Editing Decapitation (section)

==== Germany ====
* [[Fritz Haarmann]], a serial killer from [[Hannover]] who was sentenced to death for killing 27 young men, was decapitated in April 1925. He was nicknamed "The Butcher from Hannover" and was rumored to have sold his victims' flesh to his neighbor's restaurant.
* In July 1931, notorious serial killer [[Peter Kürten]], known as "The Vampire of Düsseldorf", was executed on the guillotine in [[Cologne]].
* On 1 August 1933, in [[Altona, Hamburg|Altona]], [[Bruno Tesch (antifascist)|Bruno Tesch]] and three others were beheaded. These were the first executions in [[Nazi Germany]]. The executions concerned the [[Altona Bloody Sunday]] (''Altonaer Blutsonntag'') riot, an [[Sturmabteilung|SA]] march on 17 July 1932 that turned violent and led to 18 people being shot dead.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.asfpg.de/english/4763/17330.html |title=asfpg ~ Altonaer Stiftung für philosophische Grundlagenforschung |access-date=25 February 2017 |archive-date=31 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170531181653/http://www.asfpg.de/english/4763/17330.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/157552/The-Axe-of-Wandsbek/overview |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207113544/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/157552/The-Axe-of-Wandsbek/overview |archive-date=7 December 2008 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=[[The New York Times]] |author-first=Eleanor |author-last=Mannikka |date=2008 |title=Movies: About Das Beil von Wandsbek}}</ref>
* [[Marinus van der Lubbe]] by guillotine in 1934 after a [[show trial]] in which he was found guilty of starting the [[Reichstag fire]].
* In February 1935 [[Benita von Falkenhayn]] and [[Renate von Natzmer]] were beheaded with the axe and block in [[Berlin]] for espionage for [[Poland]]. Axe beheading was the only method of execution in Berlin until 1938, when it was decreed that all civil executions would henceforth be carried out by guillotine. However, the practice was continued in rare cases such as that of [[Olga Bancic]] and [[Werner Seelenbinder]] in 1944. Beheading by guillotine survived in West Germany until 1949 and in East Germany until 1966.
* A group of three Catholic clergymen, Johannes Prassek, Eduard Müller and Hermann Lange, and an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, were arrested following the bombing of Lübeck, tried by the People's Court in 1943 and sentenced to death by decapitation; all were beheaded on 10 November 1943, in the Hamburg prison at Holstenglacis. Stellbrink had explained the raid next morning in his Palm Sunday sermon as a "trial by ordeal", which the Nazi authorities interpreted to be an attack on their system of government and as such undermined morale and aided the enemy.
* In October 1944, [[Werner Seelenbinder]] was executed by manual beheading, the last legal use of the method (other than by guillotine) in both Europe and the rest of the Western world. Earlier the same year, [[Olga Bancic]] had been executed by the same means.
* In February 1943, American academic [[Mildred Harnack]] and the university students [[Hans Scholl]], [[Sophie Scholl]], and [[Christoph Probst]] of the [[White Rose]] protest movement, were all beheaded by the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi State]]. Four other members of the [[White Rose]], an anti-Nazi group, were also executed by the [[People's Court (Germany)|People's Court]] later that same year. The anti-Nazi [[Helmuth Hübener]] was also decapitated by People's Court order.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/east-germany-reports-execution-of-auschwitz-selection-physician |title=East Germany Reports Execution of Auschwitz 'selection' Physician |website=Jta.org |date=11 July 1966 |access-date=21 February 2022 |archive-date=21 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221145011/https://www.jta.org/archive/east-germany-reports-execution-of-auschwitz-selection-physician |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In 1966, former [[Auschwitz]] doctor [[Horst Fischer]] was executed by the [[German Democratic Republic]] by guillotine, the last executed by this method in Europe outside France. Beheading was subsequently replaced by shooting in the neck.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/nahschuss-in-den-hinterkopf-a-0a66680e-0002-0001-0000-000013489942?context=issue |title="Nahschuß in den Hinterkopf" |trans-title="Close Shot In The Back Of The Head" |first=Hans |last=Halter |work=[[Der Spiegel]] |date=25 August 1991 |access-date=29 March 2021 |language=de |archive-date=18 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118175053/https://www.spiegel.de/politik/nahschuss-in-den-hinterkopf-a-0a66680e-0002-0001-0000-000013489942?context=issue |url-status=live }}</ref>