Hans Conrad Leipelt (18 July 1921 – 29 January 1945) was a member of the
White RoseThe White Rose was a non-violent/intellectual resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor...
resistanceThe German Resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Nazi Germany to the regime of Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
group in
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
.
Leipelt was born in
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
. His father was a graduate in
civil engineeringCivil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works such as bridges, roads, canals, dams and buildings...
, and his mother a
chemistA chemist is a scientist trained in the science of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density, acidity, size and shape. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component...
from a
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
family with
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish roots. In 1925, the family moved to
HamburgHamburg is the second-largest city in Germany and the sixth-largest city in the European Union...
, where Hans did his
AbiturAbitur is a designation used in Germany and Finland for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling...
in 1938, and then reported to the
ReichsarbeitsdienstThe Reichsarbeitsdienst was an institution established by Nazi Germany as an agency to reduce unemployment, similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps of the United States. During the Second World War it was an auxiliary formation which provided support for the Wehrmacht.The RAD was formed during...
and the
WehrmachtWehrmacht was the name of the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
. He was decorated with the
Iron CrossThe Iron Cross was a military decoration of the Kingdom of Prussia, and later of Germany, which was established by King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and first awarded on 10 March 1813 in Breslau...
second class and the
Tank Destruction BadgeThe Tank Destruction Badge in silver was instituted by Adolf Hitler on March 9, 1942 to honor individuals who single handedly destroyed an enemy tank with hand held explosives...
in June 1940 during the
French campaignIn World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations...
. He was dishonourably released from duty because he was a
MischlingMischling was the German term used during the Third Reich to denote persons deemed to have partial Jewish ancestry. The word has essentially the same origin as Mestee in English, mestizo in Spanish and métis in French. In German, the word has the general meaning of hybrid, mongrel, or half-breed...
first grade.
In the autumn of 1940, he began his
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
studies at the
University of HamburgThe University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 1 April 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium...
, but transferred in the 1941-1942 winter semester to the University of Munich, as student of
Heinrich Otto WielandHeinrich Otto Wieland was a German chemist. He won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into the bile acids. In 1901 Wieland received his doctorate at the University of Munich while studying under Johannes Thiele...
. This was only possible because Wieland had some freedom because he had received the
Nobel Prize in ChemistryThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature,...
in 1927. In February 1943, Leipelt received the White Rose's sixth leaflet and, together with
Marie-Luise JahnMarie-Luise Jahn is a German physician and was a member of the anti-Nazi resistance movement White Rose.Jahn was born in Sandlack, East Prussia , where she grew up. In 1934-37 she visited school in Berlin and started to study Chemistry at the University of Munich in 1940...
, began using a
typewriterA typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical device with a set of "keys" that, when pressed, cause characters to be printed on a medium, usually paper...
to make copies of it to distribute about Hamburg. When they were both collecting money for the executed Professor
Kurt HuberKurt Huber was a member of the White Rose group, which carried out resistance against Nazi Germany.-Early life:...
's widow, they were denounced and arrested. Leipelt was sentenced to death on 29 January 1945 in
DonauwörthDonauwörth is a city in the German State of Bavaria , in the region of Swabia . It is said to have been founded by two fisherman where the Danube and Wörnitz rivers meet...
by the
Volksgerichtshof. Jahn was given a 12-year labour prison (
Zuchthaus) sentence. Leipelt's beheading followed in
Stadelheim PrisonStadelheim Prison, in Munich's Giesing district, is one of the largest prisons in Germany.Founded in 1894 it was the site of many executions, particularly by fallbeil during the Nazi period.-Notable inmates:*Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley...
in Munich.
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