The long red socks and shoes with pointed toes were only worn by "scharfichter-elves"!Pete26 wrote:A short video in which the author of the book "Svedek z Cely Smrti", Stanislav Motl talks about Brandenburg prison executions. He mentions the blood collection done by doctors standing in front of the condemned on the guillotine bench, waiting for the head to be chopped off, and then catching the spurting blood into a bottle. Also, some of these executions were apparently attended by Nazi dignitaries, who could buy tickets to witness them. There is something that caught my attention though - Motl also talks about "medieval costumes that the executioners wore to executions", i.e white shirt, red long socks, and shoes with pointed toes curved upwards. This sounds like nonsense to me. I wonder who came up with this. Whatever Nazis were, they were not court jesters, especially the executioners.
http://oci.nova.cz/clanek/novinky/prezi ... smrti.html#
Seriously, Reich Ministry of Justice guidelines specified formal attire (a "tuxedo" with a long coat, top hat, etc.). This formal attire is traceable to its introduction by scharfrichters Groppler and Krautz and set the style for many others such as Reindel, Hehr and Reichhart. There were variations though, including a buttoned, military style tunic which was suggested by the RMJ, tried for a while and then discarded in favor of the formal coat which could be easily removed (for axe beheadings). The formal tradition continued with the advent of the fallbeil. Executions were still to be carried out as a dignified ritual. Then around 1943 as the volume of the beheadings soared and the number of scharfrichters and assistants increased, dress standards relaxed. Executions became mass-production and the rubber coats and work boots seem likely. We find references of Rottger wearing a dirty, three-quarter length coat or a "greasy leather jerkin" and being reminded that he as the "Henker aus Berlin" he should dress more formally).
Traditional, old-school scharfrichters such as Johann Reichhart maintained the formal attire. Assistants were not necessarily required to wear the formal tuxedo and not the top hats. Often they wore dark suits. Films usually get the attire wrong. Motl's comments lead me to believe he may have been embellishing a bit.