Austrian Gallows - History's Most BRUTAL Execution Method?

Throughout History there were many execution methods used to condemn a prisoner, and at the end of the Second World War many war criminals were taken to the execution post. Inside of Yugoslavia the Austrian Gallows was used to take the life of some serious criminals, and this was an execution post with a hook in the top where a noose was attached.

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[rexfrommn]

This Austrian pole hanging method looks workmanlike with a reasonably humane death. Almost no chance for a decapitation exists with pole hanging because the drop is only about two feet. Let us assume a pulley at the bottom of the pole with a rope around the feet of the condemned pulling downward. Simultaneously, the guard pushes the chin of the condemned sideways. The dislocation of the condemned person's neck seems fairly swift. Also, the noose is a clothesline rope that appears to cut deeply into the condemned person's neck. This thin rope shuts down the carotid artery/veins to the brain in the neck. This deep rope cutting into the neck should cause unconsciousness probably within a minute or less. This Austrian pole hanging method looks to be a ruthlessly efficient method of execution.

[xandlhofer]

There were professional executioners in Austria since the middle ages, executions were abolished under emperor Joseph II. except for martial law, possible regicide and very vile crimes (then the decision would lay with the monarch).

Under Joseph II, the Theresian legal system was revised with regard to the punishment of those sentenced to death. The Compilation Court Commission of the Supreme Judicial Office had to discuss the development of a criminal law system for the entire monarchy. The handling of the gradual abolition of the death penalty was brought up again in the discussion with the question of maintaining the punishment for "serious" crimes, which had already arisen with the abolition of torture. Considerations on a gender-specific handling of punishment were also added. An important factor in all considerations of the abolition of the death penalty was the financial affordability that would arise with the prisoners to be held. The humanitarian view of a proper trial played a minor role in contrast to the idea that the state should bear the full costs. The financial solution and the support for the abolition of the death penalty consists in the economic utilization of the prisoners, who had to do hard work in public and could simultaneously serve as a deterrent for the rest of the population and curb the crime rate. With the Josephinian Code of Crimes and Their Punishment, the death penalty was largely abolished in Austria through the Josephinian Penal Code of 1787. The phrase that underpins the abolition of the death penalty in ordinary proceedings is: "The death penalty shall not be imposed except for crimes for which martial law must be used according to the law. In cases of martial law, however, the rope is the only punishment for the death penalty."[1]

Under Emperor Franz Joseph I, on January 14, 1851, the sovereign was allowed to pardon those sentenced to death.[2] It was not until May 20 of the same year that Franz Joseph I issued Law 139, which replaced the death penalty with imprisonment: "(...) I decree that in those cases in which I find myself moved to pardon a criminal sentenced to death by a jury, the appropriate punishment to be imposed instead of the death penalty shall be decided by the Supreme Court, after hearing the Attorney General, in a closed session."[3]

An exception to this legal provision can be found, for example, in a law passed in 1852, which "(...) reintroduced corporal punishment as a disciplinary punishment in prisons and in prison institutions (...) under certain restrictions and precautionary measures (...)". This physical punishment is applied by beating the cane (for adult men) and beating the rod (for men under 18 and women) if there are physical attacks on the guards.[4]

[TowelsKingdom]

I've just learned about this, really messed up

[Therockerman]

1:10 Absolute proof that Bubba Smith was the toughest man in history.

[glenhowell]

What exactly was the advantage of post hanging?

[ianmccoll]

this is the same script as others in this series. crappy.

[momchillazarov]

God, the narration on these videos is horrendous, it's impossible to bear it for the entire video. Poor choice of narrator. Too bad, videos have some merit, but are unwatchable.