Curious, how many executions per year could there possibly be in Bamberg, Bavaria?
Looking at Bavaria and their religious fundamentalism and stupid law-and-order politics today... Probably a lot.
What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
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Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#12Curious, how many executions per year could there possibly be in Bamberg, Bavaria?
Well, in his diary he says he executed more than 350 people in his 45 year career. So... about eight on average?
Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#13Here's an article about what it's like to be an executioner in the modern era (Saudi Arabia, 2003): https://web.archive.org/web/20090911101207/http://www.arabne...
Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#14Here's an article about what it's like to be an executioner in the modern era (Saudi Arabia, 2003): https://web.archive.org/web/20090911101207/http://www.arabne...
Compared to TFA, it seems sensible.
In particular:
> Before an execution, nonetheless, he will go to the victim’s family to obtain forgiveness for the criminal. “I always have that hope, until the very last minute, and I pray to God to give the criminal a new lease of life. I always keep that hope alive.”
That's a very different perspective. If the victim's family forgives the criminal, I gather that they go free.
But on the other hand, losing a hand for stealing is horrible.
Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#15Upon hearing the sad news of Gene Wolfe's passing in April of this year, I took the occasion to reread his Book of the New Sun series. The protagonist is Severian, a banished member of a Torturers guild, who earns some money during his travels by performing professional executions. It's a little unsettling to immerse yourself in a story written in the first-person narrative of this sort of character. https://en.wikip…
The Book of the New Sun is a masterpiece. Although I recommend having a dictionary on hand... preferably one with old English/arcane words.
Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#16Curious, how many executions per year could there possibly be in Bamberg, Bavaria?
The only figures I could see casually were that there were approximately 2,000 per year in England during the reign of Henry VIII...so I guess it's not insane to imagine a mid-size town in Germany having 10 or 15 a year? Which would surely be enough to justify professional help?
Beside actual executions, there were torture as a part of crime investigation (in particular to extract confession as the religion insisted that criminal must confess to make sure that no innocent gets punished), plus non-capital punishments:
"During this time, he executed 394 individuals by various methods, and also flogged, disfigured, or tortured many hundreds more."
So, it was pretty busy.
Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#17There is an interesting episode of Last Podcast on the Left where they go into detail about the lives of executioner's in the past. It's especially interesting the amount of alcohol that went into the job.
https://soundcloud.com/lastpodcastontheleft/episode-345-hang...
Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#18This site is toxic on mobile. There ads on top of the text.
Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#191573 mentioned in article is not Middle Ages, just saying.
It’s not unimportant. The mistake is (in time) like “what it was to be a computer scientist in WWI”. Like... what?
Re: What was it like to be an executioner in the Middle Ages?
#201573 mentioned in article is not Middle Ages, just saying.
It’s not unimportant. The mistake is (in time) like “what it was to be a computer scientist in WWI”. Like... what?
Bamberg was not exactly on the cutting edge of the Renaissance, so executions in 1573 might have been about the same as in the middle ages. Bamberg was burning witches into the 1600s.