"Die Gedanken sind frei -- The Thoughts are Free"

by Miriam E. Waters

The first lilting notes of the song filled Sophie Scholl’s mind as she sat on the edge of the narrow bed.  She was waiting to hear her executioners’ footfalls when the song came to her.  How odd to think of music in this dank, wretched cell during these last moments of her life.  Ulm prison was not known for its comforts.

Words soon flowed through her and she began to sing in concert.  “Die Gedanken sind frei … Ich denke was ich will und was mich beglucket … kann niemand verwehren:  Die Gedanken sind frei! …”  “Thoughts are free … I think what I want, and what delights me … no one can deny me:  Thoughts are free!” The prisoners in the surrounding cells took up the chorus.  Even here, resistance to the Nazis could not be suppressed and they sang with their rebellious hearts.  Sophie took comfort in the song and in her neighbors’ tireless determination.

The path that she had followed to find herself in this place had been tortuous.  Sophie had serenaded her father with this song when he was held in Ulm for calling Adolf Hitler a “scourge of God.”  The fire of defiance burned brightly in both father and daughter.

Sophie joined The White Rose group upon her father’s execution.  This small band of rebels harried and campaigned against the Nazi’s political repression.  It was a dangerous time and yet the young woman fought with conviction.  Her father’s death strengthened her resolve. Her actions turned the focus of the Nazi’s attention to Sophie.  Soon, she too became an inmate at Ulm, sentenced to death for her campaign against Nazi suppression.

Distracted, Sophie had not heard her jailers as they turned the key and swung open the heavy iron door of her cell.  She looked at the guards who had come to lead her to her death.  Dour men, they displayed no emotion at this crucial moment of her life.

Sophie stood and was led by her executioners into the stone corridor.  The other prisoners once again took up the cry.  “Die Gedanken sind frei” reverberated in the close area as if the stones themselves were singing.

*******

Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten, sie fliegen vorbei wie nächtliche Schatten. Kein Mensch kann sie wissen, kein Jäger erschießen mit Pulver und Blei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Ich denke was ich will und was mich beglücket, doch alles in der Still', und wie es sich schicket. Mein Wunsch und Begehren kann niemand verwehren, es bleibet dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Und sperrt man mich ein im finsteren Kerker, das alles sind rein vergebliche Werke. Denn meine Gedanken zerreißen die Schranken und Mauern entzwei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Drum will ich auf immer den Sorgen entsagen und will mich auch nimmer mit Grillen mehr plagen. Man kann ja im Herzen stets lachen und scherzen und denken dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Ich liebe den Wein, mein Mädchen vor allen, sie tut mir allein am besten gefallen. Ich sitz nicht alleine bei meinem Glas Weine, mein Mädchen dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei!

Thoughts are free, who can guess them? They fly by like nocturnal shadows. No man can know them, no hunter can shoot them with powder and lead: Thoughts are free! I think what I want, and what delights me, still always reticent, and as it is suitable. My wish and desire, no one can deny me and so it will always be: Thoughts are free! And if I am thrown into the darkest dungeon, all these are futile works, because my thoughts tear all gates and walls apart: Thoughts are free! So I will renounce my sorrows forever, and never again will torture myself with whimsies. In one's heart, one can always laugh and joke and think at the same time: Thoughts are free! I love wine, and my girl even more, Only her I like best of all. I'm not alone with my glass of wine, my girl is with me: Thoughts are free!

Source::  "Die Gedanken sind frei" by unbekannt (Volkslied) - August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Ernst Heinrich Leopold Richter: Schlesische Volkslieder mit Melodien: Aus dem Munde des Volkes (1842), Seite 307. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Die_Gedanken_sind_frei.png#mediaviewer/File:Die_Gedanken_sind_frei.png  (Retrieved February 2, 2015.)

Notes: "One of the greatest persons of the 20th Century is largely unknown in this country.  We are speaking of Sophie Scholl, a German student who was executed by the Nazis in 1943 for her role as a member of The White Rose, a resistance group which bravely stood up to the inhumanity of the totalitarian regime through the writing and covert distribution of leaflets.   … In a poll of Germans conducted in 2003, she was named the fourth greatest woman in that nation's history and other polls have chosen her the greatest German woman of the 20th Century. Some 200 schools in Germany are named in honor of Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans, who also was executed on that fateful day. [Ron Kemp, in "Remembering One of History's Greats" in Clay County Times-Democrat (16 April 2009)”]

Source:  http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sophie_Scholl  (Retrieved April 12, 2015.)

Robert and Sophie Scholl, Ulm prison, The White Rose resistance group, and Die Gedanken sind frei lyrics …

Source:  Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Gedanken_sind_frei)  

(Retrieved April 12, 2015)