Born of a revolution History of the French guillotine

The guillotine has been in use for over two hundred years and has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people. Some of them were desperate criminals, while others were simply revolutionary. Among the victims are aristocrats, kings and queens. More than just an efficient killing machine, the "holy guillotine" served as a symbol of the French Revolution. From the eighteenth to the twentieth century, she terrified everyone. But there are also facts that few people know about.

The roots of the invention go back to the Middle Ages

The name "guillotine" is associated with the last decade of the eighteenth century, but in fact the story begins much earlier - such execution machines have existed for many centuries. For example, a decapitation device called the "plank" was used in Germany and Flanders in the Middle Ages, and in England there was a sliding ax that was used to cut heads in antiquity. It is likely that the French guillotine was inspired by two devices - the Italian Renaissance mannaia and the famous "Scottish maiden" that claimed the lives of one hundred and twenty people between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Evidence also shows that primitive guillotines were in use long before the French Revolution.

It was originally developed as a more humane method of execution.

The origin of the French guillotine dates back to the end of 1789, when Dr. Joseph Ignatius Guillotin suggested that the French government adopt a more humane method of execution. The guillotine was generally against the death penalty, but since its abolition was not even considered at that time, he decided to propose a method of quick decapitation, which would be more humane compared to decapitation with a sword or ax, which was often delayed. He helped develop the first prototype, a machine conceived by French doctor Antoine Louis and built by German engineer Tobias Schmidt. The device was first used in April 1792 and immediately acquired the name "guillotine" among the people, to the horror of the creator. Guillotine unsuccessfully tried to distance himself from the invention during the mass executions of the last decade of the eighteenth century. At the beginning of the nineteenth, members of his family even petitioned the government, but also to no avail.

Executions were a public spectacle

During the Terror, thousands of enemies of the French Revolution were killed with the blade of the guillotine. Some viewers complained that the machine was too fast and accurate, but executions soon came to be considered great entertainment. People came to Revolution Square to look at the work of the guillotine, its device was sung in songs, jokes and poems. Spectators could buy souvenirs, a program with the names of the victims, or even eat at a nearby restaurant called Guillotine Cabaret. Some came every day, especially a group of women who came to each execution and knitted during breaks became famous. Even the theater lost popularity amid the executions. Many people spoke their deathbed speeches, some danced on the way to the scaffold. The enthusiasm for the guillotine faded towards the end of the eighteenth century, but this method of execution remained in use until 1939.

It was a popular children's toy.

Often, children were also taken to executions, and some played with miniature guillotines at home. In the last decade of the eighteenth century, a half-meter high guillotine, with an imitation of a blade, was a popular toy. Children executed dolls, and sometimes rodents, which is why in some cities it was decided to ban such entertainment for fear that it would have a bad effect on the child's psyche. Until that moment, guillotines had already spread to the tables of the upper classes, where they cut bread and vegetables.

The executioners were famous all over the country

The more popular such an execution became, the more famous the executioners became. During the French Revolution, every executioner was a famous person. People discussed how well the executioner handled the mass execution. The job was a family affair. For example, the Sanson family had several generations of executioners - members of the family worked in positions from 1792 to 1847, and among their victims were King Louis the Sixteenth and Marie Antoinette. From the nineteenth to the twentieth century, the most famous were Louis and Anatole Deibler, father and son, who jointly carried out the procedure from 1879 to 1939. The names of the executioners were often chanted in the streets, and their working uniform became fashionable attire.

Scientists have conducted creepy experiments on the heads of victims

From the very beginning, people have been wondering if the head retains consciousness. Doctors asked the victims to blink after the execution to demonstrate that they could still move, some burned their heads with the fire of candles. In 1880, one of the doctors even tried to pump blood into her head to bring her back to life.

The guillotine was used by the Nazis

The guillotine was in use not only during the years when the French Revolution was blazing. During the Third Reich, on the orders of Hitler, sixteen and a half thousand people were guillotined.

The last time it was used was in the seventies of the twentieth century.

The guillotine was not abolished until the end of the twentieth century. The last to be executed was the murderer Hamid Dzhandubi, who was sentenced in 1977, and in 1981 a state ban on such a punishment was issued.

At the word "guillotine" for many people, a terrible picture of execution immediately looms before their eyes. It is believed that the French invented the instrument of death. Indeed, in France they created the guillotine in the form in which we are accustomed to seeing it, but before that it was also used in other European states. In Ireland and Scotland, this deadly invention was called the Scottish Maiden, in Italy - Mandaia, in Germany - Fallbeil. If earlier this weapon made people tremble from one of its kind, now the guillotine serves for the benefit of mankind. This device is used today for cutting paper and cigars.

