Beheadings in the Third Reich

[Pete26]

Josef Micheler was guillotined in München-Stadelheim prison on 7 July 1944.



http://www.salzburg.com/wiki/images/thu ... cheler.jpg

[Pete26]

August Gruber was guillotined in Berlin-Plötzensee prison.



http://www.stolpersteine-salzburg.at/st ... ne_imgs/71

At 18.36 the sentenced was brought by two prison officers, his hands tied behind his back. The executioner Roettger from Berlin was ready with his three assistants. The offender, who was calm and collected, was positioned without resistance on the guillotine, whereupon the executioner beheaded him with the guillotine and then reported that the sentence was executed. The execution of the sentence from presentation until announcement of completion lasted 18 seconds. (»Resistance and persecution in Salzburg from 1934 to 1945«, Volume 1, p. 278) (in German)

[Pete26]

25 year old Johann Graber and 57 year old Otto Horst were both guillotined in München-Stadelheim prison on 18 February 1944.



http://www.stolpersteine-salzburg.at/st ... e_imgs/340

The execution process took 1 minute 5 seconds to 1 minute 7 seconds from leaving the cell, the handing over to the executioner and the fall of the blade 5 and 7 seconds respectively. There are no incidents or other events of significance to report.
Signed, Kummer.

So only 5 and 7 seconds, respectively, from being turned over to the executioner to the fall of the blade. High efficiency on part of executioner Johann Reichhart. Time over 15 seconds to accomplish the execution was considered slow and the executioner was admonished to pick up the pace.

[Pete26]

Dr. John Rittmeister was beheaded in Berlin-Plötzensee prison on 13 May 1943.

http://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/36954

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rittmeister

[Pete26]

21 year old student Friedrich Rehmer was beheaded in Berlin-Plötzensee prison on 13 May 1943.

http://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biog ... no_cache=1

[Pete26]

Walter Kuchenmeister was beheaded in Berlin-Plötzensee prison on 13 May 1943.

http://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biog ... no_cache=1

[Pete26]

Judith Auer was beheaded in Berlin-Plötzensee prison on 27 October 1944.

http://www.gdw-berlin.de/en/recess/biog ... no_cache=1

[Pete26]

Here are some dimensions of a Mannhart fallbeil (without the bascule) :

length of the bench: 130 centimeters (cm)

width of the bench: 44 cm

height of the bench: 78 cm

length of the blade release lever: 135 cm

inner width of the sledge: 36 cm

width of the blade: 29 cm

overall length of blade: 60 cm

angle of the blade edge: 34.6 degrees

length of the sledge legs: 83 cm

width of the lunette: 44 cm (same as the width of the bench, which is also the case with a Tegel fallbeil)

height of the lunette (both fixed and moveable boards when closed): 42.5 cm

height of the eliptical lunette opening when lunette is closed: 14 cm

outer vertical frame overall width: 48 cm

width of the front bottom wooden beam which is secured to the floor and which supports the vertical frame: 68 cm

height of the fallbeil (without the upper frame pulley): 224 cm

Source: Lebenslanglich Todesstrafe by Friedrich Kuppersbusch and Oliver Becker

[Pete26]

Ploetzensee prison photo of one of the cell blocks.



http://img.welt.de/img/zweiter-weltkrie ... m-1930.jpg

Plötzensee old water tower (alter Wasserturm)



http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/66509346.jpg

[Pete26]

Die erste Mainzer Guillotine
Die Guillotine, mit der Schinderhannes und 19 seiner Spießgesellen am 21. November 1803 in Mainz hingerichtet wurden [Anm. 25], wurde zur Zeit der Zugehörigkeit von Mainz zum Großherzogtum Hessen-Darmstadt im Innenhof zwischen dem Gefängnis in der Ottiliengasse und dem Neuen Dalberger Hof in der Klarastraße genutzt.
Im Herbst 1921 wurde die Guillotine von Mainz nach Butzbach transportiert und an die dortigen niedrigeren Räumlichkeiten der Haftanstalt angepasst. Am 5. November 1921 wurde die Mainzer Guillotine erstmals in Butzbach eingesetzt. Bis zum Ende ihrer Butzbacher Zeit wurden insgesamt 12 Todesurteile mit der Schinderhannes-Guillotine vollstreckt. Die letzte Hinrichtung wurde von Friedrich Hehr [Anm. 26] am 14. Oktober 1937 vollstreckt.
Danach wurde die Fallbeilmaschine [Anm. 27] abgebaut und in einer der zentralen Hinrichtungsstätten, der Frauenhaftanstalt in Frankfurt-Preungesheim, wieder errichtet. Dort kam sie immer öfter zum Einsatz. Bis heute ist nicht geklärt, wie viele Menschen in Frankfurt-Preungesheim hingerichtet wurden. Denn unmittelbar vor dem Zusammenbruch der Terrorherrschaft wurden viele Akten verbrannt. Es wird geschätzt, dass bis zum Kriegsende mehr als 300 Männer und Frauen in Frankfurt-Preungesheim durch das Fallbeil oder den Strang hingerichtet wurden.

Am 28. Oktober 1940 beschrieb ein Anatom der Frankfurter Universitätsklinik dem Generalstaatsanwalt, welche Erfahrungen er mit der Schinderhannes-Guillotine in Frankfurt-Preungesheim mache: „Das Fallbeil trennt weniger durch seine schneidende Schärfe als durch seine quetschende Schwere den Kopf vom Rumpf.“ Er kommt zu dem Schluss, „dass die Führung des Messerblockes an dem Preungesheimer Gerät unzuverlässig ist.“ [Anm. 28]

Die Guillotine konnte nicht mehr repariert werden. Man entschied sich für ein neues Fallbeil, das im Auftrag des Reichsjustizministeriums 1937 von der Physikalisch-Technischen Reichsanstalt entwickelt worden war. Die neuen Guillotinen verwendeten vorwiegend Eisen anstelle von Holz. Sie wurden serienmäßig in den Werkstätten der Haftanstalt Berlin-Tegel gefertigt und an die zentralen Hinrichtungsstätten ausgeliefert. Noch im selben Jahr (1940) wurde die erste Mainzer Guillotine ausgemustert [Anm. 29] und durch ein neues Gerät ersetzt.

