Friedrich Schumann

Trial and execution Friedrich Schumann was convicted of murder, and on 13 July 1920, was sentenced to death.

On 27 August 1921, at 6 a.m., Schumann was executed in the courtyard of the Plötzensee Prison by Prussian executioner (Scharfrichter) Carl Gröpler, using the axe.

The Berlin lawyer Erich Frey (who would later go on to defend Carl Großmann) later recalled his brief encounter with the executioner:At the end of the corridor, I had to give way to a broad-shouldered man. He looked like a transport worker; the high-buttoned formal jacket looked strange on him. His closely-cropped skull rested upon a bull neck. In spite of the faint light, he looked suntanned and healthy. Never before had I seen executioner Gröpler from Magdeburg. But as he passed me with a slight bow, I knew it was him. Anyone who had any business in the Criminal Court of Justice knew about Gröpler. He had been a horse butcher previously.... each month he collected a small fixed salary, and had in return to be ready with his massive axe and his three skilled assistants at the demand of the State attorney. For every execution, he received 300 Marks plus his expenses. Gröpler went in to see his customers.... "You can go to him [Schumann] with no trouble," I heard the guard say to Gröpler in Berlin dialect, "he's got no nerves." The evening before his execution, Schumann confessed to his lawyer that he had murdered 25 people.