Posted on 10/18/2023 8:04:25 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1940, Hans Vollenweider became the last person executed in Switzerland.
The Swiss had long experience with executions by beheading and, of course, with mechanical refinements, so adoption of the guillotine was a natural fit … especially after Napoleon overran Switzerland.
Actually, Switzerland had experimented with guillotine-like machines centuries before the French introduced the device, but in the 19th century its Jacobin associations led to a running tug-of-war that saw some cantons abolish the guillotine (German link) in favor of a return to public beheading with a sword. At the same time, the pan-European move away from capital punishment saw a precipitous decline in actual executions, culminating with outright abolition in Switzerland’s 1874 constitution.
Although the death penalty was narrowly reinstated by referendum* (more German) in 1879, its use thereafter was sparing and often contested. In 1938, Switzerland adopted by referendum a new, federal criminal code abolishing the death penalty.....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Look, Ma! No Hans!............................
Pics or it didn’t happen:)
have always wondered if the mind and eyesight and hearing and other senses continued to work after the head drops into the basket? If so- wow- not cool-
LOL
There were actual experiments on that subject back in the French Revolution and later...................
Quick and effective! No nasty drugs, no electricity- a green solution!
Any relation to Andreas Vollenweider, the harpist?
Supposedly during the revolution a man tested cut off heads and he noticed they would follow your finger if you moved it back and forth
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