The Hand Axe and Guillotine of the Third Reich: Executioner Carl Gröpler
Popular
•
10m
30 January 1933. Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, and the machinery of repression begins to accelerate. As the Nazi regime consolidates power, political opponents are arrested, courts tighten their grip, and executions once again become instruments of state control.
At the centre of this system stands Carl Gröpler — one of Germany’s last traditional executioners. Trained in the Prussian justice system, Gröpler carried out beheadings with the hand axe and later operated the guillotine. He viewed his work not as cruelty, but as duty — a solemn obligation performed in accordance with the law and, as he believed, God’s will.
From convicted murderers to political prisoners and communists, Gröpler executed at least 144 people across the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, and the early years of the Third Reich. Among them was Peter Kürten, the notorious “Vampire of Düsseldorf.” His final axe executions in 1935 marked the end of a centuries-old method of capital punishment in Germany.
This is the story of a man who stood at the intersection of ritual, law, and dictatorship — and of how justice became a tool of terror in Nazi Germany.
Up Next in Popular
-
The Butcher of Poland: Hitler’s Gover...
Born into privilege and ambition, Hans Frank rose from a young lawyer in Munich to become Adolf Hitler’s personal legal adviser and one of the regime’s highest officials. Appointed Governor-General of occupied Poland, Frank ruled from Kraków’s Wawel Castle like a king — overseeing the exploitatio...
-
The Man Who Ran Auschwitz and Turned ...
Rudolf Höss built Auschwitz into the largest killing center in Nazi history, later claiming he was merely “following orders.” From his early years in the SS to his chilling efficiency in building the camp’s killing apparatus, this documentary uncovers the cold, calculated mind behind one of histo...
-
From German Field Marshal to Nurember...
Wilhelm Keitel rose to the top of Hitler’s war machine as a loyal “yes-man,” signing criminal orders that fueled massacres and repression across Europe. From the invasion of Poland to Operation Barbarossa, his obedience enabled atrocities. At Nuremberg, he pled he was “just following orders,” but...
