Central execution site

A central execution site was a particularly suitable location, declared locally responsible for certain administrative territorial units, for the execution of the death penalty .

The centralized execution of executions arose from the idea of a simplification of the execution of sentences and the demand for a largely secret execution of the execution act . The death penalty threatened by law was carried out in central execution sites , especially in National Socialist Germany and the GDR .

German Empire 1933–1945

Establishment from 1936

In the National Socialist German Reich , central execution sites were established across the board from 1936. A central execution site there was previously only in two countries, in Thuringia and Hesse (all death sentences Thuringia were in the court prison Weimar by the guillotine enforced death sentences in Hesse also the guillotine in the penitentiary Butzbach ). In the other countries, until 1936, the execution of death sentences was carried out in the place closest to the sentencing court .

About the method of execution, the Criminal Code only contained the provision (Section 13) that it was " to be carried out by decapitation ." The preparation and follow-up of the execution and in particular the decapitation tool were not specified. The majority of the northern states of the German Empire (such as Prussia ) used the hand ax until the mid-1930s , other states (such as Bavaria and Saxony ) used guillotine devices. The execution of the death sentences took place in the enclosed space of a penal institution , whereby the term “enclosed space” did not mean a space that was enclosed on all sides, but merely a place more or less protected from view. This meant that in most German countries executions took place in the open air in the courtyard of a penal institution, which was usually not adequately protected from inspection.

With the coming to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933 converted DC circuit meant to allow death sentences be enforced only in a few, very specific and uniformly throughout the Reich are scattered around prisons in the future. The death penalty was no longer carried out near the sentencing court, but in the relevant central execution site. The area-wide establishment of central execution sites was also closely connected with the introduction of mechanical decapitation devices ( guillotine ). On October 14, 1936 , at the suggestion of Reich Justice Minister Franz Gürtner, Hitler ordered that the death penalty in the German Reich should in future only be carried out with the guillotine. "If the death penalty is to be carried out by beheading, the guillotine must be used," it said.

Since not every German penal institution had a guillotine device, it often had to be brought to the place of execution. Because of their weight (around 500 kg) and their bulky dimensions (some over four meters high), the devices had to be kept disassembled in boxes and transported. Transport and construction were time-consuming, time-consuming and costly and, above all, not kept sufficiently secret, as numerous workers had to be called in. The structure of the guillotine device in the courtyard could not be hidden from view inside the prison. These problems were solved with the determination of selected execution locations for central execution sites and the installation of stationary guillotine devices in all-round enclosed (roofed) rooms. However, some of the existing guillotine devices were too tall to be installed in covered spaces, and they were also outdated and unreliable. New, modern and, above all, smaller decapitation machines were therefore procured. From the 240 penal institutions of the German Reich, eleven were designated permanent places of execution for the death penalty in 1936 and gradually equipped with execution wings and permanently installed guillotines by the end of 1938. For those sentenced to death, the construction of the central execution sites often meant costly and extensive transports to the place of execution if the sentencing court was not also the site of an execution site.

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

Since the number of death sentences in the German Reich increased steadily and sharply at the beginning of the war in September 1939 due to stricter penal legislation and the radicalization of the courts, the gradual establishment of ten executioner commands was necessary by the end of 1944 , which were those in so-called execution or execution districts had to look after summarized places of execution. On behalf of the Reich Justice Administration, they had to carry out the death penalty in the German Reich by beheading or hanging. By the end of the war in 1945, the Reich Justice Administration increased the number of central execution sites under the conditions of the war (shortage of fuel and raw materials, overload of the supervisory staff at one point, lack of transport capacities, danger from air raids) to 22.

Execution by hanging was permitted by the Law on the Imposition and Execution of the Death Penalty of March 29, 1933, but was not used until 1942. When the first death sentences had to be carried out by hanging in the core area of the German Reich at the end of 1942, almost all central execution sites were also provided with a hanging device that was installed in the same room as the guillotine. The execution was only intended for the execution of martial death sentences, but also as an "emergency execution solution" in the event that the equipment at the central execution sites should fail or the executioners' squad should not be available. When the Wehrmacht was overloaded with the execution of its own ( martial law ) death sentences, the High Command of the Wehrmacht reached an agreement with the Reich Ministry of Justice in 1943 that the execution of martial death sentences within the Reich territory in the central execution sites of the Reich Justice Administration by beheading or hanging. The prosecution against Jews , " Gypsies ", Poland and Russia has since 1943 more and more of the SS left.

