The guillotine to the French was more than just an execution method, it was considered
the representation of the French Revolution.
It was seen as the device that freed the French from the oppression of the monarchy as Louis
XVI and Marie Antoinette the King and Queen were killed on it.
But the guillotine was used in a number of different lands, and it was not exclusively
used in just France.
It took inspiration from earlier execution devices such as the Halifax Gibbet which was
a falling axe blade on a wooden structure used inside of Medieval England.
But the German guillotine or the Fallbeil was even used during the Nazi’s Third Reich.
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The guillotine was adopted by many German states, and at the time hand axes were also
used to execute criminals in manners such as beheadings.
The French guillotine spread to surrounding countries during the time of the Revolution,
and despite the Terror claiming thousands of lives in France, shocking many, the Germans
saw the ideas of the revolution as forward thinking.
Some areas of Germany also reformed their ideas and they adopted the guillotine as an
execute method around the 1800s.
In Germany the guillotine was renamed the Fallbeil, which translated as The Drop Axe
and over the years it evolved in a different way to the French guillotine.
Early fallbeils were identical to the 1700s guillotine, but within 100 years they had
been made mostly from metal.
One of them the Hamburg Fallbeil was used from 1856 to 1933, and the blade shape and
release mechanism were very different to how it was initially designed.
On the permanent scaffold was a trap hatch which allowed the body after death to be dropped
down into a coffin in the room below which was like a shed.
This was also held inside of a prison which allowed executions to be done in private away
from the view of the people, and this specific machine was used for 17 executions.
But by the time the Nazis came into power, the Fallbeils around Germany were being used
to claim the lives of anyone who opposed the Nazi regime.
One lady Grete Beier was executed by the Fallbeil in 1908.
She was the daughter of the mayor of Freiburg and was a popular young girl who poisoned
and shot her fiancé as she did not love him.
But she felt trapped by her families wishes to marry him, and she forged a note that made
it look like her fiancé had taken his own life, but she was caught and confessed.
She was beheaded by the Fallbeil on the 23rd July 1908 and was just 22 when she was executed
by executioner Moritz Brand.
This Fallbeil had tall posts, but no place for the body to be placed inside of, and it
was used in Weimar commonly.
There were a number of executioners though who were very comfortable and adept at using
the Fallbeil.
Many of them were photographed next to their execution device, and seemingly look proud
in their executioners clothes.
They were shown dressed in suits and topmast, and the executioners also used assistants.
The scaffold would also have a pile of sand and sawdust under the head bucket which was
there to catch the head.
This was done to soak up the blood of the victim, but executioners often stayed on for
years.
One family associated with the Fallbeil was the Reichharts, and Johann Reichart assumed
the job taking over from his uncle, and he became an infamous Nazi executioner.
As mentioned some Fallbeil’s were more compact and some were all made of metal.
They often had a metal gliding frame in which the slanted blade would be guided through
before it hit the victim.
The drop axe was often very heavy and would be around 70kgs in weight.
When executions occurred with this machine, the condemned would step on the footrest before
they were then strapped with two leather belts to a wooden board.
This board was then slide into place and tilted, before the board with the person on would
be slide under the blade and then locked into place.
Very quickly the blade was released, and an execution would be performed in seconds.
There was often a gutter that was connected to the Fallbeil’s scaffold in which blood
would run into a drain or would capture the spillages and mess.
Above the device was often a small bell which was attached to a prison wall, and this was
referred to as the Sinner’s bell, and would be rang continuously during an execution.
Black curtains were also found inside the execution chambers, as privacy would be granted
to the victims, this was even used during the Nazi regime.
But Johann Reichhart and his Fallbeil became infamous for their executions during Hitler’s
time in power.
He executed around 3000 people using the guillotine in different prisons around Germany, and the
majority of the victims were those who resisted the Nazi regime.
His most famous execution was of Sophie Scholl a prominent member of the white rose movement,
who resisted Hitler and tried to encourage other people to rise up.
He later said Sophie was the bravest person he had to execute.
This specific Fallbeil was destroyed at the end of the war, however it’s believed it
may have actually just been hidden and it resurfaced in a Bavarian museum.
Older wooden German guillotines eventually were retired by the more compact metal machines,
and they were refurbished even down to the head bucket which was given a easier to wash
metal upgrade.
Many of these guillotines were captured by the allies during the Second World War, and
one was actually put back into service by the British which was used to execute criminals
sentenced to death under German law even after the war.
Those that were sentenced to death by Allied War crimes tribunals were killed by hanging,
but German courts sentenced those to death by beheading.
Some were even fitted with steel tables and tilting planks, but it was inside of prisons
were fallbeils were used.
In particular inside the execution chamber at Plotzensee Prison, many members of resistance
groups to the Nazis were executed using it.
They were also used in Czecholslovakia and in occupied lands, for example in Pankrac
Prison the Tegel Fallbeil was used to execute over 100 people during the German occupation.
Most of the victims of these were Czech citizens who resisted the Nazi occupation.
Just 12 days before Germany surrendered in the area, the machine was used to execute
5 people.
But for four years after the end of the Second World War, the death penalty was used in West
Germany.
There was reluctance to used these instruments of execution on war criminals, as many of
the former victims of the Fallbeil such as Sophie and Hans Scholl were considered victims
and martyrs of the device.
Some fallbeils were still being made in the 1950s, but today they can be seen inside of
prisons and museums.
The Fallbeil was considered a very quick execution device, and within seconds someone could be
killed on it.
It often took less than 10 seconds to take someones head clean off using the German device,
and it was very efficient.
The Germans refined the device that was used by the French and used it to take the lives
of thousands of people during the Third Reich.
It was a device synonymous with the executions of those men and women who defied Hitler.
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