Execution sites in Stuttgart

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Execution of Joseph Suess Oppenheimer on Wolframshalde in Stuttgart, 1738.

The most famous public execution sites in Stuttgart were:

  • the gallows on the Schellberg
  • the gallows on the Wolframshalde
  • the main place on Wilhelmsplatz.

Two spectacular executions on Wolframshalde caused a great national sensation: the execution of the gold maker Georg Honauer, who could not convert iron into gold, and the execution of the court factor Joseph Suess Oppenheimer, who was the victim of a judicial murder.

From 1845 there were no more public executions in Stuttgart. During the time of National Socialism, one of the largest central, non-public execution sites of the Third Reich was located in the Stuttgart judicial building, see Stuttgart Regional Court, memorial .

Execution sites

The places of execution in Stuttgart are only incompletely and partly contradictingly documented. The main sources are two annotated illustrated books by the Stuttgart local researcher Gustav Wais , the field name book by Helmut Dölker and the multi-volume works on the history of Stuttgart by Karl Pfaff and Paul Sauer .

The oldest Stuttgart high court on the Schellberg was in operation at least until 1447, after Karl Pfaff also again from 1811. Around 1447 a gallows was built on the Wolframshalde, and in 1597 an iron high gallows. In 1788 the gallows on the Wolframshalde were cleared. Since 1581 there has been a decapitation site called the main place on today's Wilhelmsplatz. In 1811 the gallows on Wolframshalde and the main place were given up. Public executions now took place in different locations, including on the Feuerbacher Heide in Stuttgart-Nord , where the last public execution, the beheading of Christiane Ruthardt, took place in 1845 .

City map section with the Schellberg, map from 1909.

Schellberg

Approximate former location: World icon

The oldest Stuttgart high court was first mentioned in 1382. It stood on the Schellberg, a wine-growing area on the slope of the Ameisenberg between Uhlandshöhe and Haußmannstrasse (formerly Kanonenweg). The exact location of the gallows in the now completely built-up area is not known. The field name Schellberg is probably derived from the Middle High German word Scheuel, which means something like abhorrence.

Due to the complaints of the winery owners about the "bad and bad taste" that spread from the place of execution to the surrounding area, the gallows was moved to the Wolframshalde, which was first mentioned in 1447 as Galgenberg. According to Karl Pfaff, the gallows were moved from Wolframshalde back to its old location on Schellberg in 1811; according to Paul Sauer, the executions took place at different locations from 1811 onwards.

Wolframshalde

City map section with Wolframshalde and Rebenberg, map from 1905.

Approximate former location: World icon

Since 1447 at the latest, a gallows had stood outside the city wall behind the Königstor on Wolframshalde, namely on the parcel southwest of the Prague cemetery , later known as Rebenberg , between the two outer Conradi high-rise buildings (buildings Friedhofstrasse 25 and 11). The Rebenberg met Ludwigsburger Strasse (today Nordbahnhofstrasse), which in this area was also called Galgensteige.

A triangular gallows stood on the gallows hill, from which three convicts could be hung at the same time. It could be recognized from afar in the city by its significant silhouette. In 1597, a tall iron gallows was also erected for the execution of Georg Honauer and reused for the execution of Joseph Suss Oppenheimer in 1738.

In 1788 the gallows on the Wolframshalde were broken off "in order to deprive travelers of the terrible sight of them". After Paul Sauer, there was apparently no longer any realignment, as the executions with hanging had become rare, so that it was no longer worthwhile for them to have their own place of execution. However, public executions continued to take place in different locations. After Karl Pfaff, the gallows was reinstalled in its old place on Schellberg in 1811.

In 1838 Ernestine Elise Freiin von König had the Villa Rebenberg built on the Rebenberg (address: Ludwigsburger Straße 17F), which in 1910 had to give way to the expansion of the main station.

The Galgenberg on Wolframshalde became famous nationwide through two spectacular executions: the execution:

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  • View from the Bopser to the Galgenberg with the triangular boom and the high boom (center), 1624. → Photo  commentary .

  • Map with the "Stuttgardt Haubtgericht" and the "Cantstatter Haubtgericht" on the Feuerbacher Heide, 1720. →  Image commentary .

  • View from Rebenberg to Stuttgart. At the bottom right of the picture: the three buildings of Villa Rebenberg, around 1860. →  Photo commentary .

