tor of the Max Planck Insti­tu­te for Cell Che­mis­try in Mar­tins­ried, as his suc­ces­sor. It is admi­ra­ble that the Nobel Pri­ze win­ner for medi­ci­ne took on this task in addi­ti­on to his num­e­rous other hono­ra­ry posts and mem­ber­ships in sci­en­ti­fic com­mit­tees and socie­ties. He died on August 6, 1979, at the age of 68.

After him, the phy­si­cist Edgar Lüscher, pro­fes­sor for expe­ri­men­tal phy­sics at the TUM, took over the chair­man­ship of the asso­cia­ti­on. Alt­hough he was very busy with his rese­arch work in the field of solid sta­te phy­sics and with the estab­lish­ment of the phy­sics depart­ment in Gar­ching, he took the neces­sa­ry time to ful­fill the tasks of the asso­cia­ti­on. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, Pro­fes­sor Lüscher did not live to an old age eit­her; he died on Janu­ary 16, 1990, at the age of 64.

As suc­ces­sor of Pro­fes­sor Lüscher for the chair­man­ship of the asso­cia­ti­on, the asso­cia­ti­on suc­cee­ded in win­ning the well-known der­ma­to­lo­gist Pro­fes­sor Dr. med. Dr. phil. Sieg­fried Borel­li. He was a pro­fes­sor and direc­tor-eme­ri­tus of the Cli­nic and Poly­cli­nic for Der­ma­to­lo­gy and All­er­go­lo­gy of the TUM and medi­cal direc­tor of the Cli­nic for Der­ma­to­lo­gy and All­er­go­lo­gy Davos (Alex­an­der­haus Cli­nic). Pro­fes­sor Borel­li, a for­mer stu­dent and medi­cal col­la­bo­ra­tor of Pro­fes­sor Mar­chio­ni­ni, con­side­red it his duty to dedi­ca­te hims­elf to the work of his aca­de­mic teacher.

In addi­ti­on to his invol­vement in the foun­ding of the asso­cia­ti­on and the con­s­truc­tion of House 1 and House 2, Mana­ging Direc­tor Robert Jenisch play­ed a key role in the con­s­truc­tion of House 3. The appr­ovals of the con­s­truc­tion and finan­cial plan­ning of House 3 took place during his life­time. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, he was not able to wit­ness the com­ple­ti­on of House 3, as he died in Octo­ber 2016 at the age of 85, after 56 years of vol­un­t­a­ry manage­ment of the asso­cia­ti­on. House 3 was rea­dy for occu­p­an­cy in Octo­ber 2019. Like no other, he fought and lived with ener­gy and pas­si­on for his dormitory.

First occupancy of house 3 and future renovations (2016 – today)

Photo gallery of the managing directors of the association

After the death of Robert Jenisch, a new mana­ging direc­tor had to be elec­ted imme­dia­te­ly to take care of ongo­ing con­s­truc­tion of House 3. Alt­hough the death of Robert Jenisch came as a sur­pri­se, he had alre­a­dy pre­pared a suc­ces­sor for his tasks. The­r­e­fo­re, the association’s board was able to elect Tho­mas Knappstein as his suc­ces­sor in the manage­ment. Jenisch knew Knappstein from their joint work at the con­s­truc­tion trade asso­cia­ti­on; at his sug­ges­ti­on, he had been elec­ted to the board as an asses­sor in 2012. The­se were good pre­re­qui­si­tes for taking over not only the day-to-day busi­ness of the asso­cia­ti­on but also the super­vi­si­on of the con­s­truc­tion of House 3 and the pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for plan­ned reno­va­ti­on work on Hou­ses 1 and 2. With the com­ple­ti­on of the con­s­truc­tion work on House 3, Tho­mas Knappstein step­ped down as mana­ging direc­tor in March due to other com­mit­ments as an exe­cu­ti­ve at the employ­ers’ lia­bi­li­ty insu­rance association.

The board appoin­ted Fried­rich Graf­fe, the association’s vice chair­man, initi­al­ly on a pro­vi­sio­nal basis, as his suc­ces­sor. He is alre­a­dy mana­ging direc­tor of the Alfred and Karl Mar­chio­ni­ni Foundation.

The long-time chair­man of the asso­cia­ti­on, Prof. Dr. Dr. Sieg­fried Borel­li, step­ped down as chair­man of the board at the end of the gene­ral mee­ting in Janu­ary 2020 due to his age. Due to his merits for the home and the asso­cia­ti­on, the gene­ral mee­ting unani­mously deci­ded to offer Prof. Borel­li the hono­ra­ry chair­man­ship of the association.

