|
Friedrich Schumann
(1 February 1893 – 27 August 1921) was a German serial killer. He
is also known as "Massenmörder vom Falkenhagener See" ("Terror of
Falkenhagen Lake"). Schumann murdered six people and raped several
women. When being decapitated in 1921, he was only 28 years old.
Murders
On 18 August 1919 Schumann shot 52-year-old
forester Wilhelm Nielbock from Spandau. On 20 August 1919 he was
arrested in Berlin. The trial against Schumann started on 5 July
1920 in Berlin.
Trial and execution
Friedrich Schumann was convicted of murder, and
on 13 July 1920 he was sentenced to seven death penalties, one
life sentence, ten years hard labour and several other sentences
in Berlin. He was therefore sentenced to death.
On August 27, 1921, at 6 o'clock in the
morning, Schumann was executed in the courtyard of the Plötzensee
Prison by Prussian executioner (Scharfrichter) Carl Gröpler, using
the axe.
The Berlin lawyer Erich Frey recalled later his
brief encounter with the executioner: "At the end of the corridor,
I had to give way to a broad-shouldered man. He looked like a
transportworker, the high-buttoned jacket looked strange (out of
place) on him. His closely-cropped skull rested on a plied
bullsneck. In spite of the faint light, he looked sun-tanned and
healthy. Never before, I had seen executioner Gröpler from
Magdeburg. But, as he passed me with a slight bow, I knew, it was
him. Anyone who had any business in the Criminal Court of Justice,
knew about Gröpler. He had been a horse butcherer before. ... he
collected every month a small fixed income, and had in return to
be ready with his massive axe and his three skilled assistants, at
the demand of the State attourney. He became for every execution,
300 Mark and the extra costs. Gröpler went to see his customers
... 'You can go to him without trouble,' I heard the guard say to
Gröpler, 'he has no nerves' (in a Berlin dialect)."
References
1. Blazek, Matthias, Carl Großmann und
Friedrich Schumann – Zwei Serienmörder in den zwanziger Jahren,
Stuttgart 2009, p. 123.
2. Frey, Erich, Ich beantrage Freispruch. Aus den Erinnerungen des
Strafverteidigers Prof. Dr. Dr. Erich Frey, Blüchert Verlag,
Hamburg 1959, p. 40.
Wikipedia.org
|
