Lorenz Schwietz

Lorenz Schwietz (25 July 1850 – May 1925, in Breslau) was Royal Prussian executioner from 21 June 1900 to 29 January 1914. Responsible for carrying out capital punishment in the Prussian provinces, he executed a total of 120

Early life Lorenz Schwietz was born in Groß Döbern (now Dobrzeń Wielki), Oppeln county, Prussian province of Silesia.

Krautz, a knacker from Charlottenburg, resigned from the executioner's office after he had slain his assistant Gummich in April 1889 Friedrich Reindel retired in 1898, and claimed that he should be sole executioner in Prussia, pointing out that while he was unemployed, Schwietz had an income as a retiree. The Prussian Ministry of Justice tried to solve the rivalry by assigning to Schwietz the executions in the eastern part of Prussia, to Engelhardt the executions in the western part, divided by the Elbe river. In 1906, he resigned, and Schwietz was the sole executioner in Prussia. When Spaethe's wife died in January 1924, he shot himself dead with a revolver on 29 January 1924. The Austrian executioner Josef Lang committed suicide in the same year. The year before his death, Schwietz published his memoirs: Das Tagebuch des Scharfrichters Schwietz aus Breslau über seine 123 Hinrichtungen (Diary of executioner Schwietz from Breslau about his 123 executions), edited by Helmuth Kionka, Ruessmann: Breslau 1924.

List of executions