Translated by google:

The first Mainzer Guillotine
The guillotine, were executed with the Schinderhannes and 19 of his cronies on 21 November 1803 in Mainz [Note. 25], was used to time the membership of Mainz for Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt in the courtyard between the prison in Ottilie alley and New Dalberger Hof in Klarastraße.
In autumn 1921, the guillotine of Mainz was transported to Butzbach and adapted to the local lower premises of the detention center. On November 5, 1921, the Mainz guillotine was first used in Butzbach. By the end of their Butzbacher time a total of 12 death sentences with the Schinderhannes guillotine were enforced. The last execution was by Friedrich Hehr [Note. 26] carried out on 14 October 1937th
After that Fallbeilmaschine [Note was. 27] degraded and rebuilt in one of the central places of execution, the women's prison in preungesheim. There they came increasingly used. It is still not clear how many people were executed in preungesheim. Because just before the collapse of the reign of terror many files were burned. It is estimated that were executed by the end of the war more than 300 men and women in preungesheim by guillotine or hanging.

On October 28, 1940, an anatomist at the Frankfurt University Hospital described the Attorney General, what experiences he was doing with the Schinderhannes guillotine in preungesheim: ". The guillotine separated less by its cutting sharpness than by its bruising Severe head from his body" He comes to the conclusion "that the leadership of the cutter assembly at the Preungesheimer device is unreliable." [Note. 28]

The guillotine could no longer be repaired. They opted for a new guillotine, which was developed on behalf of the Reich Ministry of Justice in 1937 by the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. The new guillotines used mainly iron instead of wood. They were manufactured as standard in the workshops of the prison Berlin-Tegel and delivered to the central execution sites. In the same year (1940) the first Mainzer guillotine was retired [Note. 29] and replaced by a new device.

https://regionalgeschichte.net/rheinhes ... z.html?L=1

[Pete26]

This is the description of Dortmund fallbeil execution site as described by an official from the Ministry of Justice:

Beschreibung der Hinrichtungsstätte in Dortmund durch einen Beamten des Justizministeriums Rheinland-Pfalz (Dienstreisebericht vom 6. Dezember 1948)

Nüchtern – als wenn es eine Dienstreise gewesen wäre wie jede andere – formulierte am 6. Dezember 1948 ein Beamter des Justizministeriums Rheinland-Pfalz seinen Bericht, der die Grundlage für die Errichtung der zweiten Mainzer Guillotine werden sollte:

„Am 3. Dezember 1948 habe ich die Hinrichtungsstätte bei der Untersuchungshaftanstalt Dortmund besichtigt. Dieselbe ist in einem besonderen Anbau im Hofe untergebracht und wie aus der anliegenden Zeichnung ersichtlich eingerichtet. Die gesamte Anlage hat keine Fenster, sondern ist durch zahlreiche elektrische Lampen von 100 Wattstärke taghell erleuchtet. Die Richtstätte ist durch einen dunklen Vorhang in 2 Räume unterteilt, den Vorführraum und den Hinrichtungsraum. Der Vorhang reicht von der Decke bis zum Boden und kann von der Mitte aus in zwei Hälften nach beiden Seiten zurückgezogen werden. Hinter der Richtstätte befindet sich, durch eine Türe verbunden, der Obduktionsraum, der mit zwei großen ausgekachelten Wasserbecken sowie fließendem kalten und warmen Wasser ausgestattet ist. Im Hinrichtungsraum befindet sich ein Wasserbecken, ebenfalls mit kaltem und warmem Wasser sowie ein Wasserhahn mit Gummischlauch. Abflüsse zum Kanal befinden sich im Boden des Obduktionsraumes einer und im Hinrichtungsraum zwei. Das Richtgerät besteht aus zwei Teilen, dem Hinrichtungstisch aus schweren Buchenkanthölzern, 130 cm lang, 44 cm breit und 78 cm hoch sowie der Fallbeileinrichtung in Eisenkonstruktion 224 cm hoch. Das Messer besteht aus einer 16 mm dicken Stahlplatte in der Größe von 36 x 45 cm, (etwa 35 Pfund schwer) und hat folgende Form: Mit 4 Bolzen wird das Messer an den als Fallvorrichtung vorgesehenen eisernen Rahmen befestigt. Der ganze Rahmen wird innerhalb zweier Führungsschienen mit einem Hanfseil über ein Laufrad hochgedreht und durch einen schweren Eisenhaken festgehalten. Der Haken ist mit einem 135 cm langen Hebel verbunden und kann durch eine kleine Bewegung leicht und sicher ausgelöst werden. Beim Fall stoßen die beiden Füße des Rahmens in einer Büchse am Boden auf einem Gummipolster auf. Bei der Hinrichtung wird in die Fallvorrichtung vor dem Fallbeil ein Brett eingeschoben mit einem halbrunden Ausschnitt, in dem der Hals des Delinquenten aufliegt. Alsdann wird ein weiteres Brett ebenfalls mit einem halbrunden Ausschnitt aufgesetzt und dadurch bewirkt, dass der Hals nunmehr in einem 14 cm breiten kreisrunden Holzausschnitt ruht, der ein Ausweichen des Kopfes verhindert. Das Messer fällt scharf an der Außenseite des Halsbrettes vorbei. Vor dem Fallbeil befindet sich eine Zinkwanne mit einem Abfluss, in der das Blut aufgefangen wird und in der auf einen Gurt der Kopf des Delinquenten mit der Stirne aufliegt. Der Boden unterhalb der Fallvorrichtung ist durch einen Zementblock verstärkt. Das Messer wird in einem Holzkoffer besonders verwahrt. Am Gerät ist im Obduktionsraum ein Brett in der Größe von 2 m x55 cm vorhanden, welches mit Zinkblech ausgeschlagen ist und zur Lagerung der Leiche bei der Obduktion dient. Das Brett ruht auf zwei Holzböcken, die 80 cm hoch und 60 cm breit sind. Im Vorführraum befindet sich nur ein langer Richtertisch mit einer überhängenden Tischdecke und einem hölzernen schwarzen Kruzifix.“