His­to­ri­an and media sci­en­tist Prof. Dr. Peter von Rüden was elec­ted as the new chair­man of the board. He was Direc­tor of the Adolf Grim­me Insti­tu­te, Head of Depart­ment for Edu­ca­ti­on and Cul­tu­re at NDR Tele­vi­si­on, and Head of the Rese­arch Cen­ter for Broad­cas­ting Histo­ry at the Leib­nitz Insti­tu­te for Media Rese­arch and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hamburg’s Insti­tu­te for Modern Ger­man Lite­ra­tu­re and Media Cul­tu­re. From 1969 to 1972, he was a resi­dent and tutor at the Geschwis­ter Scholl stu­dent dor­mi­t­ory and has been an asses­sor on the association’s board sin­ce 2017.

60 years of Schollheim and opening ceremony of house 3: memories for the future (2020)

We, the asso­cia­ti­on and the resi­dents of the dor­mi­t­ory, are proud that the histo­ry of our asso­cia­ti­on, and thus also that of the dor­mi­t­ory, is being con­tin­ued. Our future was dis­cus­sed in detail at the anni­ver­sa­ry cele­bra­ti­on of 60 years of Scholl­heim and the offi­ci­al ope­ning of House 3. Our asso­cia­ti­on chair­man, Prof. Dr. Peter von Rüden, the first mana­ging direc­tor of our asso­cia­ti­on, Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel, and Munich’s mayor, Die­ter Rei­ter for­mu­la­ted their thoughts and wis­hes for the future.

Prof. Dr. von Rüden reca­pi­tu­la­ted the histo­ry of our asso­cia­ti­on and for­mu­la­ted the fol­lo­wing thought in rela­ti­on to the present:

„For me, [out first patron, Wil­helm Hoegner’s] recko­ning with the fail­ure of the demo­crats befo­re the end of the Wei­mar Repu­blic in the book Escape from Hit­ler: Memo­ries of the Sur­ren­der of the First Ger­man Repu­blic in 1933 is of gre­at rele­van­ce, as it descri­bes the inter­nal and gra­du­al dis­so­lu­ti­on of a demo­cra­cy. Poin­ted­ly for­mu­la­ted: Hoe­g­ner pro­vi­des evi­dence that tho­se who sleep in demo­cra­cy awa­ken in dictatorship.”

(Trans­la­ted from German)

petervonruedenredeeroeffnungsfeier
Prof. Dr. von Rüden during his speech on the occasion of the 60th anniversary

Dr. Hans-Jochen Vogel recal­led the Scholl siblings in his speech and appealed:

„Even more important [than inter­na­tio­nal exch­an­ge], howe­ver, was ano­ther cont­act of all the­se resi­dents, name­ly the one with the Scholl siblings, who­se names they encoun­te­red dai­ly. They were the­r­e­fo­re in con­stant cont­act with two peo­p­le who, despi­te it being a dif­fi­cult rea­liza­ti­on at the time, reco­gni­zed the cri­mi­nal natu­re of their govern­ment regime, then cal­led for resis­tance against it and final­ly sacri­fi­ced their lives for it. Peo­p­le who aspi­red to a social order based on values, which gran­ted peo­p­le free­dom and pur­sued peace. The­r­e­fo­re, remem­be­ring Hans and Sophie Scholl is also an appeal to decisi­ve­ly con­front the attacks on the­se values and our demo­cra­cy, which are cer­tain­ly not lack­ing at present.”

(Trans­la­ted from German)

dieterreiterredeeroeffnungsfeier
Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter during his 60th anniversary speech

In his cere­mo­ni­al speech, Lord Mayor Die­ter Rei­ter empha­si­zed the soli­da­ri­ty of all Munich’s lord mayors with the stu­dent resi­dence, which bears the name of the Scholl siblings. He men­tio­ned the con­tem­po­ra­ry rele­van­ce and neces­si­ty to fight racism, dis­cri­mi­na­ti­on and anti-Semi­tism. The­se bigo­ted ide­as are still mana­geable in Munich, but⁠—said Rei­ter: „We never want to see that again in our city.”

Die­ter Reiter’s speech spans the arc of sup­port for the Geschwis­ter Scholl e.V. stu­dent resi­dence from the first Munich mayor after World War II, Tho­mas Wim­mer, to hims­elf, the cur­rent one. This makes it clear that our stu­dent resi­dence is not just one of many in the city, but spe­cial to Munich and its govern­ment offi­ci­als. In order to remain so, and to con­ti­nue to live up to our foun­ding spi­rit and our name­sa­kes, it is important for us to con­ti­nue to be more than just a nor­mal stu­dent resi­dence: name­ly, a place whe­re poli­tics, con­tem­po­ra­ry histo­ry, lite­ra­tu­re and art are in the fore­front of our community’s inte­rests and ideals.