A Hangman's Diary

The Journal of Master Franz Schmidt, Public Executioner of Nuremberg, 1573?1617

Franz Schmidt

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781629144801
• eBook ISBN: 9781629149769
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early Modern History
• Index: History

From 1573 to 1617, Master Franz Schmidt was the executioner for the towns of Bamberg and Nuremberg. During that span, he personally executed more than 350 people while keeping a journal throughout his career. A Hangman's Diary is not only a collection of detailed writings by Schmidt about his work, but also an account of criminal procedure in Germany during the Middle Ages. With analysis and explanation, editor Albrecht Keller and translators C. Calvert and A. W. Gruner have put together a masterful tome that sets the scene of execution day and puts you in Master Franz Schmidt's shoes as he does his duty for his country.Originally published more than eighty years ago, A Hangman's Diary gives a year-by-year breakdown on all of Master Schmidt's executions, which include hangings, beheadings, and other methods of murder, as well as explanations of each crime and the reason for the punishment. An incredible classic, A Hangman's Diary is more than a history lesson; it shows the true anarchy that inhabited our world only a few hundred years ago.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

PART I

EXECUTIONS

BEGUN AT BAMBERG FOR MY FATHER IN THE YEAR 1573

EXECUTIONS

Year 1573

1. June 5th. Leonhardt Russ, of Ceyern, a thief, hanged at Statt Steinach. Was my first execution.

2. Wolff Weber, of Guntzendorff, and Barthel Dochendte, of Weisterfelss, both executed at Statt Kronach; Wolff, who was a thief, was hanged; Barthel, who was a murderer and had committed three murders, was executed on the wheel.

3. Gronla Weygla, of Cleucam, a murderer who had committed five murders with his companions, executed on the wheel at Hollfeld.

4. Barthel Meussel, of Mehrenhüel, a murderer, who single handed committed two murders; the first at Bamberg at the mill-weir, when he stabbed a man and took his money, the other at Welckendorff on the mountains, when he cut the throat of a man who was sleeping with him on the straw in a shed, and took his money—beheaded at Hollfeld and exposed on the wheel. This was my first execution with the sword.

Total: 5 persons.

Year 1574

5. A thief hanged.

6. do.

7. Kloss Renckhart of Feylsdorf, a murderer, who committed three murders with an associate. First he shot dead his companion, secondly a miller’s man who helped him to attack and plunder a mill by night. The third case was again at a mill, called the Fox Mill, on the mountains, which he attacked at night with a companion. They shot the miller dead, did violence to the miller’s wife and the maid, obliged them to fry some eggs in fat and laid these on the dead miller’s body, then forced the miller’s wife to join in eating them. He kicked the miller’s body and said: “Miller, how do you like this morsel?” He also plundered the mill. For these things he was executed on the wheel at Graytz.

Total: 3 persons.

Year 1575

8. A thief hanged.

9. Wastel Pennas, of Leuchtenberg, a butcher and thief, who also sold dog’s flesh as mutton, hanged at Rotkirch.

10. A thief hanged.

Total: 3 persons.

Year 1576

11. A thief hanged.

12. Jacob Nuss, of Hallstatt, who set fire to his own house there, and when his neighbour tried to save it, stabbed him; beheaded with the sword in the middle of the market-place near the church.

13. A thief hanged.

14. Hans Peyhel, of Forchheim, who committed three murders with his companion; beheaded with the sword at Forchheim and exposed on the wheel. Two years ago I cut off his ears and flogged him at Herzog Aurach.

15. A thief hanged.

16. do.

17. A murderer beheaded.

18. Nickel Schwager, of Leybskrüen, a mason, who with his companion committed five murders; executed on the wheel at Preseck.

19. Hans Hassen, of Ebing, a tradesman and murderer, who with his brother Kloss committed five murders, executed on the wheel at Forchheim. (See Part I., No. 27.)

Total: 9 persons.

Year 1577

20. Hans Weber, of Nuremberg, a thief, hanged here at Nuremberg. This was my first execution here.

21. Two thieves hanged.

22. Nicklauss Stüller, of Aydtsfeld, alias Schwartz Kraeker, a murderer. With his companions Phila and Görgla von Sunberg he committed eight murders. First he shot a horse-soldier; secondly he cut open a pregnant woman alive, in whom was a dead child; thirdly he again cut open a pregnant woman in whom was a female child; fourthly he once more cut open a pregnant woman in whom were two male children. Görgla von Sunberg said they had committed a great sin and that he would take the infants to a priest to be baptized, but Phila said he would himself be priest and baptize them, so he took them by the legs and dashed them to the ground. For these deeds he, Stüller, was drawn out on a sledge at Bamberg, his body torn thrice with red-hot tongs, and then he was executed on the wheel.