Translated by google (and modified slightly to correct wrong translation)

Description of the execution site in Dortmund by an official of the Justice Ministry Rheinland-Pfalz (mission report of 6 December 1948)

Fasting - as if it had been a mission like any other - formulated on 6 December 1948 Justice Department official Rheinland-Pfalz his report, which should be the basis for the establishment of the second Mainzer Guillotine:

"On December 3, 1948, I have visited the place of execution in the Detention Center Dortmund. The same is housed in a special attachment in court and how it is set up can be seen from the accompanying drawings. The whole area has no windows but is bright as day by numerous electric lamps of 100 watts strength. The place of execution is divided by a dark curtain in 2 rooms, the presentation room and the death chamber. The curtain extends from the ceiling to the floor and can be withdrawn from the middle into two halves on both sides. Behind the place of execution is connected through a door, the autopsy room, which is equipped with two large tiled pools and hot and cold running water. In the execution chamber is a basin, also with hot and cold water and a water tap with rubber hose. Drains to channel located in the bottom of the autopsy room and a in the execution chamber two. The execution device consists of two parts, the execution table of heavy squared timber, 130 cm long, 44 cm wide and 78 cm high and the guillotine frame of steel construction 224 cm high. The blade consists of a 16 mm thick steel plate in the size of 36 x 45 cm, (about 35 pounds) and has the following form: With 4 bolts the blade is attached to the sledge provided in the device steel frame. The whole sledge is moved inside two guide rails with a hemp rope on a winch and held in place by a heavy iron hook. The hook is connected to a 135 cm long lever and can be triggered easily and safely by a small movement. The two feet of the sledge fall into a box at the bottom onto a rubber pad. In an execution, the board is inserted with a semicircular cutout in the rests of the neck of the offenders in the case device before the guillotine. Then another board is also fitted with a semi-circular cutout and thereby causes the neck now rests in a 14 cm wide circular timber neck, which prevents escape of the head. The knife falls sharply past the outside of the neck board. Before the guillotine is a zinc tub with a drain, in which the blood is collected and in which rests on a belt, the head of the delinquent with his forehead. The ground below the trap device is reinforced witha block of cement. The knife is especially kept in a wooden box. On the unit is in the autopsy room, a board in the size of 2 m x55 cm available, which is lined with zinc sheet and serves to support the body during the autopsy. The board is based on two sawhorses, which are 80 cm high and 60 cm wide. In the presentation room, there is only a long judges' table is with an overhanging tablecloth and a wooden black crucifix. "

Note: The dimensions given for the fallbeil blade are wrong and do not correspond to the dimensions shown in the fallbeil blade sketch posted earlier. The blade is only 29 cm wide and 60 cm long overall. The short vertical side of the blade is 40 cm long. The blade thickness on the drawing is 18 mm, not 16 mm.

https://regionalgeschichte.net/rheinhes ... z.html?L=1

The rest of the article is worth reading. Translated by google:

The last guillotine in Mainz
by Wolfgang Stumme

If one asks in Mainz after the last guillotine, then the most popular answer: It was 1803 when the execution of schinderhannes, gen Schinderhannes and his cronies used on the grounds of the former Favorite..

Recall that the death penalty was also included after the execution orgy in the era of National Socialism in the constitutions of the newly created states, can barely remember anyone.

The last guillotine in Mainz was placed under great personal commitment of the Minister of Justice of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1948 in order. On 11 May 1949, she was ready.

You could see this Guillotine for many years as a permanent loan of Rhineland-Palatinate in, House of History 'in Bonn. Currently it is in the local magazine.

1. The story of the death penalty until 1945 - an overview
1.1 The death penalty in retrospect

The offender threatened after the Roman, Germanic and Frankish law drastic penalties. For serious offenses, the neutralization of the offender and deterring the focus was. So a repetition of acts should be excluded and others being prevented from committing such acts. [Note. 1]
Criminals threatened to early modern times embarrassing [Note. 2], d. H. Physically tormenting body- and life sentences that were more sophisticated over time.
For offenses such as fights or insults the lower courts were seen on fines, dishonesty or banishment. For offenses could be punished with mutilation or death, the responsibility lay with the court rights [Note. 3], which was carried out by municipal or sovereign authorities.

Given the territorial fragmentation of Germany and the concomitant development of various criminal cases decided by the Diet of Freiburg in 1498, substantive criminal law and in particular the law of criminal procedure should be codified. [Note. 4]
Under Charles V (1519 - 1556) was the, Constitutio Criminalis Carolina '[n. 5] adopted at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 and ratified in the Diet of Regensburg 1532nd The Carolina 'peeled off only gradually territorial regulations. The Carolina 'regulated in its material part primarily in the method, embarrassing things'. The body- and life sentences were based mainly on (late) medieval system of sanctions. [Note. 6]