Main place

Former location: World icon

Outside the city wall in front of the Hauptstätter Tor, there was a place of execution on today's Wilhelmsplatz, mentioned in 1451, where beheadings with the sword took place. They were seen as a "milder" death penalty than hanging on the gallows. In particular, this type of death penalty was imposed on women because they were generally not hanged. In his Stuttgart history, Paul Sauer impressively describes over a dozen fates of delinquents who were sentenced to the death penalty by beheading.

The place of execution was called Hauptstatt, hence the name of the Hauptstätter Straße , which leads past Wilhelmsplatz. The Richtstraße at Wilhelmsplatz was called Scharfrichtergäßlein until 1811. It's a short, narrow alley and is reminiscent of the time when the executioner lived here in the immediate vicinity of his workplace on Wilhelmsplatz.

In 1581 the main place was surrounded with a circular, half-meter high wall to increase the place of beheading and the interior was filled with earth. The main place was popularly called the cheese because of its round shape. In 1811 the cheese was broken off to save travelers the unpleasant sight of an execution site.

Today Wilhelmsplatz is transformed into a market square once a week, and on the last weekend of July of the year the hangman's festival is celebrated, which business-minded restaurateurs launched in 1994, but not as a reminder of the many sad fates that have come true on the square .

  • City map with main office (bottom left), around 1750.

  • Example of a round decapitation site ( Hanau High Court ).

  • Wilhelmsplatz with Sigmundbrunnen, 2012.

Famous executions

Georg Honauer

Flyer on the execution of Georg Honauer, 1597.

→ Main article: Georg Honauer .

The alchemist and goldsmith Georg Honauer (1572–1597) offered under fraudulent pretenses to convert iron into gold for the Württemberg Duke Friedrich I. When he failed to prove it, the duke had the 24-year-old sentenced to death by hanging in 1597. He had a 12-meter-high gallows built with a frame of gilded iron bars especially for this execution. To ridicule the delinquent, he was also led to the place of execution in a garment covered with gold tinsel. In total, the Duke had the spectacle cost 3,000 guilders.

The sensational execution was intended as a deterrent and was therefore advertised through leaflets. But neither the duke nor the fraudulent goldmakers learned anything: in the period that followed, the duke fell for three other goldmakers, whom he also executed in the usual manner.

Joseph Suess Oppenheimer

→ Main article: Joseph Suess Oppenheimer .

The Jewish finance broker and banker Joseph Suss Oppenheimer (1698–1738) was appointed to the Secret Finance Council and political advisor under Duke Karl Alexander . The successful restructuring of the state, which took place under Oppenheimer's aegis, aroused envy, hatred and anti-Jewish resentment among many state officials and citizens. After the Duke's death, the 40-year-old Oppenheimer was sentenced to death in a secret trial in 1738.

The verdict was pronounced in the mansion on Stuttgart's market square, where Oppenheimer was on hunger strike on his death row. He was tied up on a cart that a blind horse pulled on the two-kilometer road through the city to the Galgenberg on Wolframshalde. A huge crowd of onlookers, including the honors in the custom-made bleachers, watched the execution ceremony intoxicated. The iron high gallows, which Duke Friedrich I had specially made for Georg Honauer, was reused for Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was not hanged, however, but rather pushed up the 49 steps to the gallows by executioners and strangled with a rope. His body was placed in an iron cage, where it was displayed for six years. After Duke Carl Eugen took office in 1744, the body was removed from the cage and buried.

A macabre detail: the bars of the iron cage were allegedly reused in 1837 for the construction of the Villa Taubenheim at Oberen Weinsteige 8 to make the balcony grilles (or the roof terrace grilles?). When the building was renovated in 2010–2011, the balcony grille was replaced by a glass railing, the roof terrace grille was retained.

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  • Manor house on Stuttgart's market square, removal by Joseph Süß Oppenheimer.

  • Procession to the Galgenberg.

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  • Mockery Leaflet, 1738.

