Franz Schmidt (executioner)

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Franz Schmidt at the execution of Hans Fröschel, 1591. This drawing from court documents is the only reliable representation of the executioner.

Franz Schmidt (* approx. 1555 in Hof ; buried on June 14, 1634 in Nuremberg ), also called Master Franz , was a German executioner .

Life

Franz Schmidt was probably born in Hof in 1555 as the son of the executioner Heinrich Schmidt, who later worked in Bamberg . From 1573 to April 1578 he was an executioner in the Bamberg area and from May 1, 1578 to the end of 1617 in Nuremberg. On December 7, 1579 he married Maria Beck (also: Peck) († 1600), with whom he had seven children, of whom two daughters and two sons survived. His grave, adorned with an epitaph, in the St. Rochus cemetery in Nuremberg has been preserved.

Grave site in the Rochus cemetery in Nuremberg

Schmidt did everything in his power to cast off the stigma of his “ dishonest profession ” and to free his family from the social ostracism associated with the executioner's office. In 1593 he acquired Nuremberg citizenship and (like many executioners) was also active in the medical field, in favor of which he gave up his service in 1617. On September 12, 1624, Emperor Ferdinand II finally spoke to him honestly .

From 1573 to 1617 Franz Schmidt led a detailed inventory of completed by him penalties, the 361 executions and 345 body penalties ( cross out with rods , cut off ears , fingers cut off ) includes. The individual entries contain the date, place and method of execution, the name, origin and status of the convicted person and - in later years more detailed than in the earlier information - descriptions of the crimes on which the sentence was based.

Master Franz performed executions with the rope , the sword , the wheel , the fire and through the water . Cycling was reserved for cases of the most serious violent crime, Master Franz only burned himself twice in his entire professional career (homosexual fornication and forgery), and drowning - actually prescribed in the Carolina for child murder - was done in Nuremberg by Schmidt, not least on his and her Intervention by some clergymen, regularly transformed into punishment by the sword for grace.

The directory, also known as the “diary”, is unique as a source of legal and social history. The original manuscript has not survived, but there are several copies from the 17th and 18th centuries on which various (partly annotated) printed editions are based. The first edition appeared in 1801.

swell

  • Master Frantzen messageer here in Nuremberg, all his judgments alive, as well as his body punishments, if he did, everything properly described here, copied from his own book. Reprinted exactly from the manuscript and edited by JMF v. Endter. Lechner, Nuremberg 1801 ( digitized copy from the Bavarian State Library ).
  • Maister Franntzn Schmidt's message in Nürmberg all his judging. After the manuscript ed. by Albrecht Keller. Leipzig 1913 ( digitized ). Reprinted with an introduction by Wolfgang Leiser. Schmidt, Neustadt ad Aisch 1979, ISBN 3-87707-022-1 .
  • The diary of Master Franz, executioner at Nuremberg . Reprint of the book edition from 1801. Commentary by Jürgen Carl Jacobs and Heinz Rölleke . Harenberg, Dortmund 1980 (The bibliophile paperbacks, vol. 160), ISBN 3-88379-160-1 .

literature

  • Erika Bosl: Schmid (t), Franz. In: Karl Bosl (Hrsg.): Bosls Bavarian biography. Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 682 ( digitized version ).
  • Friedrich von Hagen: Schmidt, Franz . In: Stadtlexikon Nürnberg . Edited by Michael Diefenbacher and Rudolf Endres . 2nd, improved edition. Tümmels, Nürnberg 2000, ISBN 3-921590-69-8 , (article online) .
  • Joel F. Harrington: The Executioner's Honor. Master Frantz or A Hangman's Life . Siedler, Munich, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8275-0021-2 .
  • The executioners of Nuremberg and their victims. Torture and executions in the Nuremberg Ratsverlässen from 1501 to 1806. With an introduction to the sources of the Nuremberg criminal history by Horst-Dieter Beyerstedt and a contribution to the criminal law of the imperial city of Nuremberg by Hartmut Frommer. Edited by Michael Diefenbacher. Compiled from the archives by Friedrich von Hagen. Edited from the estate by Manfred H. Grieb. Self-published by the Nuremberg City Archives, Nuremberg 2010 (sources and research on the history and culture of the city of Nuremberg, vol. 35), ISBN 978-3-925002-35-9 .
  • Wolfgang Leiser: Franz Schmidt, messenger. In: Famous Nuremberg residents from nine centuries. Edited by Christoph von Imhoff. 2nd, supplemented and expanded edition. Hofmann, Nürnberg 1989, ISBN 3-87191-088-0 , p. 155f.
  • Ilse Schumann: News about the Nuremberg news reporter Franz Schmidt. In: Genealogy. German Journal for Family Studies 50 (2001), pp. 673–688.

Web links

Commons : Franz Schmidt (Henker)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the literature, various life dates for Franz Schmidt are given; see. Schumann: Neues zum Nürnberger Nachrichtener Franz Schmidt , p. 674. On the basis of her own source studies, Ilse Schumann assumes 1555 as the year of birth (cf. ibid., p. 677), but she points out that the church records of Hof do not begin until 1556.
  2. ↑ Grave site no. 654 in grid square H 5 in the St. Rochus churchyard; see. Schumann: News on the Nürnberger Nachrichtener Franz Schmidt , p. 686f.
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Master Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Executioner
DATE OF BIRTH around 1555
PLACE OF BIRTH court
DATE OF DEATH buried June 14, 1634
Place of death Nuremberg