26 Facts About Johann Reichhart

Johann Reichhart was a German state-appointed judicial executioner in Bavaria from 1924 to 1946.

Johann Reichhart was born in Wichenbach near Worth an der Donau into a family of Bavarian knackers and executioners, including his uncle Franz Xaver Reichhart and brother Michael, that went back eight generations to the mid-eighteenth century.

Johann Reichhart then completed an apprenticeship as butcher, and served as a soldier in the First World War.

For each execution, Johann Reichhart was paid 150 Goldmark plus ten marks for daily expenses, and given a third-class railway ticket.

Johann Reichhart negotiated the right to take on other work domestically and abroad, and was released from the requirement of local residence.

Johann Reichhart sold Catholic treatises in Upper Bavaria as a traveling salesman.

Johann Reichhart moved his residence to The Hague and became a successful independent greengrocer.

On 22 June 1933, following the seizure of power by the National Socialists, Johann Reichhart signed a new contract with the Bavarian Ministry of Justice.

Johann Reichhart now received a fixed, significantly higher annual salary, paid monthly.

On 18 July 1933, following a request from the Ministry of Justice for Saxony, Johann Reichhart was authorized to execute in the state of Saxony and received a flat fee for "each occurrence".

From 1 September 1933, Johann Reichhart joined the National Socialist Motor Corps, the National Socialist War Victim's Care, the National Socialist People's Welfare, and the German Labour Front.

Ernst Reindel was responsible for the central execution sites in Berlin, Breslau, and Konigsberg; Friedrich Hehr was responsible for executions in Butzbach, Hamburg, Hanover and Cologne; and Johann Reichhart was named for executions in Munich, Dresden, Stuttgart, and Weimar.

On 19 February 1939, after the Anschluss, the Reich Minister of Justice ordered a change of territories: Johann Reichhart gave Weimar to Friedrich Hehr, and added Vienna and Frankfurt to his territories.

Johann Reichhart abolished the black blindfold; instead, one of his assistants held the convict's eyes closed.

Johann Reichhart carried out executions in Cologne, Frankfurt-Preungesheim, Berlin-Plotzensee, Brandenburg-Gorden, and Breslau, where central execution sites had been constructed.

Johann Reichhart later said he had never seen anyone die as bravely as Sophie Scholl.

In December 1944, in the administrative divisions of central execution centres, Johann Reichhart was designated as the executioner of the "execution centre for the execution district VIII", which included Munich-Stadelheim, Remand Prison Stuttgart and Penitentiary Bruchsal.

Johann Reichhart was not tried for carrying out his official duties as judicial executioner.

Johann Reichhart was employed by the US Office of Military Government, until the end of May 1946, to help execute dozens of Nazi war criminals on the gallows at Landsberg am Lech.

Johann Reichhart subsequently retired as an executioner and served only as a consultant.

Johann Reichhart assisted the US military with the executions of Nazi war criminals at Landsberg Prison.

In May 1947, Johann Reichhart was imprisoned for a second time.

Impoverished and despised by many, Johann Reichhart lived on a small military pension from the First World War.

In 1963, during a series of murders of taxi drivers, when public demands increased for the reintroduction of capital punishment, Johann Reichhart spoke out against it.

Johann Reichhart died on 26 April 1972, at a hospital in Dorfen, at the age of 78.

In early 2014, it was determined that a guillotine found at the Bavarian National Museum was likely the one which Johann Reichhart had used to execute the Scholls.