Georg Christian Heinrich David Thöne

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Georg Christian Heinrich David Thöne (called Heinrich Thöne ; * 1816 or 1817; † March 19, 1847 on the Galgenberg in front of Celle ) was a butcher and robbery murderer who was beheaded for his act .

Life

All that is known about Heinrich Thöne is that he was a butcher by profession and the son of an innkeeper from Burgdorf , where he lived himself. He was married to Sophie Thöne (née Müller), with whom he had several children together, including an infant at the time of the crime.

Background and investigation of the robbery and murder

With the construction of the Lehrte – Celle railway line , a train station was built in Burgdorf from 1845 onwards. There the 28-year-old Friedrich Franz from Dungelbeck , who was related to Heinrich Thöne , was employed in the Peine office as a chess master . On September 14, 1845, a site manager at the station building reported the disappearance of Franz to the Burgdorf office , who at that time carried 210 Reichstaler wages that  had not yet been paid.

Thereupon, on the same day , a wanted poster was found for Friedrich Franz who was believed to want to emigrate to America with the money . It was determined that on the night of September 13th to 14th he was supposed to have stayed at an inn in Hanover under a false name and had left there with the self-named destination Bielefeld.

On September 25, the discovery of a body tracked down by a dog was reported to the Burgdorf office. The location was about 550  paces northeast of the village on a harvested potato field. Immediately three officers and a doctor examined the site, where they found a male corpse buried 1½  feet deep and eaten by dogs. Since it was suspected that it could be the missing shaft master, Heinrich Thöne had been ordered as the last landlord and a shaft master to help identify the dead person to the autopsy , which took place on a section table set up in the field. During the autopsy, it was found that the dead man was the missing person, who had been murdered by multiple blows to the head as well as blows and cuts in the neck. Heinrich Thöne was arrested in the field and taken to prison on the basis of suspicion.

The house of the arrested was searched and, after further interrogations, two days later his wife was arrested with an infant that she was taking with her and taken to the prison in Celle . After further investigations and questioning of witnesses, which led to the conclusion that Heinrich Thöne had committed the murder on September 13 at around 6 p.m., the couple was tried in July 1846.

Condemnation, execution and aftermath

The verdict was pronounced on July 22, 1846. Sophie Thöne was acquitted, Heinrich Thöne was sentenced to death by the sword for robbery murder with previous grinding on a cow skin at the place of execution . The local executioner considered himself unable to carry out a death sentence for the first time, so the one from Hoya came to replace him . On March 17, 1847, the Celler Nachrichten announced that Heinrich Thöne would be publicly executed two days later. The audience was asked to behave appropriately and it was pointed out that children should not be brought along. On March 19, Thöne was brought to the place of execution on a cow skin and beheaded there with the sword.

Contemporary advertisement for the Sermon Book

The last wish of Thöne was that the pastor who accompanied him to the execution should present his fate as a warning to others. Immediately before the execution, he gave a speech to the audience, the text of which he later printed in order to give the proceeds from the sale to the children of Thönes. The collection to support the widow and her children was also collected on the Sunday after the execution .

literature

  • Dieter Heun and Heidi Rust: Burgdorf crime scene - spectacular and curious things from the Burgdorf crime story , 2013, published by the Burgdorf Transport and Beautification Association (there: Chapter 9 "Dogs digging up the corpse - a murder made Burgdorf internationally known").

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g : Convicted butcher master was dragged on a cow skin to the place of execution by Matthias Blazek on matthias-blazek.eu; Retrieved on May 26, 2016
    Sources named there
    • Gottfried Kittel (pastor in Altencelle): "Der Galgenberg" (Der Sachsenspiegel No. 7, 1938)
    • "Cellesche Advertisements" of March 17 and 24, 1847
    • "Hannoversche Advertisements" of April 7, 1847
    • Scheelje, Reinhard; Neumann, Heinz, History of the city of Burgdorf and its districts from the beginnings to the beginning of the 20th century, Burgdorf 1992, p. 242 f.
    • Lower Saxony State Archives - Main State Archives Hanover - Hann. 70 No. 3551: Investigation files of the Burgvogtei Celle against the butcher Heinrich Thöne from Burgdorf for the robbery murder of the butcher Friedrich Franz from Dungelbeck, 1845–1847 and 1860, in it: Report on the execution of the beheading; see. Eugen Freiherr von Hammerstein, The Sword of Justice, Braunschweig 1847
    • Church District Office Celle - Church Book Office-, Fritzenwiese 7, 29221 Celle
personal data
SURNAME Thöne, Georg Christian Heinrich David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thöne, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German executed robbery murderer
DATE OF BIRTH 1816 or 1817
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1847
Place of death on the Galgenberg near Celle