When corporal punishment - such as flogging, branding, cutting off parts of the body or the cutting of ears and tongues - as well as on the death penalty, there were various gradations according offenses, but also according to the sex of the offender. So z. B. was the quartering applied only in men the classic punishment of treason. Mostly in men was the wheels to poisoning. Women who were convicted of treason, on the other hand were drowned - just in poisoning, abortion or larceny; at infanticide could be impaled alternatively and then buried alive women. Both women and men were burned magic Counterfeit Coins, homosexuality and sodomy (with the beast) alive. In grand larceny waited because of the secrecy of the act that was considered particularly shameful gallows. Rape was against threatened only 'with the simple death penalty - usually death by the sword.
With a murder of a member of the royal family a whole enforcement order was possible. On flogging followed the wheels (breaking of the bones), then the disembowelment and quartering and burning. Even the funeral was denied by the ashes were scattered in all four directions.
The wheels, drowning and death by hanging were used less and less since the 17th century. [Note. 7] came top of that the delinquents were often previously killed secretly in the most cruel forms of punishment. The execution spectacle was only carried out as a deterrent. [Note. 8th]

In the areas west of the Rhine which, Carolina was' replaced by the French Penal Code of 1791, after it had become part of the 1797/1798 French State Association. Following the Enlightenment demands all corporal punishment were abolished and enforced the death penalty since only (Egalite!) with the guillotine. In some countries (Bremen, Oldenburg, Saxony) has abolished the death penalty after the March Revolution of 1848-49; on public executions has been largely dispensed with.
The Penal Code for the German Reich, which entered into force on 1 January 1872 the death penalty was intended as a punishment for murder and attempted murder. Until 1877 spectators were allowed in beheadings.
In the debate on the Weimar Constitution in 1919 reached SPD, USPD and individual deputies from other parties not obtain the necessary majority for they demand the death penalty.
From 1924 the number of death sentences dropped sharply. This year, 112 death sentences were passed in 1925, there were 95, in 1926 89 death sentences in 1927 the number dropped to 64 and 1928 to 40. During the last 20 years of the Empire still 60% of all death sentences were carried out, there were 1927 less than 10 %. [Note. 9]
1928/1929, in the wake of a serious miscarriage of justice [Note. 10] to a suspension of executions. A targeted penal reform in the abolitionist initially had good chances, did not come into existence at the end of the Weimar Republic.
The controversial and lively debate was abruptly ended with the seizure of power by the National Socialists. The Law on the imposition and sentence of death ', which issued the Nazis on 29 March 1933 even saw retroactively for the death penalty, namely until the day of the takeover. Until the end of the war has been through numerous regulations the death penalty - introduced for 46 more offenses than usually fine - about the murder offense beyond. [Note. 11]
After the war the occupying powers eliminated the pasted by the Nazis in the legal system elements, "so that the death penalty was abolished for all crimes for which it was not already provided before January 30, 1933rd This meant that the death penalty was still part of the penal system and murder (§ 211 Penal Code) could be applied. "[Note. 12] The state constitutions have the death penalty addressed mainly in the power of pardon. In the constitutions of Hesse (1 December 1946) and Rhineland-Palatinate (18 May 1947) was the death penalty explicitly regulated.
The Basic Law, which announced on 23 May 1949 and a day later entered into force, provides in Art. 102 GG abolitionist before. In the former GDR, the death penalty has been abolished 1987th [Note. 13]

1.2 The guillotine in France


The namesake of the guillotine. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin [Image: Wikipedia]
(1738 - 1814) To stop the time cruel and inhuman forms of execution, the French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin had requested the introduction of a guillotine on 10 October 1789th The executioner of Paris, Charles-Henri Sanson (1739 - 1806), who described the disadvantages of beheading with the sword vividly, supported this proposal. The royal court physician Antoine Louis (1723 - 1792) was asked by the National Assembly, to issue an opinion. In his report to Antoine Louis oriented to the 13th to 17th century. In Halifax, Central England, guillotine used (Halifax Gibbet). He advocated the use of a guillotine, because this had never fail and easy to manufacture.
Three days after submission of this report, on 20 March 1792 the French National Assembly has decided that in future only to perform all executions with the guillotine. Until then, the beheading was reserved for the nobility. Given the equality claim of the French Revolution thus the sentence of death has been unified.
Paris-based German piano maker Tobias Schmidt was entrusted with the construction of the first guillotine. From the initial crescent blade Schmidt developed by corresponding experiments with animals and corpses characteristic beveled knife with which a cutting operation was possible. Already from the beginning there was a board to which the delinquent was standing on his stomach strapped and could be tilted by a device in a horizontal position. The head landed as between the posts of the guillotine on the neck support, which was then locked from above with a counterpart.
a mugger was executed in public with the new guillotine Already on 25 April 1792nd Just a few months later, Louis XVI. (25.08.1754 - 01.21.1793) and Marie Antoinette (11.02.1755 - 16.10.1793) executed in this manner.

The guillotine was first called by the physician Antoine Louis Louison or Louisette. Also popular names such as le rasoir national (Razor Nation) or la raccourcisseuse (the Short-maker) were in circulation. However, by law has the name Guillotine. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who had recommended the use of a guillotine only for humanitarian reasons, and neither the guillotine invented, nor was present at an execution, suffered from the use of its name. His descendants have her surname Guillotin replaced by a different name.
During the reign of terror of the French Revolution (la Grande Terreur) the guillotine was irreplaceable. "14,000 were sentenced to death in Paris between March 1793 and August 1794th They could not help but mechanically enforced. Mass executions such as Robespierre and over one hundred of his followers, which were carried out in just two days, reported ... on the mechanized mass murder of the Nazi regime and a half centuries later ahead. "[Note. 14]

As details of the guillotine has been changed and remained in France until the abolition of the death penalty in 1981 in use. [Note. 15]

