Nuremberg executioner Franz Schmidt on this date in hanged a gang of five young — very young — thieves. He marked the occasion in his diary :. February 12th. They had to be clothed, for they were naked and bare; some of them knew no prayers and had never been in a church; the eldest were 22, 17, 16 and 15 years old, the youngest 13 years.
All five hanged here in Nuremberg. Executioner Franz Schmidt records in his journal for this date in the hanging of two women — according to Schmidt, the first women hanged in Nuremberg.
February 11th. It was an unheard of thing for a woman to be hanged in Nuremberg, and it had never yet happened. The executioner Schmidt administered that punishment as well, and likewise noted it in his diary on January 10, January 10th.
Such a dreadful crowd ran out to see this that several people were crushed to death under the Frauenthor. We have had occasion to profile the famous Nuremberg executioner and diarist Franz Schmidt , who is the subject of a recent book on his life and times.
The occasion was the execution of parricide Franz Seuboldt, who killed his own father by ambush while dad was setting bird traps. This broadsheet illustration traces the case in a U shape from crime upper left to tongs foreground to execution right and finally the mounted wheel.
