Beheadings in the Third Reich

[fredric]

found the original photo before the background was blanked out... and a second one. Sources are the same as above. I bought all three in HiRes. When useful for someones collection - just PM me, can be sent.

Martin

Please all note the nice two falschwerten bie the fallbeil.
This is a terrific photo putting two executionary "technologies" side-by-side"
Thanks...

[history1]

[...]
Please all note the nice two falschwerten bie the fallbeil.
This is a terrific photo putting two executionary "technologies" side-by-side"
Thanks...

What are you talking about? That 2nd piece is clearly placed on the wall behind.

[Pete26]

[...]
Please all note the nice two falschwerten bie the fallbeil.
This is a terrific photo putting two executionary "technologies" side-by-side"
Thanks...

What are you talking about? That 2nd piece is clearly placed on the wall behind.

He is referring to two execution swords hanging on the wall next to the guillotine in second photo.

[history1]

Well then, I would hesitate to call "swords" a "falschwert", but that´s me.

[Deliverance]

Falschwerten means "wrong values". Schwert means "sword" and Fallschwert means "falling sword" which was another name the Germans used for their guillotines, similar to Fallbeil - "falling axe"

[Pete26]

I think the correct term in German for an execution sword is "Richtschwert".

[Pete26]

Canton prison executioner in pre-revolutionary China.

http://ghb67.files.wordpress.com/2012/0 ... ons-04.jpg

[Pete26]

http://michael-mannheimer.info/wp-conte ... hlands.jpg

[wm]

Hilde Benjamin - called the red guillotine, and decorated with the Star of People's Friendship.

[Pete26]

http://www.srf.ch/wissen/mensch/die-fra ... eves-liste

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... annel%3Dsb

All the victims were cremated on Hermann Stieve list after dissection. The ash of most remains impossible to find.

[Pete26]

http://6.static-hood.de/img1/big/2135/21355499.jpg

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herta_Lindner

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... annel%3Dsb

Herta Lindner was sentenced to death by Roland Freisler for her anti Nazi activities and guillotined in Plotzensee prison on 29 March 1943 at the age of 22. Her body was subsequently dissected by Dr Stevie's team of anatomists. Her father was executed two weeks later.

http://www.die-linke.de/partei/zusammen ... oetzensee/

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... annel%3Dsb

[Pete26]

A White Rose member who survived the War.

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-art ... itler.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilo_Ramdohr

http://www.pubtheo.com/page.asp?pid=1771

[Pete26]

The discussion whether to publicly exhibit the Stadelheim fallbeil continues. I am somewhat perplexed why exhibiting this particular fallbeil is more disturbing to some than exhibiting others either at executions sites or in museums. It is just because the Scholls are so well known in Germany? There were other resistance fighters who got executed for almost the same type of activity, for example Irena Bernaskova, Rosa Hofmann, Otto and Elise Hampel. Was their sacrifice less honorable than that of the White Rose members? They were beheaded in Berlin Plotzensee prison and the former Plotzensee fallbeil is now exhibited at Brandenburg-Gorden prison memorial. It looks like the people in charge have not even figured out that this is not the original Brandenburg fallbeil, which was of Tegel type. They were apparently too squeamish to display the Plotzensee fallbeil in its original execution room in Plotzensee, but it is OK to display it in Brandenburg-Gorden prison execution building? The Plotzensee fallbeil killed a lot more people than the Stadelheim fallbeil. If that one can be displayed without much emotion, so can the Stadelheim fallbeil. Besides, the original execution building at Stadelheim prison no longer exists, so it is not possible to display the fallbeil in its original setting. I have great respect for the Scholls and other White Rose members, but they are just a few of many thousands of people who were unjustly executed for their opposition to Hitler.
Vienna fallbeil, which killed over 1000 people, is displayed in a museum in Germany. Pankrac fallbeil, which also killed over 1000 people is exhibited in its original execution room in Pankrac prison. The Moabit prison fallbeil, as well as the Rastatt fallbeil, is also exhibited in a museum in Germany. The Breslau fallbeil is exhibited in a museum in Kiev. So there is a precedent for exhibiting these gruesome instruments of death to the general public.


http://www.bild.de/regional/muenchen/mu ... .bild.html

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... annel%3Dsb

[fredric]

I think the correct term in German for an execution sword is "Richtschwert".

Yes. My mistake. Slip of the mental tongue.
The execution sword of course is "Richtschwert."
The first name applied to the German guillotine was the "Fallschwert" (falling sword...the sword was being replaced by the mechanical "axe") and "Fallschwert" does appear as the title on early design drawings.
Of course it soon became the "falling axe"...the "fallbeil".

I have a question for the Forum. When the Mannhardt fallbeil was shipped, did the shipment include the bench, support bases?
Or did regional jails, prisons, have the bases ready for the metal parts to be attached? I asked this before...but it is a subject being research right now. I have read that the whole shipment weighed over 500 kg. Does that sound right...? Also that several cases were needed.

[Pete26]

I have not been able to find any pertinent information on whether there were Mannhardt fallbeil bases (bench with legs and front vertical frame support) already set up in various prisons and only the metal frame/sledge were shipped and then attached to the base, but it sounds quite reasonable given the fact that the vertical frame is attached to the front wood support block only with several bolts and can be quickly removed from it. Shipping only the sliding frame and sledge would enable use of a very flat and narrow crate which would not take up much space. Shipping the entire fallbeil would necessitate separating the vertical frame from the base and shipping the bench/base in separate crates

As for the quoted shipment weight of 500 kg, yes this sounds correct based on several sources I have read that the entire fallbeil weighs about 500 kg. Sounds awfully heavy, but then the sliding frame itself with the sledge/blade makes up 350 kg of total. 150 kg for the heavy oak or beech wood base with the huge front support wood block, plus bascule for older Mannhardts does not sound unreasonable. We are of course talking pre-1938 period here before additional Tegel type fallbeils were made and added to the collection. After that, fallbeils had a permanent home at each central execution site and were not shipped.