1.3 executions in the 19th and 20th centuries in Germany

Since 1801 (Treaty of Lunéville) de jure French criminal law has been applied in the left-bank parts of Germany. This meant that all corporal punishment abolished and the scope of the death penalty has been significantly limited. Introduced for the sentence of death in 1792 guillotine was now binding on the former German territories west of the Rhine.
For the German Reich, which entered into force on January 1, 1872 Penal Code introduced a standardization of the threatened with death penalties and the method of execution for the first time. § 13 Penal Code foresaw beheading. While mainly the ax (as in Prussia) came in the northern countries of the German Empire used was used in southern countries such as in Saxony and Bavaria predominantly the guillotine or the guillotine. [Note. 16] In Hesse, the Mainz since 1816 belonged to the death penalty was executed by guillotine.
Executions until 1935. i. D. R. performed in prisons, which were the closest in aburteilenden. The executions were indoors, but mainly in non-accessible courtyards instead. Since not every execution site had a guillotine, a guillotine was transported to the respective place of execution when needed. Because of its size and its weight [Note. 17] had the equipment dismantled and - are transported - packed in boxes. The dismantling, transport and assembly were time-consuming and costly, so many workers had to be made. So could not be kept secret transport. [Note. 18]
From 1936 11 central execution sites were initially created and arranged that the death penalty is to be enforced only in indoor indoors with the guillotine. [Note. 19] It was found that some devices for interiors were too high or did not operate reliably. Therefore, new, smaller guillotines were made.
With the war in 1939, the number of executions increased. This was due to a stricter penal legislation and the increasing radicalization of the courts, on the other hand it was due to the territorial expansion and the use of foreign forced laborers in the Reich also to an increase in population. Until the end of the war the central execution sites were extended to 22nd A total of ten executioners were responsible for the killings in their associated execution sites. [Note. 20] As of 1937, a commissioned by the Reich Ministry of Justice technically improved by the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt Guillotine manufactured as standard in the working premises of the prison Berlin-Tegel. From the end of 1942, death sentences were carried out by hanging. [Note. 21] The necessary devices were installed in the same room where stood the guillotine.
Between 1933 and 1945 16,560 death sentences have been passed, of which about 12,000 have been enforced. [Note. 22] In addition, have been pronounced by courts martial 20,000 death sentences.

In the Western zones and in Berlin about 130 death sentences were pronounced 1946-1949. were full Stretches less than 20%. In the Western zones 15 and in Berlin 9 people were executed. [Note. 23] about 30 death sentences were carried out in the Soviet occupation zone during the same period. "In contrast, the number of executions, which were based on legal Sayings of courts of the occupying powers, in the hundreds." [Note. 24]

2. The first Mainzer Guillotine

The guillotine, were executed with the Schinderhannes and 19 of his cronies on 21 November 1803 in Mainz [Note. 25], was used to time the membership of Mainz for Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt in the courtyard between the prison in Ottilie alley and New Dalberger Hof in Klarastraße.
In autumn 1921, the guillotine of Mainz was transported to Butzbach and adapted to the local lower premises of the detention center. On November 5, 1921, the Mainz guillotine was first used in Butzbach. By the end of their Butzbacher time a total of 12 death sentences with the Schinderhannes guillotine were enforced. The last execution was by Friedrich Hehr [Note. 26] carried out on 14 October 1937th
After that Fallbeilmaschine [Note was. 27] degraded and rebuilt in one of the central places of execution, the women's prison in preungesheim. There they came increasingly used. It is still not clear how many people were executed in preungesheim. Because just before the collapse of the reign of terror many files were burned. It is estimated that were executed by the end of the war more than 300 men and women in preungesheim by guillotine or hanging.

On October 28, 1940, an anatomist at the Frankfurt University Hospital described the Attorney General, what experiences he was doing with the Schinderhannes guillotine in preungesheim: ". The guillotine separated less by its cutting sharpness than by its bruising Severe head from his body" He comes to the conclusion "that the leadership of the cutter assembly at the Preungesheimer device is unreliable." [Note. 28]

The guillotine could no longer be repaired. They opted for a new guillotine, which was developed on behalf of the Reich Ministry of Justice in 1937 by the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. The new guillotines used mainly iron instead of wood. They were manufactured as standard in the workshops of the prison Berlin-Tegel and delivered to the central execution sites. In the same year (1940) the first Mainzer guillotine was retired [Note. 29] and replaced by a new device.

3. The death penalty in 1945 in Germany
3.1 Revision of Nazi injustice in 1945

The four states whose armies 1945 Germany occupied, were convinced to-trailers of the death penalty. Nevertheless, they saw immediately after the fall of Nazi wrong state regarding the legal basis for urgent action to curb the proliferations of the death penalty during the Nazi era.

. Law No 1, the Allies presented therefore clear: "No cruel or excessive punishment may be imposed. Capital punishment is abolished, except for acts that is threatened by a valid before 30 January 1933 or by a Announced by the military government, or with the Enabling Act by death. "[Note. 30] Law no. 2 provided that all death penalties imposed were to be confirmed by the respective military government.

The death penalty was therefore unobjectionable in postwar Germany. They complied with the legal requirements of the Weimar Republic. A change of § 211 Penal Code, according to which murder is punishable by the death penalty before the German courts, was not under discussion at this time. [Note. 31] Despite the experiences in the time of the Nazi dictatorship, where the state itself was a mass murderer, took a noticeable discussion about abolishing the death penalty at this time does not take place.

