Execution sites on Wienerberg

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The places of execution on Wienerberg in today's 10th Viennese district of Favoriten were the high court at the spinner on the cross and the place of execution at the wheel cross to the north of it, closer to the city . These locations were both outside of the later Matzleinsdorfer line on Neustädter Straße (today Triester Straße ).

Execution sites in Vienna

There were a number of places of execution in medieval Vienna, regardless of which executions were sometimes carried out directly at the crime scene as a deterrent. Two of the longest used places for blood justice were those on Wienerberg , here the delinquents were executed by hanging, burning, heads, quarters and wheels.

Due to its exposed location and the commanding height above Vienna, the Wienerberg was an ideal place for a high court for the administration of justice at the time, as this was to be built as visible as possible and on a military road for the purpose of deterrence. With or without the hanged man, the gallows was a clear symbol of authority and justice.

Hochgericht am Wienerberg

A precise localization is not possible despite some pictorial representations, but it was apparently a short distance southeast of the spinner on the cross. Skeleton finds during construction work in 1927 south of today's Raxstrasse were identified as the graves of those executed there. Since these people were buried in the immediate vicinity of the place of execution at that time, it is to be assumed that it is between the Favoriten water tower and the housing developments behind the house at Triester Straße 85.

Example of a three-sided gallows on Irnfritz knives

According to the pictures mentioned, it was a "four-sleepy" gallows (also called four-sided gallows ), which was located on a man-high masonry platform, the Rabenstein. The supporting pillars of the crossbeams, which were also bricked, were for logical reasons more than a man's height, so that the total height of the building should have been 4 to 5 m. The "Zwerchbäume" (crossbars) for the rope loops were 5 fathoms and 2 shoes long, which corresponds to around 10 m (1 Viennese fathom was 1.80 m). The platform of the plinth could be entered through an internal staircase closed with a wooden door. The gallows ladder consisted of "2 stamb toe-tree-hacked Chörbamb."

The gallows were erected by carpenters, bricklayers and locksmiths. Since in the late Middle Ages the occupation of the "gallows carpenter" was not one of the honorable ones, the craftsmen - in order not to make their work appear too much as a trade - usually demanded a special fee instead of money. 1685 is a statement of the lower chamber office (the responsible Tax authority) noted: "All handicrafts Purschen, so in Neilliger repair of the high court at Vienna Perg worked on wine and Prodt 16 fl" ( Gulden ). As early as 1630, after the work was done, the craftsmen were given "four buckets of wine for a drink, as was customary for ages."

In order to improve its reputation, the craftsmen were allowed to hold a solemn procession during the construction of the building around the middle of the 16th century. During the repair of the gallows, which had been damaged by the Turks in 1529, a total of 163 people went to the high court in 1531, led by the instructor of the Viennese council, who had to speak the formula “pro nobis et successoribus” (for us and those following) when touching the gallows rope .

Wienerberg with Bildseul (spinner on the cross), to the left of it Hochgericht, lower left to Reder an der straß ; Vedute by Meldemann 1529

A mention in a chronicle of the year 1311 leaves open whether this high court or that of the wheel cross is meant (see next chapter), but it was probably built much earlier. The city law of Vienna from 1296 by Albrecht I (1255–1308) limits the truce "to the goal, since the statute judges as it is from old habit" . That could mean that the high court presumably already existed there under the Babenbergs . 1372 is the "galigen" as indicating a place in a deed of the provost of St. Stephen in Vienna on Getreidezehent Wienerberg.

For the first time in a pictorial representation, the high court on Wienerberg and the spinner on the cross can be seen together with the Reder an der straß (see next chapter) on a round view of the city of Vienna, which Nikolaus Meldemann made in 1529 on the occasion of the first Turkish siege. The place of execution is represented with two set up wheels, each with a delinquent on it and a stake next to it.

In 1747, on the orders of Maria Theresa, the Galgenplatz on Wienerberg was closed. Allegedly, she is said to have been too horrified to see the bodies hanging there on her trip to Laxenburg Castle . The high court was then transferred to the Rabenstein in the Rossau . In a filing of July 5, 1747, it was noted: “The high courts on Wienerberg should be dismissed and none should be built next there.” The place of execution at the wheel cross was also affected.

