MFDJ 07/25/24: Executioner Schmidt

Today’s Revolting Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

An excerpt from the introduction of A Hangman’s Diary: The Journal of Master Franz Schmidt, Public Executioner of Nuremberg, 1573-1617:

During the earliest recorded years of the city of Nuremberg, Germany’s history the death penalty seems, after conviction, to have been carried out by the accuser, who strung up the criminal on any suitable tree or post. Sometimes, with an eye to poetic justice, the wrong-doer was made to suffer on the very spot where he had committed the crime. Such a method, however, was soon considered to be incompatible with the dignity of the court that had pronounced judgment; it also brought undesirable odium on the accuser; so that gradually the task devolved on the Züchtiger, an official entrusted with the infliction of torture and of other forms of punishment. The prosecutor was, nevertheless, required to provide or pay for the rope, the fuel for the pyre, and similar necessary items; a regulation that soon became obsolete in practice, although it figures on the statutes as late as the sixteenth century.

The executioner, known as the ‘Mate of Death,’ the Hoher, the Haher, the Suspensor and, later, as the henker, Nachrichter, or, more commonly, the Scharfrichter, was a person of considerable importance as well as infamy. The City records show that it was difficult to find a skilled and, at the same time, reputable practitioner to fill the post. Many of those recruited were mere ruffians who themselves perished on the scaffold. Thus in 1386 Meister Friedrich was burnt alive at Windsheim as a coiner; in 1479 Meister Hans was beheaded for treason by his assistant; in 1503 an executioner killed his Lowe in the course of a quarrel over the rightful division of moneys received for dispatching five criminals. On the other hand, in 1497 Meister Jorg, after many years of office, was made a freeman of the City. Some hangmen seem to have shown comparative humanity, for in 1507 Hans Peck earned a sharp reproof on account of the leniency with which he had treated a poor fellow condemned to the pillory.

The office was not without its dangers. In 1544 hangman Kester was murdered in the presence of a number of peasants, who made no attempt to interfere with, still less to secure, the murderer. It is therefore not surprising to find that some artists, either on this account or from the more respectable motive of humanity, gave up their post.

From about 1350 we have a fairly complete list of the Nuremberg executioners, together with many details respecting their office and careers. Perhaps the most famous, as well as the most respectable of all the sinister list, was Meister Franz Schmidt, author of the diary from which are taken the entries translated in this book. After acting for five years as assistant to his father, who was executioner to the Bishop of Bamberg, Schmidt settled in Nuremberg, where he acted as chief Scharfrichter from 1578 to 1617. During this period, according to his journal, he executed 361 persons and otherwise punished 345 minor criminals; but the record is incomplete.


Executioner Franz Schmidt in action

Schmidt had some education, and also scientific tastes, which led him to dissect a number of his victims. He seems to have been superior to most who practised his revolting trade; a stern man, but not altogether inhuman, and inspired by a grim piety, as his diary shows. His disapproval of harsh punishment for those charged with witchcraft is to his credit, since every infliction of torture and each execution brought him heavy fees. Humane feelings also made him oppose the drowning of women, a practice that often entailed very protracted suffering. At his suggestion, this method was changed into hanging or beheading, a swifter if equally stern procedure.

In 1585 he had the unpleasant duty of executing his brother-in-law by breaking him on the wheel. On his way to the gallows the criminal was punished with the red hot tongs. Only two tweaks were inflicted, the rest being remitted by the Council as a special favor, possibly out of regard for the presumed feelings of Schmidt. The two held a long and apparently edifying discourse of which the condemned man was allowed to embrace his daughter. In the end the conscientious Franz dispatched his relative with no less than thirty-one strokes of the bar.

As a reward for his services, in 1584 Schmidt was granted full pay during life, and his lodgings were thoroughly renovated. He resigned in 1617, on which occasion he notes in his diary that he is once more a “respectable” person.

Culled from: A Hangman’s Diary

 

Arcane Excerpts: Uh-oh! Edition

Years ago when I was a data entry examiner for Medicare, I read a post-op report detailing a horrible accident that befell a man when he sat down on a chair naked after a shower and a screwdriver became unexpectedly lodged in his rectum!  This is the 1811 version of that story.

