White Rose Memorial Lecture: Democracy needs people who act – every day

Standing ovations are rare in the long history of the White Rose Memorial Lecture. Yet this is precisely what Natalie Amiri received – standing ovations for her powerful appeal to act at a time when anti-democratic forces are gaining momentum worldwide, including in Germany.

Amiri identified civil courage and the readiness to act as vital correctives. As a model for such an ethos, the seasoned journalist and long-serving foreign correspondent pointed to Sophie Scholl: “She was prepared to act – even in full awareness of the consequences. She did not see her actions as heroism, but as an expression of her love of freedom,” Amiri explained.

Civil courage as an attitude

In 1943, Sophie and Hans Scholl paid the ultimate price for their courage in resisting Nazi terror. The siblings were arrested by a janitor in the atrium of LMU’s main building while distributing the seventh and final leaflet of the White Rose – a final act of conscience that sealed their death sentence. Later that same month, the siblings were murdered by the Nazis along with fellow activist Christoph Probst. Shortly thereafter, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Professor Kurt Huber met the same fate. In 1945, chemistry student Hans Leipelt was the last member of the resistance group to be executed.

They were students and a professor who demonstrated civil courage – fully aware of the danger.

Universities as spaces for thinking, doubting, and dissenting

In his welcoming address, LMU President Professor Matthias Tschöp drew attention to this darkest chapter in the university’s history and to the particular responsibility of universities not merely to safeguard democratic values, but to carry them forward.

“In light of current attacks on democracy, rising antisemitism, racism, and wars, universities bear a special responsibility – not because they are morally superior, but because they are places of thinking, doubting, and dissenting,” said Tschöp. Moreover, he added, they are places where one learns to distinguish between opinion and argument, between indifference and responsibility.

He emphasized that events such as the White Rose Memorial Lecture “are not exercises in ritual remembrance, but in thinking and acting.”

Natalie Amiri also underscored the central role of universities. Having reported for many years from Iran and continuing to report about the country, she is convinced that scholarship and higher education require freedom, a freedom that does not exist in Iran.

“Students there are segregated by gender, and they are dispersed by the morality police if they speak with one another for too long,” Amiri recounted. She described the practice of assigning students a ‘star’ if they are identified at a protest. “If they accumulate three stars, they are expelled for violating Islamic morality. And yet the most important goal for young people in Iran is to study – because education is the path to freedom.”

“Spectators of democracy”

Amiri drew a parallel to the White Rose. Although the Iranian state harasses students and responds to protests with unimaginable brutality – around 30,000 people were killed in the most recent demonstrations, with many more injured, arrested, or tortured – “they will demonstrate again,” she says, “because they need air to breathe, and the dictatorship deprives them of that air.”

The White Rose embodied the same spirit – an attitude that, in Amiri’s view, is increasingly rare in democratic countries such as Germany. Referring to Sophie Scholl, she insisted: “The claim that an individual can change nothing is not a truth, but an excuse, born of convenience, to do nothing.”

This, she observed, is a tendency she currently perceives in Germany. Quoting the comedian Hape Kerkeling, she remarked: “We are spectators of democracy.” Not actors – because we take democracy and freedom for granted.

“Many people,” noted the journalist, “have never experienced what it feels like to lose freedom.” Yet genuine humanity is only possible in freedom: “autonomy rather than control by outside forces.”

Particularly concerning, she argued, is the belief that life in an autocracy can be just as good as life in a democracy. Autocracies, too, engage in politics – but only democracies allow those in power to be questioned, challenged, and voted out.

A builder of bridges between cultures

Amiri sees herself as a bridge-builder. As a journalist with personal experience in Iran, she knows the constant fear of arrest, confiscation of documents, and travel bans.

“In Germany, expressing your opinion is not an act of courage – it is a right. Freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate are constitutionally guaranteed. Precisely for this reason, these rights must be exercised,” she urged.

In this context, she warned against the growing influence of the AfD and drew historical parallels: the NSDAP, too, was democratically elected. Today, no one can claim ignorance.

Invoking Hannah Arendt, Natalie Amiri concluded: “Many people knew what was happening back then, but too few acted.”

Democracy needs people who act. Every day.

About the speaker
Natalie Amiri is a German-Iranian journalist and television presenter who has reported for many years for ARD from crisis and conflict regions. She is widely known as a presenter of Weltspiegel and as a highly knowledgeable expert on the Middle East. Her reporting is characterized by closeness to people on the ground, lucid analysis, and a strong awareness of political and historical contexts.
In her 2025 book Der Nahost-Komplex, Amiri combines personal encounters, investigative journalism, and political analysis. She demonstrates why the conflicts of the region are so multilayered – and why simplistic answers fail to do justice to reality. The book invites readers to look more closely and to take differing perspectives seriously.

About the White Rose Memorial Lecture
The White Rose Memorial Lecture is held each February at LMU Munich in remembrance of the courage of the student resistance group White Rose, linking historical commemoration with contemporary questions of democracy and responsibility. For decades, distinguished figures from the worlds of politics, academia, and culture, including German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, have delivered lectures on the theme of civil courage and civic engagement. The series is organized by LMU in cooperation with the White Rose Foundation, which is dedicated to keeping alive the legacy of Sophie Scholl and her fellow resistance fighters.