What is a guillotine?

In the original sense, the guillotine is a mechanism for cutting off the head, used in a number of European countries to carry out the death penalty. The tool was a huge oblique knife, the weight of which varied between 40-100 kg, moving between vertical guides. It was lifted with a rope to a height of about 3 m and secured with a latch. The sentenced to death was laid on a bench, and the head was fixed between boards with a notch for the neck. The lower one was fixed, and the upper one moved up and down in the grooves. The latch holding the knife was opened with a special lever and it fell at great speed right on the victim's neck, due to which death occurred instantly.

Inventor of the instrument of execution

For a long time in France, criminals were burned at the stake, quartered or hanged, only privileged persons were executed by beheading with an ax or a sword in order to reduce their suffering. Dr. Guillotin, who was a member of the National Assembly, in 1791 for the first time proposed to carry out the execution by the same method, without dividing the people into ordinary and aristocrats. In his opinion, the guillotine is an excellent way to save a sentenced person from physical and moral pain, because the weapon was quickly activated and took life in a matter of seconds.

The corresponding proposal was made by J. Guillotin in 1789. This was followed by much controversy, but in the end most of the members agreed with the doctor, and in 1791 this method of execution was officially introduced into the penal code. At first, the murder weapon was tested on corpses, but already in the spring of 1792, the first execution took place on the Greve Square using this mechanism. For a long time there was an opinion that the inventor of the guillotine himself suffered from his own creation, but this is not true. Guillotin died a natural death in 1814.

Use of the guillotine in Europe

A lot of famous personalities were beheaded by the guillotine. This instrument of death was common in many European countries, but the French suffered the most from it. During the French Revolution, many criminals were guillotined; this mechanism was used as the main instrument of execution until 1981. In Germany, the guillotine was considered the main type until 1949. The German mechanism was slightly different from the French, had a winch for lifting the knife, vertical metal racks and was much lower. The weapon was actively used in Nazi Germany for the beheading of criminals.

The history of the guillotine has left its mark in Italy. In 1819, this mechanism was recognized as the main instrument of execution. The criminals were beheaded near the Castel Sant'Angelo in Piazza del Popolo. The Roman guillotine had its own design features: an angular "vice" for squeezing the body of the convict and a straight knife. It was last used in the summer of 1870, after which it was cancelled. Cayenne from the 18th to the 20th century was a place of hard labor and exile for political prisoners. In this tropical place, severe fevers were very common, and it was almost impossible to survive here. Sinnamari Prison was called the "dry guillotine" in the city.

Guillotine manual

The terrible times when people were beheaded for the slightest offense are long gone, now the invention of Dr. Guillotin serves for the benefit of mankind. Metal cutting machines have greatly simplified the work of specialists. The principle of material cutting is based on the principle of operation of the very first mechanism. A fixed lower knife was added to the guillotine, so it also looked like scissors. Depending on the intensity of use, the size and thickness of the material, different types of guillotines are used. The simplest of them is the manual version.

Such a machine works thanks to the Manual guillotine, although it is the simplest equipment that does not require any tricky manipulations, it is very popular in production. With the help of it, plastic, thick cardboard, rubber, plexiglass are cut. The machine is good because it does not require additional communications for its operation, it does not require electricity, it works in any room, and this reduces the cost of work many times over.

Mechanical guillotine

Mechanical machines have proven themselves on the good side. In practice, the reliability of equipment was tested, which not only correctly and accurately performs the tasks, but also consumes little electricity. A cardan shaft is installed in the mechanism, which drives the knife. It receives torque through it. The flywheel itself is rotated by an electric motor.

Hydraulic guillotine

Such equipment is mainly used in medium and large enterprises, since it is large, expensive and necessary for the conveyor production of material. The hydraulic guillotine can easily handle metal of different thicknesses. The high-precision ruler and massiveness of the hydraulic machine guarantees absolute cutting accuracy. The metal sheet along the entire length of the cut is fixed by pressure hydraulic cylinders, but the gap between the knives has to be adjusted mechanically.

Guillotine for metal

Guillotine machines are mainly used for metal roll processing, cutting into strips, cutting sheets in the transverse and longitudinal direction. Handheld equipment easily handles non-ferrous metals (zinc, aluminium, copper and alloys) as well as thin sheets of steel. The cutting of thicker material is carried out by hydraulic, mechanical, pneumatic, electromechanical machines.