3.2 Public opinion on the death penalty after the end of World War II

Although more and more showed how illegal and almost inflationary, the Nazi regime exekutierte death penalty, there was the war a broad support for maintaining the death penalty. In a survey conducted by the Allensbach Institute for Demoskopie in February 1949befürworteten 77% of respondents in cases of murder, the death penalty; only 18% opposed. The up to 30-year-old capital punishment affirmed particularly frequently - namely 81%. Evans sees this impact of Nazi indoctrination. In the 31 - 50 year olds, the agreement was 76% in the 51-65-year-olds at 69% in the over-65s at 64%. [Note. 32]
The support for capital punishment has not been observed in the Protestant as well as in the Catholic Church in the immediate postwar period in question. Only occasionally have expressed skepticism on this issue theologians. [Note. 33] Accordingly, the attitude of Protestants and Catholics on this issue differed as good as not. However, the endorsement was particularly pronounced in Protestant Saxony (79%) and Schleswig-Holstein (86%). These regions included in the 'Third Reich' to the Nazi bastions. Even in the traditional voters of liberalism in Baden (65%) and Württemberg (62%) was the support for capital punishment remains very high.
The attitude of the major political parties in postwar Germany was clear: the CDU and CSU, the center and the majority of the Liberal Democrats supported the death penalty. SPD and KPD advocated the abolition. [Note. 34]

Only gradually changed the attitude of the churches, of the death penalty in favor of parties and the general public. Towards the end of the 1960s introduced the death penalty supporters first time no longer the majority. [Note. 35]

3.3 death sentences in the French occupation zone

In the French zone are in the area of ​​Rheinland-Pfalz [Note. 36] between May 1946 and January 1949 a total of eight death sentences [Note. 37] has been proclaimed for murder.
Besides seven men Irmgard K. was sentenced to death for murder in two cases on 14 July 1947th

Before the entry into force of the Basic Law on 24 May 1949 five death sentences have been commuted to life imprisonment. In three cases there was final death sentences. In case Irmgard K. the entry into force of the Basic Law enforcement was suspended due to a pending retrial. [Note. 38] In this case will be discussed in more detail below, because here is an example visible, how little the process participants have solved from the shadow of Nazi injustice State.

4. The death penalty in 1945 in Rheinland-Pfalz
4.1 The death pe4nalty in the Constitution of the Land Rheinland-Pfalz

After the Allies had curbed the proliferations of the death penalty by the Nazi state, saw § 211 Penal Code still the death penalty for a murderer. Against this background, there was a broad consensus that "were to formulate the vorgrundgesetzlichen state constitutions in the ordination to a yet to be created German State and a revision of the criminal law realm could only be carried out by this whole state." [Note. 39]

And yet. In the Adolf Süsterhenn (1905 - 1974) developed a preliminary draft of Rhineland-Palatinate Constitution of October 4, 1946 found in Article 3 the following sentences: "The life of man is inviolable. It can be explained only on the basis of the law forfeited as a penalty for the most serious culpable violations of the Community order by judicial decision for. "[Note. 40] The most serious culpable violations of Community Rules let a close proximity to the just conquered Nazi era, in the always healthy popular sentiment was summoned significantly. Süsterhenn's too transparent attempt to extend the death penalty to other crimes as murder, has been recognized and in the wider constitutional debate returned to the most serious crimes against life and limb - in the spirit of the applicable criminal law.

In further discussion succeeded the SPD shortly to abolish the death penalty in Art. 3 in the draft I of the State Constitution. to leave even a renewed application of the SPD, only the first sentence in Art. 3 of Süsterhenn'schen preliminary draft was rejected by a majority.

Although having regard to § 211 Penal Code in conjunction with Art. 13 Weimar Constitution (, Reich law overrides state law ') was not obligatory to mention the death penalty in the country's Constitution at all, the death penalty but it was decided explicitly in the state constitution to take. Only the Hessian state constitution [Note. 41] also mentions the death penalty, while the remaining constitutions refrained.

4.2 The establishment of an execution site in Mainz

Before the execution of the death penalty several questions had to be answered. So z. B .: How should the death penalty be accomplished? Where scheduled to be executed? What conditions (special apparatus, equipment of the rooms, order an executioner) must be created?

In answering the question of how the death penalty should be carried out, the Ministry of Justice of Rhineland-Palatinate oriented to the Circular of the Reich Ministry of Justice of 22 October in 1935 enforcement of the death penalty and the Penal administrative provisions of the Reich Minister of Justice, as amended on March 1, 1939 . These documents are located in the files, which led to the "sentence of death" the Justice Department Rheinland-Pfalz. The two documents saw normally the beheading [Note. 42] before. The Ministry of Justice was so obviously do even after the end of the millennial kingdom 'assistance.

Only after a few detours, it was clear where to be executed in Rheinland-Pfalz. On November 15, 1947, the Ministry of Justice informed the French military government that in Rheinland-Pfalz neither a straightener still stand a suitable room available and that is therefore necessary to consider whether an execution site for Rhineland-Palatinate or for the entire French occupation zone available must stand. On demand of the military government, the Justice Department, the prison in Mainz brought itself from this week.
After the director to monitor the German judiciary had written during the military government on 9 July 1948, "regarding the method of execution, which must take place by decapitation, possibly on your request the guillotine, the executioner and his assistants can put at your disposal be, "[Note. 43] has the Justice Department's efforts are not set. So are questions to the Minister of Justice in Dusseldorf, Freiburg and Tübingen [Note. been 44] addressed whether having jurisdiction over execution sites existed, how they could possibly equipped and if they could give on how to obtain a guillotine. On September 13, 1948, the Justice Department turned a identical letters also to the Minister of Justice of Hessen. The Ministries of Justice in Freiburg, Tübingen and Wiesbaden answered that they no martyrdom [Note. 45] would have. The North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Justice pointed out that there was an execution site in Dortmund and that the guillotine had been built by the company. Tiggemann in Hamm.