At the time it was in use, almost exclusively thieves and burglars were hanged on this gallows, and the more serious crimes were atoned for at the cross-wheel execution site. The last documented execution took place on March 23, 1747 of the two thieves Anton Lackomy and Johann Spet: "[...] executed on the Wienner-Berg with the rope from life to death."

After the gallows frame was demolished, only the field name "Galgenheide" soon reminded of this place until it was finally built.

Place of execution at the wheel cross

Reder on the road

Marian column (wheel cross); Photograph from 1868 (before demolition)

The history of this Reder at the execution site named straß is also in the dark, the first executions carried out there with sword and wheel are not recorded in any sources. It was to the east of what was then known as Neustädter Poststraße, today's Triester Straße, at the height of Davidgasse . A pictorial representation can be found on the above-mentioned Meldemann vedute.

A Marian column set up next to it was mentioned in 1372 as “Chrewz, das do stands on the Wienerperg by the gallows” , which was renovated in 1452 and has been referred to as a wheel, Röder or Röther cross since 1458 , also known as a Pinter cross . Renovations also took place in 1611 and 1704, as evidenced by inscriptions on the column. It was about 2.50 m high, crowned by a pietà and served as the last devotion for the delinquent. In 1839, Adolf Anton Schmidl described them in his work Vienna's Surroundings to be twenty hours in a circle, III. Volume , but with wrong years (he had misinterpreted the information on the column):

“Before you reach the top [of the Wienerberg], you notice a small elevation on the left of the street on which there is a stone Marian column, built in 1611, renovated in 1704. Several grave mounds next to it designate the place as the Viennese place of execution. The hill is therefore also called 'poor sinners hill', the statue the 'wheel cross'. "

It is not certain whether the execution of the Viennese rebel Johann Stadlawer (Johann von Stadlau ) in 1311, in which the delinquent was "tied to a horse by the tail, dragged out of the city and executed by bike" , took place there. An execution that was also carried out in 1462 was recorded precisely by the Lower Chamber Office because of the costs, but here too the location was uncertain.

In 1708 the execution of a woman was documented here for the first time, namely a 36-year-old child murderer, "at the Rötherkreuz head and the right hand on the wheel".

With Maria Theresa's decree of July 5, 1747, this place of execution was dismissed along with the high court on Wienerberg, but the wheel cross remained.

The New Vienna Gallows

In February 1802, the Viennese citizen Josef Raymund bought a piece of land from the Matzleinsdorfer Viehweide on Neustädter Poststrasse and built a brick oven there. This stood east of an elevation, called Poor Sinner Hill, with the preserved stone Marian column, the old wheel cross. In the immediate vicinity, i.e. almost exactly at the location of Reder an der Strasse , which was removed by order of Maria Theresia in 1747, the New Vienna Gallows was built in 1804 . The Raymund'sche brick oven then served as quarters for the soldiers who had to ensure order during an execution. The place of execution, including the cemetery and the Marian column, was surrounded by a lockable fence. The executed had to be taken from the gallows on the same day and buried next to it, and the scaffolding also had to be demolished immediately. The gallows cemetery also served as a burial place for suicides. Today this place is in the area of ​​the street front of the house Triester Straße 127.

At the urging of the Rossau residents, supported by their landlord, Prince Moritz von Liechtenstein , the place of execution was moved back to the Wienerberg. The first execution after the relocation of the gallows took place here on May 16, 1805. Between 1850 and 1868 all public executions in Vienna took place here. The condemned performed their last prayer at the Matzleinsdorf line chapel . The last person to be executed here was the carpenter's assistant Georg Ratkay on May 30th, 1868 , who on January 11th, 1868, killed his hostess with a plane.

