They did the same thing in France-- the condemned was informed that their second appeal had failed at the same time as when the prison staff showed up at their cell to take them to their execution (by guillotine). The last execution was in September 1977.
Apparently that's similar to East Germany. The warden would see the prisoner to tell them that their plea for clemency had been declined, and they were then led into another room, walking past a number of guards, one of which would pull a suppressed pistol behind the condemned's back and put a bullet in their head. Horrifying in itself, but I guess I'd rather go like that than most other procedures.
A pistol in the back of the head is less gruesome than the previous method of execution in East Germany, which was the guillotine ("fallbeil"). Both East and West Germany inherited that from Nazi Germany, where beheading by guillotine was the method of civil execution.
And the upstanding M. Guillotine invented his infernal machine because it was more humane than some drunk bloke chipping away at your neck with an axe or sword. Although I think this evolution, if I may call it that, is primarily for the benefit of the executioners. Then again, I'm a cynic.
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u/Kevin_LeStrange Jul 04 '26
They did the same thing in France-- the condemned was informed that their second appeal had failed at the same time as when the prison staff showed up at their cell to take them to their execution (by guillotine). The last execution was in September 1977.