Parallel to these inquiries to the Ministry of Justice of Rhineland-Palatinate turned on July 27, 1948 directly to the detention center in Mainz: "In agreement with the military government a place of execution for the execution of death penalty in the country Rhineland-Palatinate to be set up in the local detention center. As execution tool a guillotine is provided. "[Note. 46]
After a thorough review Mainzer Detention answered in the Diether von Isenburg Street writing on 25 August 1948: "The formation of a guillotine in the yard can be, as in this Asylum all cell windows occur after the yard, do not allow. Until 1910 [Note. 47] found that executions in the old prison in the Klarastraße [Note. 48 instead]. Since that time, no executions have taken place. In the Klarastraße today can no longer be carried out executions since the court final building are allocated by the air raids. "In the report, the suitability of the basement detention center in the Diether von Isenburg Street is described in detail. "The turned down rooms in the basement are made free and are suitable for a place of execution. These are the spaces 27 and 26 ... The room height is 3 m. "The report provides detailed descriptions of the existing wastewater downpipes, which are suitable for cleaning after the bloody business, as well as the existing safeguards on windows and doors. It was worried about the use of adjacent rooms as detention cells and the suitability of the space 28 for termination of the coffins. In the cost estimate - "drain breakthrough from space 27 to space 26, repainting the rooms and the hall would be stated by the building department to about DM 800, - amount" - was noted. [Note. 49]

Yet on 22 October 1948, the Justice Department sought to alternatives - so for example, the use of the place of the French military government in Rastatt.. Already on 9 November 1948, the military government had rejected this and arranged a few days later at a meeting that enforcement is excluded in the British and American zones. On the same day, the November 22, 1948 can be found in the booklet grace Irmgard K. Ministry of Justice of Rhineland-Palatinate note: "The establishment of martyrdom in prison Mainz is under way and will as far as possible accelerated. Completion will be, however, does not take place before the end of December. "[Note. 50] Also on November 22, 1948 informed the Attorney General of the detention center with: "The establishment of martyrdom has now become extremely urgent. The target device is already in the making and will be delivered in a few weeks. "[Note. 51]

4.3 The executioner

The first application for the position of the executioner came from Hans Mühl. On 2 March 1947 he wrote to the public prosecutor in Koblenz that he had heard as "executioner for the British Zone" in Dortmund that the Land Rheinland-Pfalz seeking a guillotine and that he could be there to help. In addition, he asked for appointment as executioner and he stressed that he could be available with his three assistants trained quickly. What he did not mention: He was under the name Johann Muehl the competent executioner for the central execution sites in the penitentiary Cologne, in the detention center and Dortmund in penitentiary Frankfurt-Preungesheim the time of, the Third Reich '. Alone in Frankfurt penitentiary he has executed more than 300 death sentences - sometimes even with the first Mainzer guillotine, the so-called, Schinderhannes Guillotine '..

The Ministry of Justice behaved any decisions on this application. On November 2, 1948, the competent customs officer Hans Mühl received the Justice Department in Koblenz. The plans for the execution site in Mainz held Mühl for "adequate and sufficient". Whereas a mission beginning in December 1948, this official learned under the General Prosecutor Hamm that Muehl had lost his job in Dortmund in August 1947 because he in "was involved method for tape theft and severely impacted." [Note. 52]
In addition to the application of Hans Mühl Ministry of Justice remaining applications were received, including from an experienced butcher of Mainz slaughterhouse.

The body of the executioner in Dortmund has the Ministry of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia with a well "loaded" executioner reoccupied, namely Friedrich Hehr from Hannover, who was in the 'Third Reich' in charge of the death penalty in the central execution sites in Hamburg Remand Prison -City, in prison Bützow (Güstrow) and in penitentiary Wolfenbüttel. The Duesseldorf Justice Department recommended to the Ministry of Justice Koblenz, the now competent for the British zone Friedrich Hehr to commit for the execution site in Mainz. In response to a request from the December 6, 1948 the Ministry of Justice of Lower Saxony learned the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Justice that Friedrich Hehr would agree. The Lower Saxony demanded that Rheinland-Pfalz must contractually commit "a quarter of the price paid here to H. annual salary [Note. 53] DM 3,000, - to incorporate in two semi-annually in arrears payable installments ". The annual salary for Friedrich Hehr oriented to the remuneration which he received the Nazi era.

On December 31, 1948 The contract with Friedrich Hehr was signed. The other agreements did not deviate from the conditions that applied already for his work in the central execution sites of the Nazi state. [Note. 54] For each execution he should plus about the content DM 60, - obtained in several executions, the amount was reduced to DM 30, -. The assistants should DM 40, -. Or DM 30, - get.
The first tranche of DM 375, - was ordered on August 5, 1949 on the payment. The doubts of the Ministry of Justice of Rhineland-Palatinate, because at this time the death penalty was already prohibited constitutionally, encountered the Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice with the indication that the remuneration for the executioner should be paid until January 1950 because "the reason for the waiver not in his person lies". [Note. 55] The payment of the second installment was delayed because the Ministry of Justice of Rhineland-Palatinate nobody had the courage as, content to be recorded almost a year after the ban on capital punishment, the output for the executioner '. Only when they had agreed to suspicion, household spending to record these payments as' the second installment was transferred mid the 1950s.

5. The last guillotine in Mainz
 

5.1 The Guillotine - initially without the blade

. After the Ministry of Justice of Rhineland-Palatinate had contacted mediating support North Rhine-Westphalian departments with the company Tiggemann in Hamm / Westphalia, it became apparent that this would be able to build the target device - but without the guillotine. Because of the uncertainty of the material procurement, the company could not make a binding estimate. It was expected to at least $ 2000.
On November 26, 1948, the contract was awarded.
The company is in possession of all raw materials, has with the manufacturing of the device but not started because it still has no certainty that the guillotine can be delivered in the required form. The Fa. Schulze in Dortmund, which has the knife for Dortmund delivered his time, has been canceled. Company Tiggemann has therefore turned to 6 other specialist companies, some of which have also 3 responded negatively. The responses of large companies "Henkel Zwillingswerk" and "Alexanderwerk" are still pending. I have the owner of the company. Tiggemann abandoned to begin construction of the device immediately and to use for the preparatory work that he loaned by the prison Dortmund wooden model of the knife. Mr Tiggemann has pledged to work can begin immediately. I insisted on finishing before Christmas. "[Note. 56]

On 14 December 1948, the Fa. Tiggemann announced the completion of the guillotine on 20 December 1948. She pointed expressly indicated that it had not succeeded in finding a forge, which also could provide the knife. [Note. 57] On January 11, 1949, the guillotine was picked up in a truck at the detention center in Koblenz Hamm and on January 14, 1949 weitertransportiert.Einen to Mainz next day the bill for the guillotine was ordered to pay.