23. October 13th. An incendiary beheaded.

24. A thief beheaded as a favour and not hanged.

Total: 6 persons.

Year 1578

25. March 6th. Apollonia Vöglin, of Lehrberg, who murdered a child. She gave birth to an infant at the farm of her master, and killed it; executed by drowning at Lichtenau.

26. April 10th. Georg Reychl, of Prüge, a furrier and swordsman, a master with the long sword, who stabbed the son of the Teutsche Herr. Beheaded with the sword at Nuremberg.

27. April 15th. Closs Hassn, of Ewingen, a tradesman and a murderer, who with his brother Hans (already executed) committed five murders at Forcham. Executed on the wheel. (See Part I., No. 19.)

This is the beginning of my duties when I, Master Frantz Schmidt, was appointed (executioner) at Nuremberg on St. Walburga’s day.

28. Three thieves hanged.

29. July 3rd. Hans Müllner, alias der Model, a smith, who violated a girl of thirteen years of age, filling her mouth with sand that she might not cry out; also Hans Kellner of the Reuth by Forchheim, a thief; both beheaded with the sword at Nuremberg.

30. July 21st. Haintz Grossn, alias lazy Haintz, a robber, beheaded with the sword at Nuremberg. I dissected and cut up his body.

31. A thief hanged.

32. August 12th. Steffan Hötzelein, alias der Lauffenhöltzer, a wire-drawer at Lauff, who accused Georg Schwindel, a councillor there, saying he had seen him commit lewdness with four women; his father, Hans Hötzelein, whose fingers were struck off, bore witness in the matter, the father saying it happened under an oak-tree, the son, on the contrary, under a fir-tree. The accusation was made through jealousy (which he confessed in prison), he having previously killed a man and also robbed several burghers and women of Lauff of their reputation and honour. Beheaded with the sword at Nuremberg.

33. Two thieves hanged.

The new scaffold was set up at this time.

Total: 13 persons.

Year 1579

34. March 19th. Eberla Eckhardt (a young person) of Nuremberg, a thief, as a favour beheaded standing, with the sword here in Nuremberg.

35. April 28th. George Taucher of Eckelsheim, a murderer who, at three o’clock in the morning, killed a tavern keeper’s lad in Pfintzing’s house by the Fruit Market, with a knife he purposely carried about him, cutting his neck and throat—for this crime he was led out on a cart here in Nuremberg, was twice nipped in the arms with red-hot tongs, and then executed on the wheel.

36. May 14th. A murderer beheaded.

37. July 13th. A woman who murdered her illegitimate child; executed by drowning.

38. August 6th. Hans Büchner of Unterfarrenbach, who had previously been whipped out of the town at Nuremberg, George Gabler of Schönfeld, Michael Dieterich of Pernetswin (alias the Margrave), three thieves and robbers, beheaded here with the sword and exposed on the wheel. When they were being led out, the Margrave’s wife wanted to see the poor sinners as they passed, and saw her own husband among them, whom she embraced and kissed, for she had not known her husband had been arrested, nor that he was a fellow of that sort.

39. A thief, who was also a cut-purse, hanged.

40. A thief hanged.

41. A murderer beheaded.

42. Two thieves hanged.

Total: 12 persons.

Year 1580

43. January 26th. Margaret Dörfflerin (50 years old) from Ebermannsstatt, Elizabeth Ernstin (22 years old) from Anspach, Agnes Lengin (22 years old) of Amberg, three child murderesses. The woman Dörfflerin, when she brought forth her child in the garden behind the Fort, left it lying alive in the snow so that it froze to death. Ernstin, when she brought forth her child alive in Master Beheimb’s house, herself crushed its little skull and locked the body in a trunk. But the woman Lengin, when she brought forth her child alive in the house of a smith, throttled it and buried it in a heap of refuse. All three beheaded with the sword as murderesses and their heads nailed above the great scaffold, no woman having been beheaded before this at Nuremberg. I and the two priests, namely Master Eucharius and Master Lienhardt Krieg, brought this about, as the bridges were already prepared, because they should all three have been drowned.

