Carl Gropler

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Franz Friedrich Carl Gröpler (born February 22, 1868 in Magdeburg ; † January 30, 1946 there ) was Prussian executioner from 1906 to 1937 and carried out executions in Prussia , Mecklenburg , Oldenburg , Braunschweig and the Hanseatic cities . Gröpler was one of the most famous executioners in Germany.

Life

Carl Gröpler was born in Magdeburg as the child of railway worker and servant Heinrich Gröpler and his wife Auguste, née Anton. He first became a musician, then worked for five years as a postal worker. Gröpler learned the horse butcher trade and ran the Aegir steam laundry in Magdeburg . He was described as a broad-shouldered, stout figure with a reddish mustache and a military-short haircut.

Gröpler was initially the main assistant to the Prussian executioner Lorenz Schwietz . When the Prussian executioner Alwin Engelhardt was dismissed without notice in 1906, Gröpler took over his duties. In addition to his successor Ernst Reindel , Gröpler was one of the last executioners in Germany who still performed beheadings with a hand ax . Depending on the local conditions, he also operated drop sword machines . Once, before an execution, Gröpler is said to have said to a police sergeant: “Well,… you had an ugly night in the cell behind you. Or do you not believe in God? I - yes! Otherwise I couldn't do this. You should not kill - whoever sheds blood, the blood should be shed again - our laws are his (God's) laws - in this knowledge I fulfill my office. ” The police sergeant had guarded a condemned man on his last night and briefly with him discussed before his beheading the sense and purpose of calling in a clergyman for executions. By Theodor Lessing was Gröpler, 1925 Fritz Haarmann was executed, the nickname of the red judges .

Jan Valtin : “Diary of Hell” - entry about the execution of four communists with the ax by Gröpler on May 19, 1934

In April 1924, Gröpler signed a contract that made him de facto the sole executioner in northern Germany. In addition to a regular flat fee of 136 gold marks per month, he received a flat rate of 60 gold marks for himself and 50 gold marks for each of his assistants for each execution. On February 15, 1926, Gröpler executed the farm worker Josef Jakubowski , whose case is considered a miscarriage of justice, with the hand ax in the Neustrelitz-Strelitz state institution . At the end of the Weimar Republic, Gröpler only had a few executions left. That only changed with the increasing number of executions since the Nazis came to power in 1933. Gröpler renewed his annual contract with a salary of 1,500 Reichsmarks per year and a flat rate of 50 Reichsmarks per execution. The fact that Gröpler offered the Hitler salute at every single intermediate report during the executions earned him admonitions to refrain from such practices.

Two of the most recent executions with the ax were the executions of Baroness Benita von Falkenhayn and her friend Renate von Natzmer . The two had been convicted of espionage by the People's Court and were beheaded by Gröpler on February 18, 1935 in Berlin-Plötzensee .

Carl Gröpler was assigned at least 144 executions in his 30-year service. In 1937 he was retired. His assistant, Ernst Reindel , the owner of the masking shop from Gommern, took his place .

In 1945 Carl Gröpler was arrested by the Soviet military at his place of residence in Magdeburg. The arrest was probably based on the execution of four communists, which he carried out in 1934 in the Hamburg remand prison (cf. on the trial, the executions and their literary and cinematic processing: Heinrich Jauch ). Gröpler died on January 30, 1946 in custody.

literature

  • Matthias Blazek: Executioner Carl Gröpler - the red judge. In: Matthias Blazek: Haarmann and Grans - The case, those involved and the press coverage. ibidem, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-89821-967-9 .
  • Thomas Waltenbacher: Central execution sites . The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937 - 1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. Zwilling, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-024265-6 .
  • Matthias Blazek: The Magdeburg executioner Carl Gröpler - A look into the history of Magdeburg criminal justice. In: Magdeburger Kurier - information for citizens in active retirement. 18th year, February - September 2011.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angelika Ebbinghaus, Karsten Linne: No closed chapter: Hamburg in the Third Reich. Hamburg 1997, p. 335.
  2. ^ Matthias Blazek: Executioners in Prussia and in the German Empire 1866-1945. ibidem, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8382-0107-8 , p. 63. See Mario Todte: The executions in Saxony (1900–1981). P. 11 (online resource) .
  3. ↑ Walter Goetz, Georg Steinhausen (Ed.): Archive for cultural history. Cologne / Weimar 1976, p. 171.
  4. ^ Theodor Lessing: Haarmann - The story of a werewolf. Introduced by Rainer Marwedel, Frankfurt am Main 1989. (2nd edition: 1996, p. 191)
  5. ^ Richard J. Evans: Rituals of Retribution. The death penalty in German history 1532 - 1987. Kindler Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 665.
  6. ^ Matthias Blazek: Executioners in Prussia and in the German Empire: 1866 - 1945 . Ibidem Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 3-8382-0107-8 , pp. 71 .
  7. ^ Richard J. Evans: Rituals of Retribution. 2001, p. 802 f.
  8. ↑ Time Magazine. March 4, 1935.
  9. ↑ Joachim Scherrieble (Ed.): Der Rote Ochse, Halle (Saale): political justice 1933 - 1945, 1945 - 1989 [catalog of the permanent exhibitions]. Links, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-480-8 , p. 182 (Google Books)
  10. ↑ Heinrich Breloer, Horst Königstein: blood money: materials for a German history. Prometh Verlag, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-922009-46-8 , p. 75 (Google Books) .
personal data
SURNAME Gropler, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Groepler, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German executioner
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1946
Place of death Magdeburg