The guillotine stood in the converted cells in the basement of the detention center in Mainz. But the device could not be used as long as the knife was not forged and installed.

5.2 The blade of the guillotine

The company that had supplied the knife for Dortmund Guillotine replied to a question of the company Tiggemann in Hamm, Westphalia, that they no longer "in a position to produce the desired diameter [for the under construction Mainzer Guillotine] because this variety with a case. "[Note. 58] Also, six other companies refused - sometimes regret - from to produce the knife.

The already mentioned travelogue of an official of the Ministry of Justice of Rhineland-Palatinate on 6 December 1948 information about another week in Hamm / Westphalia: "Because of the knife I was looking for then the Head of the General Prosecutor Hamm, Chief Prosecutor Dr. Henning on. Mr Henning told me that lend us the knife from Dortmund did not come for a day into consideration, as in Dortmund executions carried churning namely for the districts of Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamm, Hamburg, and more recently for the state of Lower Saxony. The device must also always be ready for the military government. But he need for Dortmund urgently a replacement knife and he wanted to convey, in consultation with the company Tiggemann for Rheinland-Pfalz retrieving 2 knives. For each target device is an equivalent diameter must be present, only to have at hand another knife with a blade damage during refit or more executions. He also hopes to be able to make more of a delivery company locate in the forgiveness of several diameters. 59]

The Justice Department in Koblenz had in the meantime approached with a request to the Association of German Tool Industry to appoint a company that was able to produce blades for a guillotine. Also on 11 January 1949, when the company announced the completion Tiggemann the guillotine, said the Association of German Tool Industry that a company was found. It was the firm Prinz & Kremer 'in Wuppertal, the u. A. Also forged knife, with which one could cut tobacco leaves into millimeter-thin tobacco leaf.

Now occurred another problem. The quota 400 kg of iron, which is for the production of three blades, two of them for Mainz and a need for Dortmund, was already exhausted for the current month. Since the application of Interzone subscription rights [Note. 60] would have taken at least six months, made do with the transmission of ration cards for the French zone. [Note. 61]

The firm Prince & Kremer announced the completion of the blades for the first half of March. That it only on 21 March 1949, finished then, no one bothered. While several hundredweight guillotine was brought within three days from Hamm to Mainz, took the transport of the blade and the blade replacement three weeks, and the installation of the blade in the guillotine one month.

The zeal to enforce death penalties in Rhineland-Palatinate, had eased visibly, but the information on the relevant discussions in the Parliamentary Council had already reached, working level 'in Mainz? In a note from the Ministry of Justice of 11 May 1949, states: '1. The device is ready for operation. 2. ZDA ", in other words. Z (u) d (s) A (k th) meant that a further discussion of the operation, New Guillotine in Mainz was' currently intended.

The two death row inmates [Note. 62], who queued for execution, were lucky in that within the next two weeks, the enforcement of sentences could not be organized. Several months after the constitutional ban on the death penalty of Ministers of Rhineland-Palatinate has converted the two death sentences to life-long prison sentences on 3 August 1949th.

[Pete26]

Plötzensee: 56

Brandenburg-Gorden: 26

Breslau (Wroclaw): 22

Dresden: 17

Frankfurt-Preungesheim: 5

Halle( Saale): 2

Hamburg Holstenglacis: 13

Kattowitz (Katowice): 25

Köln Klingelpütz: 8

Königsberg: 21

München-Stadelheim: 29

Posen (Poznan): 34

Stuttgart: 8

Weimar: 3

Wien: 46


Total: 315


From the data above we can see that Plötzensee was the most active execution site that month, followed by Vienna. Prague Pankrac fallbeil was not in operation yet, so no executions for Pankrac.


Source: Gott, die Liebe und der Galgen by Manfred Overesch

[Pete26]

2 December 1942 (12 beheadings):



Rudolf Duba

Jakob Doff

Adolfine Mikesch

August Novy

Egon Ostermeiser

Paul Snitarevic

Hedwig Schneider

Johann Schneider

Othmar Schrausser

Rudolf Unterberger

Kajetan Wachter

Josef Lang



10 December 1942 (11 beheadings):



Samuel Brunner

Hermann Friesl

Leopold Fierlinger

Michael Halbwachs

Karl Hodac

Michael Haas

Wenzel Kaniker

Josef Machatz

Otto Mikeschka

Ignaz Piringer

Johann Sebaster



18 December 1942 (23 beheadings):



Johann Balaskovits

Michael Balogh

Bernhard Sevwla

Ludwig Fabian

Rupert Grundsweig

Franz Glotzl

Felix Grafe

Kurt Krampf

Emmerich Kis

Franz Linzbauer

Franz Matuska

Robert Mikesch

Max Beschek

Alois Pelzmann

Ferdinand Platzer

Jaroslav Riedl

Anton Roth

Anton Stromer

Wenzel Schmied

Franz Tastl

Johann Untenecker

Franz Zach

Rudolf Demel


Total: 46 beheadings


Source: Die Guillotinierten, 1946

[Pete26]

Kurt Erich Tetzner was guillotined by Johann Reichhart in the courtyard of Regensburg prison at 7 AM on 2 May 1931.

http://murderpedia.org/male.T/images/te ... etzner.jpg

http://murderpedia.org/male.T/t/tetzner-kurt.htm



http://boisdejustice.com/Germany/Johann1.JPG

http://www.mittelbayerische.de/bayern/d ... 06725.html

[Brandy86m]

A collection of beautiful models.. And a working replica Tegal..

Unfortunately I'm not sure what is being said or who this individual is..

can you write me please : [email protected] i have some questeions to you for the FALLBEIL and mOdells etc.- THANKS