The Emperor and the Executioner: Capital Punishment in the Late Habsburg Monarchy
Nov 10, 2020 | 12 - 1pm PT
Lecture (virtual) | Speaker: Alison Frank Johnson (Harvard University)
Sponsors: Institute of European Studies, Center for German and European Studies, Pacific Regional Office of the German Historical Institute Washington
From 1848 to 1918, the emperor-king of Austria-Hungary reviewed over 5000 death sentences. In each case, he was presented with a summary describing the crime, the victim, and the character of the convict. These case summaries offer telling details about how the emperor and his advisors allocated responsibility for the most extreme reactions to extreme crises: to poverty, violence, ignorance, emotion, sexuality, impulse, piety, indulgence. We find in these reports a microcosm of their hopes for an ordered society and their image of imperial rule as the exercise of near divine insight.