The wheel cross had to be removed from its old place in 1868, as the re-routing of Triester Straße required this, as the column would then have stood in the middle of the roadway. The Magistrate of the City of Vienna therefore asked the Archbishop's Consistory whether there was an objection to this and whether the consistory had any other use for the column. The answer was positive to cancel and negative to further use. The already badly desolate wheel base was dismantled, its whereabouts can no longer be determined. A later assumption that it could have been set up in the Wiedner Hauptstrasse near the Florianikirche (popularly known as the “Rauchfangkehrerkirche”) turned out to be a mistake.

The onlookers were particularly interested in two executions on the New Vienna Gallows :

  • On March 16, 1809 Theresia Kandl was hanged for murdering her husband. According to contemporary reports, the young woman from Atzgersdorf , who is very pretty according to contemporary reports, married the Fragner (trader) Matthias Kandl on October 30, 1808, but after just 14 days there were disputes. Theresia decided to murder her husband and return to her former lover. She killed the sleeping man with several blows of the ax, pulled off his bloody robe and carried the corpse in a butte (back basket) as far away as possible. Out of stupidity or greed, she kept the clothes and the bloody bedding, was quickly convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Since she was the first woman to be hanged in Vienna, and was also young and beautiful, thousands of onlookers came to the execution. The Kandl chapel in her place of residence, today integrated into the fence around the Vienna South campsite on Breitenfurter Strasse, is still a reminder of this crime.
  • On August 30, 1827, Severin von Jaroszynski was executed for robbery and murder. The Podolian district marshal and false count had got into debt because of his lavish lifestyle and embezzled the funds entrusted to him. He wanted to rehabilitate himself with the murder and robbery of his former teacher Johann Conrad Blank , but quickly made himself suspicious, was arrested and convicted. Since the well-known Viennese actress Therese Krones was one of his many women acquaintances, the crowd at the “New Gallows” was enormous ( Adolf Bäuerle wrote about 200,000 people in his novel Therese Krones , albeit an unproven claim).

literature

  • Anton Lang: high court and wheel cross. The execution sites on Wienerberg. (= Favoritner museum sheets. No. 28). Museum association in the district museum Favoriten , Vienna 2002, OCLC 164999020 .
  • Werner Schubert: Favorites. District Museum Favoriten, Vienna 1992, OCLC 702368032
  • Walter Sturm: "... except for the line" favorites on Wienerberg. Contributions to the topography and settlement history in the area of ​​today's Viennese district “Favoriten”. (= Favoritner museum sheets. No. 30). Museum Association Favoriten, Vienna 2004, OCLC 198301526

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b storm: ... except the line. Pp. 10-11.
  2. ↑ Lang: High Court and wheels cross. P. 12.
  3. ↑ Rabenstein used to be the name for gallows with a brick or stone base
  4. ↑ Storm: ... except the line. P. 13.
  5. ↑ a b c Lang: Hochgericht and wheel cross. Pp. 19-21.
  6. ^ JE Schlager: Viennese sketches from the Middle Ages. printed by C. Gerold Co, Vienna 1836.
  7. ↑ the hanged people often stayed hanging on the rope until their rotting bodies fell down
  8. ↑ a b Lang: Hochgericht and wheel cross. Pp. 25-26.
  9. ^ Peter Csendes: Viennese criminal jurisdiction in the 17th century. In: Yearbook of the Association for the History of the City of Vienna. Volume 26. Association for the History of the City of Vienna, Vienna 1970, p. 103 f.
  10. ↑ Vienna's surroundings for twenty hours in a circle. Described by Adolf Schmidl after his own hikes. Printed and published by Carl Gerold, Vienna 1839 (Reprint 2002, Archiv Verlag Wien, 3 volumes, with a foreword by Peter Csendes )
  11. ^ Quotation from the chronicle of Mathias Fuhrmann (around 1690–1773), an Austrian Paulaner and historian
  12. ↑ Lang: High Court and wheels cross. Pp. 29-30.
  13. ↑ Lang: High Court and wheels cross. Pp. 49-50.
  14. ^ Werner Schubert: Favorites. Pp. 56-57.
  15. ↑ Lang: High Court and wheels cross. Pp. 31-32; wrong with Werner Schubert: favorites. indicated as being offset there.
  16. ↑ a b Lang: Hochgericht and wheel cross. Pp. 33-35.