Friedrich Hehr

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Friedrich Hehr  
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Friedrich Hehr (born September 21, 1879 in Korb ; † July 30, 1952 in Hanover ) was an executioner in Germany between 1925 and 1949 . During the National Socialist era he was involved in the killing of hundreds of people. After the end of the Second World War , Hehr worked as an executioner for the British and American occupying powers .

Life

Origin and teaching

Hehr was one of several children of a master basket maker and gravedigger from Korb, about 15 km northeast of Stuttgart . He learned the profession of butcher and greengrocer and initially worked as a worker in Stuttgart.

Executioner in the Weimar Republic

The British historian Richard J. Evans assumes that Hehr began his execution work in 1925 as an assistant to the executioner Karl Burkhard , who was responsible for Baden , Württemberg and Hesse .

After Burkhard was retired for reasons of age, Hehr continued his work until the restructuring of the justice system in Baden and Württemberg in 1934/35. In 1935, Hehr's wages were RM 400 , and for each execution he received an additional 50 marks “reward” and 20 marks “ loss of earnings”. If he had several people to kill in one day, he received an additional "reward" of 20 marks.

Executioner in the Nazi era

In 1934/35 the judiciary in Baden and Württemberg underwent a restructuring, through which the executioner Johann Reichhart was henceforth responsible for both states. Hehr therefore applied for the long vacant position of executioner in north and west Germany and finally received it. He was now responsible for executions in the penal institutions of Butzbach , Hamburg-Stadt , Hanover and Cologne . For Cologne and Hamburg he had to prove that he could temporarily carry out executions with a hand ax (because there were still no guillotines there) , which Hehr did. In the summer of 1937, the 57-year-old officially took office.

For his new role, Hehr was instructed to move with his family to Hanover, which is more centrally located for his new responsibilities. According to §§ 4 and 5 of the guidelines, executioners and their assistants were obliged to keep their actual activities secret from the population. For this reason, Hehr was registered as a (justice) employee in Hanover . From August 1937 he lived in Deisterstraße 24, then Eichenplan 14.

In 1942 there were 20 places of execution on the soil of the German Reich , for which nine executioners were responsible. In addition to Friedrich Hehr, these were: Gottlob Bordt, August Köster , Johann Mühl , Ernst Reindel , Johann Reichhart , Wilhelm Röttger , Alois Weiß and Fritz Witzka . Hehr was responsible for northern and eastern Germany.

Between December 22, 1938 and December 15, 1944, Hehr beheaded 432 people in the Hamburg prison alone ; Among the 140 executed by Hehr in 1943 alone are the four Lübeck martyrs Johannes Prassek , Eduard Müller , Hermann Lange and Karl Friedrich Stellbrink .

Central Execution Places and Enforcement Districts in the German Reich (1944)

From November 1943, Hehr was the successor of Ernst Reindel (who had surprisingly given up his office) for a few months at the central execution site in the Roter Ochse prison in Halle (Saale) . Hehr carried out several judgments before he was replaced there on April 1, 1944 by his assistant Alfred Roselieb as chief executioner.

Since the end of November 1944, Hehr and his assistants were responsible for the central execution site for execution district V ( Hamburg-Stadt , Dreibergen-Bützow and Wolfenbüttel ).

Executioner after 1945

After the end of the war, Reichhart and Hehr continued to be employed by the Allies. In 1946, Hehr was appointed "lead executioner" by the British in the newly created state of Lower Saxony . From 1947, Hehr's jurisdiction was extended to Hesse , North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate . The remuneration that Hehr received for his execution work in post-war Germany corresponded to that of the Nazi era: for each execution he received 60 D-Marks in addition to his salary . In the case of several executions, this amount was reduced to 30. His assistants received 40 and 30 marks respectively.

Hehr worked as an executioner until 1949 and is said to have executed 85 people (18 in Hamburg and 67 in Wolfenbüttel) during this time in Hamburg and Wolfenbüttel alone. The majority of these were war criminals convicted by Allied courts , including Willi Herold .

Characteristics of Hehr's activity

"Most important executioner in Germany"

Between 1937 and 1945 Hehr had twelve different assistants and substitute assistants, all of whom lived in Hanover. Hehr trained his assistants himself, so that over the years a kind of "executioners' school" emerged. Several of his assistants were appointed executioners themselves in the course of the Second World War, among them Gottlob Bordt, for example . Four of Hehr's assistants became executioners for the Nazi regime. The historian Herbert Schmidt describes Hehr as "the most important executioner in Germany" because he was the " foster father " of future executioners, as Thomas Waltenbacher states.

Character and way of working Hehrs

In the early years of his execution as an executioner, Hehr had the peculiarity of shouting “Attention!” During executions with the guillotine just before he released the blade. This “irregularity” was objected to in October 1937 by the Reich Ministry of Justice : Hehr was certified that he … worked in a form characterized by calm and extreme caution… , but that the shouting of the word “attention” … is generally unusual and perceived as disturbing can be… . Hehr was asked to refrain from doing this, which he did.

One prison chaplain described Hehr as follows:

“Mr. Hehr behaved clumsily, unresponsive and constantly grumpy. Only once did he engage in a brief conversation. He had no illusions about the loathing of his fellow men for the executioner. [...] It was even possible to exchange a few words with Mr. Reindel. "

The execution of Erna Wazinski

Record of the execution of Erna Wazinski on November 23, 1944. At the top right, Hehr and 3 assistants are named as executioner .

One of the numerous executed Friedrich Hehrs on November 23, 1944 was the 19-year-old worker Erna Wazinski, who was executed by him in Wolfenbüttel prison. Wazinski was alleged looting after the bombing of 15 October 1944 Braunschweig from the special court Braunschweig been sentenced to death.

