The guillotine is a car to perform death sentences, consisting of a blade that, falling along an obligatory route between two uprights, cut the head of the condemned. Invented in France in the eighteenth century, it was officially adopted after the beginning of the French Revolution on the proposal of the deputy Joseph-Ignace Guillotinto which the name owes. Guillotin is therefore not the inventor of the car (whose name is not known), as it sometimes believes. During the years of the revolution, the guillotine was used on a large scale, to the point of being considered a symbol of revolutionary France, but over the years it was also introduced to other countries, including the Nazi Germany but also in Italy until the end of the nineteenth century. In recent times, there was no shortage of those who proposed the restoration. However, let’s dispel a myth: it is not true that, after the beheading, one stays alive for a certain time: death occurs in the turn of a few seconds.
What is the guillotine, how it works and after how much you die
The guillotine is a car to carry out Capital executions through beheading. Consists of a structure about 4 meters high, generally made of wood and composed of Two uprightsamong which a Lama connected to a pulley. When it is released by means of a special mechanism, the blade flows along an obligatory path, also thanks to the presence of a weight that facilitates its fall. To perform a death sentence, the sentenced person is linked to one tilting tablewith the neck positioned between two semilunnetti; The table is then brought in a horizontal position and positioned so that the condemned neck is found between the two guillotine uprights; When the executioner falls the blade, the head of the condemned it is truncated by net.
Death comes very quickly, because it no longer arrives blood (and therefore oxygen) to the brain: they are sufficient 3-6 seconds for brain death And 10-15 so that the heart stops. In the best known version of the guillotine, the one in use during the French Revolution, the two uprights were about 37 cm distant from each other; The blade weighed about 40 kg and falling reached the speed of about 24 kmh, sufficient to cut the head clearly.
The invention of the guillotine
The guillotine is inextricably associated with the French Revolution, during which it was invented and put into operation. However, the death penalty by beheading is much olderhaving been attested since the Egyptian era; Furthermore, already in medieval Europe there were machines that facilitated the executioner in cutting the head of the condemned. The executions, however, were often difficult and caused suffering to the condemned. Furthermore, in many countries the execution method was different depending on the social class of the condemned: the nobles were executed with systems other than those of the plebeians.
In October 1789, shortly after the start of the revolution, the project was presented to the French national assembly for the adoption of the guillotine. The main promoter was the doctor and deputy Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, from which the car took the name. Two years later, after a further debate, the Assembly decided to maintain the death penalty (that some deputies asked to abolish) and to perform it By beheading through the guillotine for all the condemned. The first execution with the “new” system was that of Nicolas Pellettier, a thief and murderer, executed on April 25, 1792.
The guillotine during the French Revolution
During the French Revolution, the guillotine was widely used and some well -known characters ended up on the gallows. First of all, the king was executed with this system Louis XVIaccused of high treason and guillotinated on January 21, 1793. In October of the same year he ended up on the gallows also his wife Maria antonietta (Note for the phrase “if they do not have bread, that eat brioches!”).
The guillotine had the maximum diffusion during the period of the Terror (June 1793 – July 1794), during which it was used to execute around 16,000 people (but there are different estimates). Among them, important political exponents were based on them such as Camille Desmoulins And George Jacques Dantonas well as a scientist like Antoine Lavoisierconsidered the father of modern chemistry. In July 1794 Maximilien Robespierre also ended up on the guillotine, who is sometimes considered a “supporter” of the guillotine (in reality, he was less ruthless than he believed and accepted the death penalty only as necessary evil).
The guillotine after the French Revolution: from the nineteenth century to today
The guillotine continued to be used in France even after the revolution. Among the people executed with this method they include Felice Orsiniwhich in 1858 tried to assassinate the emperor Napoleon III, the anarchist Sante Caseriowhich in 1894 killed President Marie François Sadi Carnet, the serial killer Henri Landruexecuted in 1922.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the guillotine was used in other countries: Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Sweden, Greece, Germany. The Nazi regime It was used for the executions of about 16,500 people (most of whom in 1944 and 1945), among which Marinus van der Lubberesponsible in 1933 of the Reichstag building (Parliament), and the brothers Sophie and Hans Schollmembers of the anti -Nazi group known as Rosa Bianca, executed in 1943.
After the Second World War, the guillotine was used by the Secret Police of East Germany. Outside of Europe, the government of the South Vietnama former French colony, in the 1950s and 1960s.
The last country to abandon the guillotine was France, which used it until the 70s. The last sentenced executed with this tool was the murderer Hamida Djandoubi On September 10, 1977. A few years later, in 1981, the French government abolished the death penalty.
Today in the countries where the capital penalty is in force, including the United States, other systems are used to perform the sentences, primarily lethal injection and shooting. The beheading has not completely disappeared and is still in force in Saudi Arabiabut is performed with the sword. The guillotine is no longer used in any country, but in 1996 a US political representative He proposed, without success, to introduce it to the state of Georgia instead of the electric chair.