Locations in 1944

In December 1944, the following penal institutions of the German Reich, equipped as central execution sites, had to ensure not only the execution of custodial sentences, but also that of the death penalty by beheading the ax or hanging:

Enforcement District	Prison (s)	competent executioner	with residence in
I.	Poznan Penitentiary	Thank God Bordt	Poses
II	Königsberg remand prison Gdansk remand prison	Karl Henschke	Koenigsberg
III	Wroclaw Prison Katowice Prison	August Koester	Katowice
IV	Berlin-Plötzensee prison, Brandenburg-Görden prison	Wilhelm Roettger	Berlin
V	Hamburg- Stadt pre- trial detention center ( Dreibergen penitentiary from mid-December 1944 ) Wolfenbüttel prison	Friedrich Hehr	Hanover
VI	Dresden remand prison Weimar prison prison Halle (Saale)	Alfred Roselieb	Halle (Saale)
VII	Cologne- Klingelpütz Prison Detention Center Dortmund Prison Frankfurt a. M. Preungesheim	Johann Mühl	Cologne
VIII	Prison Munich-Stadelheim Remand prison Stuttgart Bruchsal prison	Johann Reichhart	Munich
IX	Pretrial detention center in Prague-Pankratz	Alois Weiss	Prague
X	Pretrial Prison Vienna I Pretrial Prison Graz	Fritz Witzka	Vienna

German Democratic Republic

Dresden location (1952–1956)

A central execution site was in operation in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1952. For this purpose, the central execution site for the Saxon judicial districts set up in Dresden during the National Socialist dictatorship in the building of the former royal Saxon district court was initially used as the central execution site for the GDR using the guillotine from the Third Reich - which was removed shortly before the end of the war, but then recovered and recovered was prepared - continued.

The bodies of the executed were brought to the nearby Tolkewitz crematorium in the greatest secrecy and cremated anonymously. The ashes were buried on the urn grove in "Collection Point C, Field III", where the urns of those executed are lying on an unplanted part of the collection point. In 1957 the Dresden courthouse was taken over by the TU Dresden .

Leipzig location (1956–1987)

Entrance to the central execution site in Leipzig
Memorial plaque at the entrance

As early as 1956, it was decided to move the central execution site to Leipzig . From 1960 to 1981 she was in the correctional facility in the building of the former Royal District Court . A total of 64 people were executed on the ground floor of Arndtstrasse 48 in Leipzig. Initially, this continued to be done with the guillotine, but since 1968 by shooting ( unexpected close-up shot in the back of the convict's head). Captain Hermann Lorenz acted as shooter in executions from 1969 to 1981 . The shooting took place in the same room in which the execution by guillotine was previously carried out. The last execution in the GDR took place there on June 26, 1981 ( Werner Teske ), before the State Council announced the abolition of the death penalty on July 17, 1987, which was finally incorporated into the GDR's penal code in December 1987 following a decision by the People's Chamber .

The corpses of those executed were brought to the nearby Südfriedhof in the greatest of secrecy and anonymously burned. There are no names in the crematorium books , only the comment "Anatomy". The ashes were buried anonymously.

Place of remembrance

A plaque on the house wall designed by Leipzig artist Gerd E. Nawroth has been a reminder since 2008 of the former execution site, which was placed under a preservation order since the prison moved out in 2001. The rooms are currently only accessible on selected occasions, but the aim is to open up a museum and create a permanent place of remembrance. In the future, the historic site should be regularly accessible to interested parties. The Citizens Committee Leipzig eV is working on behalf of the Saxon State Ministry of Justice on a concept for the preservation of the former place of execution and its use as a place of remembrance of the history of the judiciary . In June 2016, the Saxon Memorials Foundation announced that the redesign of the rooms could begin.

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 .

Richard J. Evans : Rituals of Retribution. The death penalty in German history 1532–1987 . Kindler, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-463-40400-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ www.gdw-berlin.de .
↑ Executions: Large white envelope , accessed August 12, 2015.
↑ Press release on the Foundation's website , accessed on July 6, 2016.

[1] www.gdw-berlin.de .

[2] Executions: Large white envelope , accessed August 12, 2015.

[3] Press release on the Foundation's website , accessed on July 6, 2016.