Editing Guillotine (section)

== Germany ==
In [[Germany]], the guillotine is known as ''Fallbeil'' ("falling axe") or ''Köpfmaschine'' ("beheading machine") and was used in various German states from the 19th century onwards,{{citation needed|date=September 2016}} becoming the preferred method of execution in [[Napoleonic]] times in many parts of the country. The guillotine, axe<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/behead.html | title=The history of beheading and decapitation }}</ref> and the [[Execution by firing squad|firing squad]] were the legal methods of execution during the era of the [[German Empire]] (1871–1918) and the subsequent [[Weimar Republic]] (1919–1933).

The original German guillotines resembled the French Berger 1872 model, but they eventually evolved into sturdier and more effective machines. Built primarily of metal instead of wood, these new guillotines had heavier blades than their French predecessors and thus could use shorter uprights as well. Officials could also conduct multiple executions faster, thanks to a more effective blade recovery system and the eventual removal of the tilting board (bascule). Those deemed likely to struggle were backed slowly into the device from behind a curtain to prevent them from seeing it prior to the execution. A metal screen covered the blade as well in order to conceal it from the sight of the condemned.

[[Nazi Germany]] used the guillotine between 1933 and 1945 to execute 16,500 prisoners, 10,000 of them in 1944 and 1945 alone.<ref name="Opie2013">{{cite book|author=Robert Frederick Opie|title=Guillotine: The Timbers of Justice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ob87AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT131|year=2013|publisher=History Press|page=131|isbn=9780752496054}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |quote=According to Nazi records, the guillotine was eventually used to execute some 16,500 people between 1933 and 1945, many of them resistance fighters and political dissidents. |url=https://www.history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-guillotine |title=8 Things You May Not Know About the Guillotine |date=September 15, 2014 |last=Andrews |first=Evan |website=HISTORY}}</ref> Notable political victims executed by the guillotine under the Nazi government included [[Marinus van der Lubbe]], a Dutch communist blamed for the [[Reichstag fire]] and executed by guillotine in January 1934. The Nazi government also guillotined [[Sophie Scholl]], who was convicted of high treason after distributing anti-Nazi pamphlets at the [[University of Munich]] with her brother [[Hans Scholl|Hans]], and other members of the German student resistance group, the [[White Rose]].<ref name="Scholl 1983">{{cite book |last1=Scholl |first1=Inge |author-link=Inge Scholl |others=Schultz, Arthur R. (Trans.) |year=1983 |title=The White Rose: Munich, 1942–1943 |publisher=[[Wesleyan University Press]] |location=Middletown, CT |isbn=978-0-8195-6086-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/whiterosemunich100scho/page/114 114] |url=https://archive.org/details/whiterosemunich100scho/page/114 }}</ref>{{Citation needed|reason=The citation that backs this up does not specify a guillotine was used for the execution|date=May 2022}} 

The guillotine was last used in [[West Germany]] in 1949 in the execution of [[Richard Schuh]]<ref name="Lamprecht2011">{{cite book|author=Rolf Lamprecht|title=Ich gehe bis nach Karlsruhe: Eine Geschichte des Bundesverfassungsgerichts – Ein SPIEGEL-Buch|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1qIjNgNzVfwC&pg=PT55|date=5 September 2011|publisher=Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt|isbn=978-3-641-06094-7|page=55}}</ref> and was last used in [[East Germany]] in September 1967 when the murderers Paul Beirau and Günter Herzfeld were executed.<ref>{{cite news |date=October 10, 2007 |title="Grausam, unmenschlich und erniedrigend" – Celler Häftlinge gegen Hinrichtungen in USA |work=Cellesche Zeitung |location=Celle, Germany |
url=https://www.stefan-droessler.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/20071010-CZ-Hinrichtungen.pdf|page=15 |access-date=July 28, 2024 |language=de}}</ref> The [[Stasi]] used the guillotine in East Germany between 1950 and 1966 for secret executions.<ref>{{cite book|author=John O. Koehler|title=Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=waxWwxY1tt8C&pg=PA18|date=5 August 2008|publisher=Basic Books|page=18|isbn=9780786724413}}</ref>