The record of the execution contains the following description:

“At 12:07 p.m., the condemned woman was brought before her handcuffed. After establishing the personality of the convicted Wazinski, the execution manager gave the executioner [Friedrich Hehr] the order to execute the judgment of the special court in Braunschweig of October 21, 1944. The condemned's head was then separated from the torso using a guillotine . ... The execution took 5 seconds from the time of the performance to the completed announcement, from the handover to the executioner to the completed execution 6 seconds. "

Other people beheaded by Hehr

Memorial plaque in the ramparts near the Hamburg remand prison

See also

literature

  • Thomas Waltenbacher: Central execution sites . The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937–1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. Zwilling-Berlin, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-024265-6 .
  • "Friedrich Hehr". In: Matthias Blazek: Executioners in Prussia and in the German Empire 1866–1945 . Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8382-0107-8 , pp. 79-102.
  • Klaus Hillenbrand : Desired career as an executioner: Why men wanted to be executioners under National Socialism. Campus, Frankfurt am Rhein / New York, NY 2013, ISBN 978-3-593-39723-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Klaus Hillenbrand: Desired career executioner: Why men wanted to be executioners under National Socialism. P. 60.
  2. ^ A b Klaus Hillenbrand: Desired career executioner: Why men wanted to be executioners under National Socialism. P. 105.
  3. ↑ a b Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Fascism: The Hangman of Halle. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of January 26, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Thomas Waltenbacher: Central execution sites . The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937–1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. P. 128.
  5. ↑ Manfred Overesch : God, love and the gallows: Helmuth J. and Freya von Moltke in their last conversations in 1944/45. Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 2015, ISBN 978-3-487-08552-4 , p. 126.
  6. ^ Richard J. Evans : Rituals of Retribution. The death penalty in German history 1532–1987 , Kindler, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-463-40400-1 , quoted from Angelika Ebbinghaus , Karsten Linne: No closed chapter: Hamburg in the “Third Reich”. European Publishing House, 1997, ISBN 978-3-434520-06-1 , FN 83.
  7. ^ Klaus Hillenbrand: Desired career executioner: Why men wanted to be executioners under National Socialism. P. 60.
  8. ↑ Complete text printed in: Thomas Waltenbacher: Zentrale Hinrichtungsstätten. The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937–1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. Pp. 54-56.
  9. ^ Andreas Seeger, Fritz Treichel: Executions in Hamburg and Altona 1933–1944. P. 36.
  10. ↑ a b Herbert Schmidt : Death sentences in Düsseldorf 1933 to 1945: A documentation , Droste Verlag 2008, ISBN 978-3770012954 , p. 49.
  11. ↑ Manfred Overesch : God, love and the gallows: Helmuth J. and Freya von Moltke in their last conversations in 1944/45. P. 128.
  12. ^ Klaus Hillenbrand: Desired career executioner: Why men wanted to be executioners under National Socialism. P. 88.
  13. ^ Andreas Seeger, Fritz Treichel: Executions in Hamburg and Altona 1933–1944. State Center for Political Education, Hamburg 1998, p. 37.
  14. ↑ Thomas Waltenbacher: Central execution sites . The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937–1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. P. 129.
  15. ↑ The Nazi executioner lives undisturbed in the village for 23 years. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung from October 6, 2015.
  16. ^ Klaus Hillenbrand: Desired career executioner: Why men wanted to be executioners under National Socialism. P. 94.
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Stumme: The last guillotine in Mainz .
  18. ^ Andreas Seeger, Fritz Treichel: Executions in Hamburg and Altona 1933–1944. P. 37.
  19. ↑ a b Thomas Waltenbacher: Central execution sites . The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937–1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. P. 131.
  20. ↑ Angelika Ebbinghaus , Karsten Linne: No closed chapter: Hamburg in the "Third Reich". European Publishing House, 1997, ISBN 978-3-434520-06-1 , p. 338.
  21. ↑ Thomas Waltenbacher: Central execution sites . The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937–1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. P. 130.
  22. ↑ Manfred Overesch: God, love and the gallows: Helmuth J. and Freya von Moltke in their last conversations in 1944/45. P. 71.
  23. ↑ Hans Wüllenweber: Special Courts in the Third Reich. P. 59.
  24. ↑ Executioner Ernst Reindel is meant .
  25. ^ Herbert Schmidt: Death sentences in Düsseldorf 1933 to 1945: A documentation. P. 51.
  26. ↑ a b c d Ditte Clemens: Silence about Lilo: The story of Liselotte Herrmann. BS-Verlag-Rostock, ISBN 978-3-89954-013-0 , p. 84 f.
  27. ↑ a b Landesarchiv NRW, OWL department, D 21 A No. 8557-8570.
  28. ↑ Hans Wüllenweber: Special Courts in the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-630-61909-6 , p. 249.
  29. ↑ Max Behretz * 1913 +1942. The resistance of a peace activist from Roermond on theo-hespers-stiftung.de.
  30. ↑ a b c Olaf Wunder: The day on which ... The executioner of Hamburg executed four courageous pastors . In: Hamburger Morgenpost from April 6, 2019, p. 18
  31. ↑ Ecumenical resistance ended under the guillotine on evangelisch.de.
  32. ↑ Thomas Waltenbacher: Central execution sites . The execution of the death penalty in Germany from 1937–1945. Executioner in the Third Reich. P. 129.
  33. ↑ "It is better to be than not to be" on Brauweiler-Kreis.de.
  34. ↑ Olaf Wunder: These are the last hamburgers that ended up on the guillotine , Hamburger Morgenpost , March 23, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Hehr, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German executioner
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Basket (Württemberg)
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 1952
Place of death Hanover