This article about a most unfortunate man was culled from the 1811 Eclectic Repertory and Analytical Review.

A gentleman of an inactive and sedentary disposition had for many years suffered from constipated bowels, which increased to that degree that the most active cathartics failed in producing the desired effect. By the advice of a practitioner, whom he consulted in Paris, he daily introduced into the rectum a piece of flexible cane (about a finger’s thickness), where it was allowed to remain until the desire for evacuating the faeces came on. This plan succeeded so well that for more than a twelve month he never had occasion to resort to any other means. One morning, being anxious to fulfil a particular engagement in good time, in his hurry he passed the stick farther up, and with less caution than usual, when it was suddenly sucked up into the body, beyond the reach of his fingers. This accident, however, did not interrupt the free discharge of the faeces, and the same evacuation regularly took place every day, whilst the stick remained in the gut. It was seven days afterwards when I first saw him; he was in a very distressed state, with every symptom of fever, tension of the abdomen, and a countenance expressive of the greatest anxiety. His relatives and friends were totally ignorant of the real nature of his case; and nothing less than the urgency of his sufferings, could ever have prevailed upon him to disclose it to me. Such were his feelings on the occasion, that a violent hysteric fit was brought on by the mere recital of what he termed his folly.

After repeated trials I was at length enabled, with a bougie to feel one extremity of the stick lodged high up in the rectum; but without being able to lay hold of it with the stone forceps. To allay the irritation for the present, an emollient clyster, with tinct. opii.3ij, was given, which passed without the lest impediment, and did not return. On the next examination, two hours after, I found the sphincter ani considerably dilated, and by a continued perseverance to increase it, the relaxation became so complete, that in about twenty minutes I was enabled to introduce one finger after the other, until the whole hand was engaged in the rectum.

I found the end of the stick jammed in the hollow of the sacrum, but by bending the body forward it was readily disengaged, and extracted. Its length was nine inches and a half, with one extremity very ragged and uneven.

For several days after, the situation of the patient was highly critical, the local injury, joined to the perturbation of his mind, brought on symptoms truly alarming. At length I had the satisfaction to witness his complete recovery; and he has ever since (more than two years ago) enjoyed good health, and the regular action of the bowels, without he assistance of medicines, or any other aid.

It’s a miracle cure!! – DeSpair

 

Garretdom!

Many years ago, a fascinating collection of scrapbooks containing newspaper articles from the 1880’s/90’s appeared on eBay. The scrapbooks were obviously compiled by a kindred soul, as all of the articles were Grim, and were meticulously pasted into old textbooks.  I tried to purchase the collection from the lucky soul who found them at an auction, but he quickly realized what he had and started selling them on eBay where they went for astronomical amounts.  I was able to talk him into making copies of the books for me before he sold them off, and I’ve been slowly using them for my vintage newspaper Garretdom collection over the years.

I enjoyed the daily Andersonville prison entries that I did earlier this year and thought I’d start sharing daily news articles from these fascinating scrapbooks.  I’ll add them to the Garretdom archives, but in most cases I won’t search out vintage illustrations to couple them with, so that I can share them on a daily basis.  So without further delay, here’s today’s article, from 1886:

Incendiaries That Need Lynching.

READING, Sept. 27—The dwelling-house of Mrs. Hettie Schwenk, a widow, near Little Oley, this county, was visited early this morning by incendiaries, who for revenge set fire to the house, which was destroyed, with the contents, involving a loss of $5000. The inmates barely had time to escape. Nothing was saved. Mrs. Schwenk was carried out of the house, and John and Samuel Schwenk jumped from the second-story window. John was badly burned. Recently Mrs. Schwenk was robbed of $300 and is continually harassed by unknown parties.

From the collection of the Comtesse DeSpair
1886 Morbid Scrapbook

Read more grim olde news at Garretdom!

By the way, there are some incendiaries that need lynching right now in California!  (See the Park Fire.)

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