Rituals of Retribution

Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600-1987

Richard J. Evans

Rituals of Retribution

Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600-1987

Richard J. Evans

Description

The state has no greater power over its own citizens than that of killing them. This book examines the use of that supreme sanction in Germany, from the seventeenth century to the present.

Richard Evans analyses the system of `traditional' capital punishments set out in German law, and the ritual practices and cultural readings associated with them by the time of the early modern period. He shows how this system was challenged by Enlightenment theories of punishment and broke down under the impact of secularization and social change in the first half of the nineteenth century. The abolition of the death penalty became a classic liberal case which triumphed, if only momentarily, in the 1848 Revolution. In Germany far more than anywhere else in Europe, capital punishment was identified with anti-liberal, authoritarian concepts of sovereignty. Its definitive reinstatement by Bismarck in the 1880s marked not only the defeat of liberalism but also coincided with the emergence of new, Social Darwinist attitudes towards criminality which gradually changed the terms of debate. The triumph of these attitudes under the Nazis laid the foundations for the massive expansion of capital punishment which took place during Hitler's `Third Reich'. After the Second World War, the death penalty was abolished, largely as a result of a chance combination of circumstances, but continued to be used in the Stalinist system of justice in East Germany until its forced abandonment as a result of international pressure exerted in the regime in the 1970s and 1980s.

This remarkable and disturbing book casts new light on the history of German attitudes to law, deviance, cruelty, suffering and death, illuminating many aspects of Germany's modern political development. Using sources ranging from folksongs and ballads to the newly released government papers from the former German Democratic Republic, Richard Evans scrutinizes the ideologies behind capital punishment and comments on interpretations of the history of punishment offered by writers such as Foucault and Elias. He has made a formidable contribution not only to scholarship on German history but also to the social theory of punishement, and to the current debate on the death penalty.

Rituals of Retribution

Capital Punishment in Germany, 1600-1987

Richard J. Evans

Reviews and Awards

"A monumental study...Strongly recommended for those interested in the history of European jurisprudence and capital punishment."--CHOICE

"No country's history on this subject has been explored with the thoroughness that [the author] has lavished on the German experience...Let us hope that before long, historians will do for France, Italy, and other Western European nations what [the author] has done so magisterially for Germany."--The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Offers fascinating insights and a wealth of examples."--History

"The author is to be congratulated (and envied) for the diligence and the precision of his efforts to write what will stand as the classic study of the subect for the next two decades. Evans must have spent many years on this impressive work. His prose is clear and interesting and his conclusions are convincing."--German Politics and Society

"This work will stand out for some time as a paradigm of socio-cultural history."--Journal of Social History

"...Evans has written the definitive social history of capital punishment in post-medieval Germany...easily the most significant achievement in the field of the history of German criminal justice since the publication...Evans's contribution is breathtaking in the accumulation of otherwise inaccessible information...about the infliction of a particular penalty. Through his tireless work, Evans thus has laid the foundation for much future work in the history of punishment as well as in social and political theory...Evans is doing real history, history in the trenches, social history. [He] searches for truth in the dusty yet tangible archives with a marvelous methodological and epistemic earnestness."--Law and History Review

"[A] truly monumental work. Evans displays an extraordinary command of the literature on crime and punishment, not only in Germany but in the rest of Europe and beyond; equally important, his work is based on archival research covering several regions and ranging over nearly four hundred years."--American Historical Review

"Evans's real contribution lies in his mastery of both detail and theme ranging over almost four centuries of political upheaval in central Europe."--German Studies Review

"[E]xceptionally well-written and researched work....This book is recommended for advanced undergraduates, graduates, and faculty."--The Historian