METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17223, 13 August 1921, Page 13

METHODS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

A CRUDE EXECtmOW. BERLIN, Juno 8. i That the execution of a death sen- ' tence i§ still carried out in a strange mediaeval manner in modern Prussia was brought to light recently in the case of Friedrich Schumann, convicted of murder. Schumann himself did an odd thing. After being held in prison for nine months, he petitioned tne Prussian Government to carry out the sentence. He wrote that he was absorbed in meditation on his own "second ego" and j insisted on the sentence being carried out on the ground that it would be illogical for the Minister of Justice not to do so as long as capital punishnient remained in force. To oblige the prisoner instructions were given to. the authorities at the. Ploetzensee criminal prison for the sentence to be carried out. The follcsvine morning a table covered with a black cloth was placed in the. court yard of the prison behind the block. In convict's dress, with his hands bound behind him, Schumann was led into the courtyard by two warders. There he was received by the judge and the executioner, Herr Schwietz, Herr Schwietz, according to tb<» custom, was attired in evening clothes, .a top hat, and white gloves. Beside the block stood his three assistant- The judge sitting at the black the prisoner with the words "Are you Friedrich Schumann?" After the prisoner had affirmed that he was, the Judge read the sentence, and then turning to the executioner said: "Executioner, do your duty." This was a signal for the three assistants to seize the prisoner. They tore off his coat and shirt, tied his feet together and threw him head foremost on to the_block. Then the executioner, just as in the old days, raised the headsman's axe and with one short stroke brought it down against the i prisoner's neck. Schumann's head rolled into the sand. One of the assistants lifted it up' and placed it in a coffin into which the others lifted the body. ' Only one newspaper commented on this crude execution; that was the "Freiheit," which said: "In Germany, I a democratic republic, justice still follows the methods of the Middle Ages. The present day is represented solely by tne dress coat of the executioner, which covers the brutality of the execution. It is a crude Prussian picture—the Middle Ages with a veneer of Kultur."