Hans Conrad Leipelt

Background

Leipelt was born in Vienna. His father was a graduate in civil engineering, and his mother a chemist from a Christian family with Jewish roots. In 1925, the family moved to Hamburg, where Hans did his Abitur in 1938, and then reported to the Reichsarbeitsdienst and the Wehrmacht. He was decorated with the Iron Cross second class and the Tank Destruction Badge in June 1940 during the French campaign. He was dishonourably released from duty because he was a Mischling first grade.

In the autumn of 1940, he began his chemistry studies at the University of Hamburg, but transferred in the 1941-1942 winter semester to the University of Munich, as student of Heinrich Otto Wieland. This was only possible because Wieland had some freedom because he had received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1927. In February 1943, Leipelt received the White Rose's sixth leaflet and, together with Marie-Luise Jahn, began using a typewriter to make copies of it to distribute about Hamburg. When they were both collecting money for the executed Professor Kurt Huber's widow, they were denounced and arrested. Leipelt was sentenced to death on 29 January 1945 in Donauwörth by the Volksgerichtshof. Jahn was given a 12-year labour prison (Zuchthaus) sentence. Leipelt's beheading followed in Stadelheim Prison in Munich.