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An executioner's sword is a sword designed specifically for decapitation of condemned criminals (as opposed to combat). These swords were intended for two-handed use, but were lacking a point, so that their overall blade length was typically that of a single-handed sword (ca. 80–90 cm (31–35 in)).
Franz Schmidt's father, Heinrich, was originally a woodsman in the north-eastern Bavarian town Hof.Once, when the notoriously tyrannical margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, Albrecht II (r. 1527–1553), wanted three men hanged, he picked out Heinrich from the crowd and forced him to perform the execution, after which he had no option but to continue in the profession of executioner.
The term Scharfrichter (German for executioner, literally: "sharp judge") refers specifically to a tradition of executioners in the German states.Using a sword of execution, they had the responsibility of actually executing prisoners; his assistant, the "Löwe" (lion), would carry out tasks such as forcibly conveying prisoners to the presence of a judge (while roaring, hence the name ...
Gröpler was first assistant to the main Prussian executioner Lorenz Schwietz. When the Prussian executioner Alwin Engelhardt was dismissed in 1906, Gröpler took over his duties. Together with his successor Ernst Reindel , Gröpler was one of the last executioners in Germany performing executions by beheading with an axe. Depending on local ...
Johann Reichhart (29 April 1893 – 26 April 1972) was a German state-appointed judicial executioner in Bavaria from 1924 to 1946. During the Nazi period, he executed numerous people who were sentenced to death for their resistance to the German government. [1] [2] After the war, he was employed as executioner by the US Military Government in ...
The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorising or ordering him to execute the sentence. The warrant protects the executioner from the charge of murder. Common terms for executioners derived from forms of capital punishment—though they often also performed other physical punishments—include hangman and headsman .
Lorenz Schwietz was born in Groß Döbern (now DobrzeĊ Wielki), Oppeln county, Prussian province of Silesia. [1] In his early years, he worked as a butcher, first in Breslau (now Wroclaw), where he received the respective education, later in Ratibor (now Racibórz, both in Silesia), before he returned to Breslau to open a butchery. [1]
Hand of justice displayed at the Louvre, Paris. High justice, also known as ius gladii ("right of the sword") or in German as Blutgerichtsbarkeit, Blutgericht (lit. "blood justice", "blood-court"; [2] sometimes also Halsgericht, lit. "neck-justice", or peinliches Gericht [3]) is the highest penal authority, including capital punishment, as held by a sovereign—the sword of justice and hand of ...