(16 November 1919 - 22 February 1943)
Christoph Probst was born in Murnau on 16 November 1919, the second child of his parents, Hermann and Katharina Probst. When he and his sister Angelika were still quite young, their parents divorced, and both remarried, his father to a Jewish woman named Elise Rosenthal, and his mother to a man named Eugen Sasse. Angelika and Christoph were sent to liberal boarding schools in Bavaria, which was quite unusual, but probably helped the two of them stay away from any great enthuasiam for National Socialism.
Christoph Probst skipped fourth grade and benefitted from a program that the Nazis enacted to shorten the number of years children would be required to go to school to finish their "Gymnasium" studies. He had changed schools a couple of times, which also helped him stay out of the Hitler Youth to some degree, though a complete separation from this was not possible. For example, in order to receive his Gymnasium diploma, he had to pay membership dues to prove that he was a member.
It was during his time at the Neue Realgymnasium in Munich that he got to know Alexander Schmorell. As Christoph himself wrote, there came to be an "unbreakable friendship" between the two of them. They enjoyed climbing mountains and skiing, and later, when they both were soldiers, they both enjoyed fencing. When Christoph got married to Herta Dohrn on 19 August 1941, Alex was the best man, and when their son Vincent was baptised, Alex became Vincent's godfather.
Christoph Probst got married when he was twenty-one years old, and not long afterwards was the father of two sons. By this time, he had finished his part of his obligatory military service, and he had begun to study medicine at the University in Munich. It was through Alexander Schmorell that Christoph met Hans Scholl, who was a member of his student-military company, and so ended up having to spend their time on holiday from University together on the front. Later on, he was forced to switch to the University in Straßburg, and then, in 1942, to the University in Innsbruck. He still had to serve more military service, but unlike his friends, who had been sent to the front in Russia, being a father, he was allowed to serve it away from the front. Therefore, he was stationed at a Luftwaffe military hospital in Eibsee. However, whenever he got the chance, he would travel to see his family and his friends.
Because of his close friendships with Alexander Schmorell and Hans Scholl and because of his similar perspective on things, Christoph Probst was one of the first people to know about the leaflets of the White Rose. However, because he had a family he also needed to protect, every measure was taken to try to keep Christoph as disassociated with the activities of the White Rose as possible. Therefore, it is impossible to tell exactly how much influence he had on the group. However, Christoph had visited Munich a couple of weeks before the Scholls were caught, and he gave Hans a draft of a new leaflet. In it, he calls Hitler a military con-man, and he describes WWII as cause that they must lose so that Germany can live on. This draft was in Hans Scholl's pocket when he was arrested. Although Hans tried valiantly to destroy the paper, and claimed that some unknown student had passed it on to him, the paper was pieced together, and the handwriting was matched to that of Christoph's from letters that Christoph had sent Hans. Besides this, Christoph had left his uniform at the Scholls' apartment, further incriminating him to the inner circle of the group.
On 19 February 1943, one day after the arrest of Hans and Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst was arrested in Innsbruck, as he was trying to get a pass to see his newborn daughter, Katja, for the first time, and also his wife, who was sick, and his sons.
He was taken to Stadelheim Prison in Munich, where the Scholls were also imprisoned. He was forced to reconstruct his leaflet during questioning. He stood trial with the Scholls on 22 February 1943, and was found guilty, despite the fact that Hans and Sophie tried to defend him. He pleaded that he was really an unpolitical person, and that he had written the draft in the middle of a deep depression after hearing about the fall of Stalingrad. Judge Roland Freisler did not buy the argument, ridiculing it, saying that an unpolitical man was no man at all. He was sentenced to death, and executed the same day, along with Hans and Sophie Scholl. Before he died, he was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church.
Unlike the Scholls, whose family had been alerted that Hans and Sophie were in trouble, and had managed to get to Munich in time to see their children before they were executed, Christoph's family knew nothing of the White Rose or what had happened to Christoph that weekend until he was dead. He never got to see his baby daughter.
Two of Herta Probst's brothers had already been forced to flee from the Gestapo. In the winter of 1944/1945, when the Third Reich was starting to fall to pieces, the Nazi SS came to the house of Herta Probst, in order to eliminate a "star witness against the Reich". Luckily, Herta and the children had already fled the house, and managed to survive to see the downfall of Nazi Germany. However, Herta's father, Harald Dohrn, would not be so lucky, and was executed in Munich by the Nazis in the final few days of the war.
Home