  • Villa Taubenheim, 2011.

literature

  • Villa Rebenberg. In: Gebhard Blank: Stuttgart villas in the 19th century. A booklet accompanying the exhibition in the Wilhelms-Palais from March 18 to August 16, 1987. Stuttgart 1987, page 22.
  • Helmut Dölker: The field names of the city of Stuttgart. The names of the city center and the districts of Berg, Gablenberg and Heslach. Reprint of the 1933 edition, supplemented by 41 illustrations and 2 maps , Stuttgart 1982.
  • Eugen Dolmetsch: From the past days of Stuttgart (second volume of “Pictures from Old Stuttgart”). Self-experienced and retold. Stuttgart 1931, pages 5-6. - Recycling of the iron cage from Joseph Suss Oppenheimer's execution as a balcony railing of Villa Taubenheim.
  • Karl Klöpping: The arm sinners cemetery. In: Historic cemeteries of old Stuttgart, Volume 1: Sankt Jakobus bis Hoppenlau; a contribution to the history of the town with a guide to the graves of the Hoppenlaufriedhof , Stuttgart 1991, pages 110–114.
  • Karl Pfaff : History of the city of Stuttgart based on archival documents and other proven sources.
    • Volume 1: History of the city from the oldest times up to the year 1650. Stuttgart 1845, reprint Frankfurt am Main 1981, pages 152–156.
    • Volume 2: History of the city from 1651 to 1845. Stuttgart 1846, reprint Frankfurt am Main 1981, pages 197-199.
  • Paul Sauer : History of the City of Stuttgart.
    • Volume 2: From the introduction of the Reformation to the end of the 17th century. Stuttgart 1993, pp. 105-111, 280-292.
    • Volume 3: From the beginning of the 18th century to the conclusion of the constitutional treaty for the Kingdom of Württemberg in 1819. Stuttgart 1995, pages 187–194.
  • Johann Stridbeck : Stutgart with the area on 2 hours , monochrome copper engraving, 20 × 13 cm. In: Gabriel Bodenehr (editor): Atlas Curieux or Neuer and Compendieuser Atlas. Augsburg 1720, map 81, online . - Map of the area around Stuttgart with the "Iron Gallows" on the Wolframshalde ( excerpt ).
  • Gustav Wais :
    • Old Stuttgart buildings in the picture: 640 pictures, including 2 colored ones, with explanations of city history, architectural history and art history. Stuttgart 1951, reprint Frankfurt am Main 1977, page 226.
    • Old Stuttgart. The oldest buildings, views and city plans up to 1800. With city history, architectural history and art history explanations. Stuttgart 1954, pp. 79-81, 176, 194, plates 10, 24, 44.

Web links

Commons : Richtstätten in Stuttgart  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ #Wais 1951.1 , page 80.
  2. ↑ #Wais 1954.2 , pages 79–80, # Dölker 1982 , number 514, 593. - Today's Schellbergstrasse runs over the Schellberg.
  3. ↑ # Dölker 1982 , number 514.
  4. ↑ # Dölker 1982 , number 593, shows that the gallows was moved from Schellberg to Wolframshalde and not, as in #Pfaff 1845 , page 154, erroneously assumed in the area of ​​the "sinner".
  5. ↑ # Dölker 1982 , number 432, 514.
  6. ↑ #Wais 1951.1 , page 226. #Sauer 1995 , page 189.
  7. ↑ # Dölker 1982 , number 434, 436, 593.
  8. ↑ On the plan of the Stöckach site from 1710/1738 both gallows are shown ( #Wais 1954.2 , plate 44, top right corner.)
  9. ↑ #Pfaff 1846 , page 199, #Sauer 1995 , page 189.
  10. ↑ #Sauer 1995 , page 189.
  11. ↑ #Wais 1951.1 , page 226.
  12. ↑ #Blank 1987 , #Wais 1954.2 , page 80.
  13. ↑ #Sauer 1995 , page 189.
  14. ↑ #Sauer 1995 , page 187-189.
  15. ↑ A bricked-up place of execution is also known as a Rabenstein.
  16. ↑ #Pfaff 1845 , page 156, #Pfaff 1846 , page 199, #Sauer 1995 , pages 187-189, #Wais 1951.1 , page 473.
  17. ↑ Jonathan Sauter's cityscape from 1592 already shows the main place (A '): File: Alte Stuttgart-Plans, 007.jpg , and on Matthäus Merian's map of Stuttgart from 1634: File: Matthäus Merian, Stuttgart, 1634.jpg (left below).
  18. ↑ No photo documents have survived from the Stuttgart beheading site.
  19. ↑ #Pfaff 1845 , page 154-156.
  20. ↑ # interpreting 1931 .