Lorenz Schwietz

Lorenz Schwietz around 1890

Lorenz Schwietz (born July 25, 1850 in Groß Döbern , today: Dobrzeń Wielki, Opole district , in the Prussian province of Silesia ; † May 1925 in Breslau ) was the Royal Prussian executioner from June 21, 1900 to January 29, 1914 . He was responsible for carrying out the death penalty in the Prussian provinces and beheaded a total of 123 people, most of them with an ax and some with the guillotine .

prehistory

Schwietz first worked as a butcher, first in Breslau (today: Wrocław ), where he received the appropriate training, later in Ratibor (today: Racibórz ), both in Silesia, before he returned to Breslau to open a butcher shop there. Since 1886 he ran a masking shop in Breslau and also worked as an assistant to the Royal Prussian executioner Julius Krautz .

Krautz was also a skinner, he had to give up his office as executioner after he had killed his assistant Gummich in a tavern fight in self-defense in April 1889; The point of contention was the question of whether Krautz had rightly punished the assistant for drinking alcohol at work. Lorenz Schwietz was given the prospect of taking over the office of executioner in Breslau, but was rejected at the time because he had a criminal record. Executions in Prussia were carried out by members of the Reindel family. However, Friedrich Reindel retired in 1898 and Wilhelm Reindel had to stop in 1901; he had come to work several times drunk and was no longer able to reliably separate the convict's head from his torso with one blow.

Schwietz as an executioner

Schwietz became a certified executioner on June 21, 1900, and he carried out his first executions on August 8 and 9. In the same year Wilhelm Reindel's son-in-law Alwin Engelhardt was also a certified executioner. He claimed to be the only one to practice this profession in Prussia because he was unemployed, but Schwietz had other income. The Prussian Ministry of Justice decided that Schwietz should take over the executions in the parts of the country east of the Elbe, while its competitor should take over those west of the river. Engelhardt, however, also had an alcohol problem, as did his father-in-law. The authorities in Hanover, for example, refused to employ him. In 1906 he retired from the profession, and Lorenz Schwietz remained the only executioner in Prussia.

When Schwietz was called to an execution, he brought three or four assistants with him, a red-painted bench (which was invented by Friedrich Reindel and first used in 1883), a heavy ax, a wooden execution block and a black top hat. The group traveled by rail in third class at state expense. The convict and the executioner met for the first time on the evening before the execution. Schwietz formed a judgment about the physical and mental state of the delinquent , also in the event that resistance was to be expected. After the execution, he engraved the victim's name on his ax. In an interview, Schwietz stated that he has no remorse, but sees himself as someone who only serves earthly justice. Incidentally, the execution itself, especially the way I carried it out, is actually not a punishment for the terrible things these people have committed. The only thing that is terrible for most is the last hours, the time from the moment they know that they actually have to give up their lives .

Three of his assistants later became executioners themselves: Carl Gröpler , Joseph Kurz and Paul Spaethe. Spaethe succeeded Schwietz in 1914 and carried out several executions under his supervision during the First World War . After his wife died in January 1924, Spaethe shot himself on January 24, 1924. Kurz was to be his successor, but fell ill and died in 1927. Gröpler was a trained horse butcher, ran a laundry in Magdeburg and was appointed executioner as Schwietz and Spaethe were still active. In Nazi Germany he became a very busy executor. In 1946 he died in Soviet captivity.

End of life

Schwietz's wife died in 1923. The great inflation after the end of the First World War cost him all of his savings. Against the fixed rules of his profession, he publicly exhibited his hand ax with the names of the decapitated; the financial return was disappointing. He spent two years with little contact with the outside world in his mostly darkened apartment. In May 1925, Lorenz Schwietz shot himself with a revolver. In the year before his death he had published his memoir : The diary of the executioner Schwietz from Breslau about his 123 executions , edited by Helmuth Kionka, Ruessmann, Breslau 1924.

Three exemplary cases

In January 1908 the groom Friedrich Straß was executed in Bartenstein (Province of East Prussia , Kingdom of Prussia). He was sentenced to death on November 15, 1907 for murdering and robbing the pensioner Lappöhn and then burning down his house to cover up his crime. After Kaiser Wilhelm II waived his right of grace on January 15th, Strauss was beheaded with an ax by the executioner Lorenz Schwietz on January 24th at 8 a.m. in the courtyard of the court prison in Bartenstein. He remained tied to the end because he fiercely resisted the execution.

In February 1908 the worker Friedrich Ziegan was executed in Stettin (Province of Pomerania , Kingdom of Prussia). He had murdered the forester Krüger from Eggesin while poaching and was sentenced to death on September 28, 1907 by the jury in Stettin. On February 12th, Kaiser Wilhelm II renounced his right of grace and Friedrich Ziegan was beheaded with an ax by the executioner Lorenz Schwietz on February 27th, 1908 at 7 a.m. in the courtyard of the Stettin court prison.

In April 1908 the trader Pauline Scholz was executed in Hirschberg (Province of Silesia , Kingdom of Prussia). The 67-year-old worker Wendelin Schäffer lived in her house. He had a fortune of 2,000 marks and was looking for a new partner through advertisements, but died a short time later. In a testament Pauline Scholz was named as sole heir. Schäffer's death appeared as suspicious as the will. Large amounts of arsenic were found in his corpse, and several bottles of this poison were discovered in Frau Scholz's household. She was sentenced to death on October 16, 1907, and beheaded by executioner Schwietz with an ax on April 30, 1908 at 6 a.m. in the courtyard of the court prison in Hirschberg.

literature

• Matthias Blazek: Executioner in Prussia and in the German Empire 1866–1945 . ibidem: Stuttgart 2010 ISBN 978-3-8382-0107-8

Web links

• Stefan Appelius: "To the heck with him", one day - contemporary stories on SPIEGEL ONLINE
• Pages about the death penalty around 100 years ago

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In detail: Blazek, Matthias: "Executioners in Prussia 1866–1945: Julius Krautz (1843–1921)". In: Journal of legal contemporary history, issue 1/2011, ed. v. Thomas Vormbaum, De Gruyter, Hagen 2011, pp. 21–23. ISSN  1863-9984 .
2. ↑ Cf. Blazek, Matthias: "Mr. Public Prosecutor, the judgment has been carried out." The brothers Wilhelm and Friedrich Reindel: Executioners in the service of the North German Confederation and His Majesty 1843–1898, ibidem: Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-8382-0277 -8 .
3. ↑ Appelius, Stefan: "To the hangman with him" on one day - contemporary stories on SPIEGEL ONLINE .
4. ↑ Pages on the death penalty around 100 years ago .