44. A robber beheaded.

45. March 3rd. Ulrich Gerstenacker, of Class-berg, who drove out with his brother to the wood and slew and murdered him with premeditation, giving out afterwards that the sledge with the wood had fallen on him and killed him—brought in here from Betzenstein and beheaded with the sword, then exposed upon the wheel.

46. Two thieves hanged.

47. July 15th. Hans Horn of Korenburg and Wolf Bauer of Rollhofen, alias Schnöllgatter, two thieves, George Wigliss, alias Habersack of Auerbach, a murderer, who with his companion committed three murders. Two of the victims he killed by surprise, with the help of his companion, in a little wood near Heidelberg, one of them being a barber-surgeon the other a tinman; the third, whom he killed by himself with a wood-chopper in the Nuremberg Forest near Rötenbach, was a pedlar; he took 8 florins from him, hung his basket on a tree and covered the body with brushwood. He afterwards took to himself the murdered pedlar’s wife at Leinberg, and was married to her. All three executed at Birnbaum, Wigliss on the wheel, the other two with the rope.

48. A horse-thief hanged.

49. Three thieves hanged.

50. August 16th. Margaret Böckin, a citizen of Nuremberg, who murdered another woman, also a citizen, called ‘the Treasurer’s wife.’ When asked to look for lice, she struck her on the head from behind with a chopper. Led out to execution on a tumbril, her body nipped thrice with red-hot tongs, then beheaded with the sword, standing; her head fixed on a pole above and her body buried under the gallows.

51. Two thieves hanged.

52. A thief hanged.

53. November 17th. Hans Müllner of Litzendorf (60 years old) alias der Schmeisser, who, while on a road with his sister, as they returned from their usual work, she being pregnant, slew and murdered her on the road with premeditation and dealt lustfully with her, then buried the body in a field. Executed on the wheel at Nuremberg.

54. December 6th. Anna Strölin of Grefenberg, a murderess, who with premeditation murdered and slew her own child, a boy of six years of age, with a chopper. She was minded to murder the other four children, but they moved her pity, so that she desisted. Beheaded with the sword at Nuremberg.

Total: 20 persons.

Year 1581

55. January 10th. Christoff Hauck, alias the Fiddling Cobbler, from Neuenstadt on the Aysch, a shoemaker by trade, also a fiddler and drummer and a great thief; he also played the jester at the town festivals; hanged at Nuremberg; took leave of the world as a Christian. Had been spared the gallows 12 years before at Culmbach.

56. May 25th. Henssla Humbsen of Lambretzhoffen, alias Adam; Merdta Herdegen of Schwabach, alias Henna and Stürer Merta; George Hiss of Sultzbach, alias Hegelregler or Sultz-Kürchner; three thieves and robbers, who attacked people by night in their houses and in lonely farms, bound them, tortured them and did violence to them, robbing them of money and clothes. All three hanged at Nuremberg.

57. June 1st. George Presigel of Gnotzga, who killed his wife and afterwards hanged her so that it might be supposed she had hanged and destroyed herself; had also formerly stabbed a man. Beheaded with the sword at Nuremberg. Dissected, that is to say, cut up.

58. A horse-thief hanged.

59. August 10th. George Schörpff of Ermb, near the Hohenstein, a lecher, guilty of beastliness with four cows, two calves, and a sheep. Beheaded for unnatural vice at Velln, and afterwards burnt together with a cow.

60. A thief hanged; had previously served in the galleys.

61. October 26th. Michael Passelt of Sultzbach, a pursemaker’s hand, who was wedded both to his mistress, called Maglin, and her daughter, having long lived in lecherous intimacy with them. Beheaded with the sword here in Nuremberg; his body afterwards burnt.

Total: 9 persons.

Year 1582

62. February 20th. Catherine Bücklin, a native of Bürckenstatt, formerly called ‘Stamlet Kathra’ and ‘the foreigner,’ whom my father formerly whipped out of the town of Preseck with rods. Lately, consorting with thieves and robbers, formed a band of sixteen, attacked people by night at Mossfühl, at Esterfeld and at the mill near Würzburg, also at Pühel and Hennau and many other places. Bound their victims, tortured, beat and wounded them, forced and extorted money from ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• A Brief Account Of Criminal Procedure In Germany In The Middle Ages
• Introduction To Schmidt’s Diary
• Schmidt’s Diary: