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their heads nailed to the gallows 'no woman having been beheaded previously in Nuremberg'.
When Mistress von Ploben asked her maid, Margaret Bockin, to pick lice from her head, Bockin came at her from behind with an axe, killing her instantly. On 26 August 1580, she was brought to the scaffold by cart. Schmidt pulled at her flesh twice with red-hot pincers, before slicing her head off where she stood. Her body was buried under the scaffold and her head was fixed above it on a pole.
Anna Bischoffin had already been branded on both cheeks and whipped out of Würzburg. After pleading for her life on the grounds that she was pregnant, she was condemned to death for setting fire to a farm. Schmidt decapitated her, set her head up on the scaffold, and burned her body. Anna Peyelstainin 'had carnal intercourse with a father and son, both of whom were married, as was she, and similarly with twenty-one married men and youths, her husband colluding'. She was beheaded by the sword where she stood and her husband was whipped out of the town.
Barbara Wagnerin poisoned her husband's porridge with insect killer so she could marry Conrad Zwickel and took three spoonfuls herself to allay her spouse's suspicions. Nevertheless she was found out. The court discovered that Zwickel was not the only man in her life: she was having sexual relations with eighteen other men, some of whom were married. Schmidt beheaded rather than hanged her 'as a favour'. Agnes Rossnerin was also to be hanged but the 'poor creature... had a wry neck' so Schmidt beheaded her instead. Mary Kursserin was not so lucky. On 10 January 1583, she and two other young prostitutes had suffered the pillory before being whipped out of the town. Mary was later caught stealing and had her ears excised before Schmidt could put a noose around her neck.
An executioner displays the head of his latest victim to the crowd, c.16th century
During his forty-four years in office, Schmidt executed 360 felons, forty-two of whom were women. His busiest year was 1580 when he executed twenty people. These included two murderers broken on the wheel plus two more murderers and nine thieves who were hanged.
There were many other memorable entries in his diary. In 1576, he recorded executing one Hans Payhel 'who committed three murders; two years ago, I cut off his ears and flogged him; today I beheaded him at Forchheim', a town eighteen miles north of Nuremberg. On 6 August 1579, he beheaded three thieves. Frau Dieterich turned up to the event only to discover that one of them was her husband whom she 'embraced and kissed, for she had not known her husband had been arrested, nor that he was that sort of fellow'. On 10 August 1581, Schmidt despatched 'George Schörpff, a lecher, guilty of sodomy with four cows, two calves, and a sheep. I beheaded him for unnatural vice at Velln; his body was burnt afterwards, together with a cow'. It is not clear why only one cow was burned.
Schmidt also recorded the extraordinary case of George Praun who had robbed a fellow traveller. In Vienna, he had stolen a suitcase full of clothes and a pair of white stockings. Schmidt decapitated him on 14 September 1602 but, when his head was placed on a stone, 'it turned several times as if it wanted to look around, moved its tongue and opened its mouth as if it wanted to speak, for a good half-quarter hour – I have never seen the like of this'.
Promiscuity was condemned in men as well as women. On 23 June 1612, Schmidt executed Andrew Feverstein who ran a school with his father. Feverstein junior had preyed on sixteen schoolgirls in his care. Schmidt once again beheaded him as 'a favour'.
Andrew Brunner was convicted of blasphemy for blaming a thunderstorm on the Almighty. Schmidt tore his tongue out and fixed him to the scaffold so the crowd could abuse him but it was not all doom and gloom. The pickpocket and murderer Hans Ditz sang all the way to his beheading while the ever-optimistic horse thief Hans Porstner
When Mistress von Ploben asked her maid, Margaret Bockin, to pick lice from her head, Bockin came at her from behind with an axe, killing her instantly. On 26 August 1580, she was brought to the scaffold by cart. Schmidt pulled at her flesh twice with red-hot pincers, before slicing her head off where she stood. Her body was buried under the scaffold and her head was fixed above it on a pole.
Anna Bischoffin had already been branded on both cheeks and whipped out of Würzburg. After pleading for her life on the grounds that she was pregnant, she was condemned to death for setting fire to a farm. Schmidt decapitated her, set her head up on the scaffold, and burned her body. Anna Peyelstainin 'had carnal intercourse with a father and son, both of whom were married, as was she, and similarly with twenty-one married men and youths, her husband colluding'. She was beheaded by the sword where she stood and her husband was whipped out of the town.
Barbara Wagnerin poisoned her husband's porridge with insect killer so she could marry Conrad Zwickel and took three spoonfuls herself to allay her spouse's suspicions. Nevertheless she was found out. The court discovered that Zwickel was not the only man in her life: she was having sexual relations with eighteen other men, some of whom were married. Schmidt beheaded rather than hanged her 'as a favour'. Agnes Rossnerin was also to be hanged but the 'poor creature... had a wry neck' so Schmidt beheaded her instead. Mary Kursserin was not so lucky. On 10 January 1583, she and two other young prostitutes had suffered the pillory before being whipped out of the town. Mary was later caught stealing and had her ears excised before Schmidt could put a noose around her neck.
An executioner displays the head of his latest victim to the crowd, c.16th century
During his forty-four years in office, Schmidt executed 360 felons, forty-two of whom were women. His busiest year was 1580 when he executed twenty people. These included two murderers broken on the wheel plus two more murderers and nine thieves who were hanged.
There were many other memorable entries in his diary. In 1576, he recorded executing one Hans Payhel 'who committed three murders; two years ago, I cut off his ears and flogged him; today I beheaded him at Forchheim', a town eighteen miles north of Nuremberg. On 6 August 1579, he beheaded three thieves. Frau Dieterich turned up to the event only to discover that one of them was her husband whom she 'embraced and kissed, for she had not known her husband had been arrested, nor that he was that sort of fellow'. On 10 August 1581, Schmidt despatched 'George Schörpff, a lecher, guilty of sodomy with four cows, two calves, and a sheep. I beheaded him for unnatural vice at Velln; his body was burnt afterwards, together with a cow'. It is not clear why only one cow was burned.
Schmidt also recorded the extraordinary case of George Praun who had robbed a fellow traveller. In Vienna, he had stolen a suitcase full of clothes and a pair of white stockings. Schmidt decapitated him on 14 September 1602 but, when his head was placed on a stone, 'it turned several times as if it wanted to look around, moved its tongue and opened its mouth as if it wanted to speak, for a good half-quarter hour – I have never seen the like of this'.
Promiscuity was condemned in men as well as women. On 23 June 1612, Schmidt executed Andrew Feverstein who ran a school with his father. Feverstein junior had preyed on sixteen schoolgirls in his care. Schmidt once again beheaded him as 'a favour'.
Andrew Brunner was convicted of blasphemy for blaming a thunderstorm on the Almighty. Schmidt tore his tongue out and fixed him to the scaffold so the crowd could abuse him but it was not all doom and gloom. The pickpocket and murderer Hans Ditz sang all the way to his beheading while the ever-optimistic horse thief Hans Porstner
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