The guillotine allows you to get smooth cut edges, without burrs and other deformations. When cutting the sheet, waste is minimized even in cases where the parts have a complex shape. On such a machine, even painted metal can be chopped, the coating does not chip or deform. Some equipment can cut square, corner, round metal. Guillotine machines can also cut large stacks of material.

Paper guillotine

When creating paper-cutting equipment, Dr. Guillotin's terrible invention was also used. Depending on the purpose for which it is used and on what scale, mechanical, electrical, manual and hydraulic types of structures are distinguished. The paper guillotine is mainly used on an industrial scale. It is excellent for perfect cutting of large paper stacks up to 800 sheets.

The knife of the mechanism cuts the fibers, and does not push through them, this is possible due to the oblique movement. The guillotine cuts a large block of paper leaving a perfectly even cut, and this is its greatest advantage. To improve the performance of the equipment, a ruler, automatic clamping and illumination of the cut line are installed on it. In addition, if necessary, any machine can sharpen a knife.

Guillotine for cigars

The name of the ferocious execution tool, most likely, in an ironic sense of the word, is used to refer to a device for cutting off the tip of a cigar. For a long time, knives or scissors were used for this, but they did not give the effect that the guillotine gives. Cigars have a closed end, this is done to preserve the original flavor of tobacco. The historical appearance of the guillotine is more reminiscent of desktop options, although there are also pocket (portable) devices. They are ideal for use in the break room or at home.

It is quite difficult to smoke cigars, the guillotine makes a smooth cut, which is why the smoker gets more pleasure from the process, because he does not convulsive, but smooth inhalation and exhalation. Portable guillotines are single and double sided. The knives are sharp, so the deformation of the tobacco leaf is excluded. For ordinary users, it is best to use double-sided guillotines, single-sided ones are suitable for craftsmen.

Ideas about humanism in different eras of the development of human civilization differed very seriously. Now it is rather difficult to imagine, but such a “death machine” as the guillotine was born out of the most humane considerations.

Humane Doctor Guillotin

Meanwhile, the professor of anatomy and deputy of the revolutionary Constituent Assembly, Dr. Guillotin, has only an indirect relation to the guillotine.

Joseph Guillotin, a member of the Constitutional Assembly created during the French Revolution, was an opponent of the death penalty. However, he believed that in an era of revolutionary changes it was impossible to completely abandon its use. That is why Dr. Guillotin put forward the idea: if the death penalty still exists, let it at least be fast and the same for all segments of the population.

Portrait of Doctor Guillotin. Photo: Public Domain

By the end of the XVIII century in Europe there was a fairly rich choice of ways to kill criminals. For representatives of the upper strata of society, beheading with a sword or ax was used, for unborn criminals - quartering, wheeling or hanging. The “execution without shedding blood” was applied to those who were angry with the spiritual authorities, that is, auto-da-fe - burning alive.

It was believed that the most humane of these methods is cutting off the head. But even here everything depended on the skill of the executioner. It is not so easy to cut off a person's head with one blow, so high-class executioners were worth their weight in gold.

If a certain nobleman managed to greatly anger the monarch, an ordinary soldier or another unprepared person could appear on the scaffold instead of a professional executioner, as a result of which the last minutes of the life of the disgraced nobleman turned into real hell.

Joseph Guillotin considered that the most humane method of execution in relation to those sentenced to death is beheading, so he proposed creating a mechanism that would deprive people of their heads and lives quickly and painlessly.

Are you going on a hike? Take the guillotine!

The National Assembly of France commissioned the development of such a machine, known for his work on surgery Dr. Antoine Louis. Dr. Louis created the outline drawings of the machine, and their implementation fell on the shoulders of the German mechanics by Tobias Schmidt, who was assisted by the famous Parisian executioner Charles Henri Sanson.

The main part of the guillotine was a heavy slanting knife, which, along guides from a height of 2-3 meters, fell on the neck of the condemned, fixed with a special device. The body of the victim was fixed on a special bench, after which the executioner pressed the lever, and the falling knife put an end to the life of the criminal.

The new machine was approved by the National Assembly of France as an instrument of execution on March 20, 1792.

The first execution using the guillotine took place in Paris on April 25, 1792, when he paid for his crimes with his head assassin Jean Nicolas Peltier.

Spectators who gathered to watch the new spectacle were disappointed by its transience. However, the era of revolutionary terror that began later generously compensated for the transience of the number of executions. At the peak of the revolutionary struggle, up to 60 people were executed a day. And the revolutionary army of France, setting out on a campaign to pacify the rebels, carried with them marching guillotines.

"Death Machine" conquers Europe

At the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries, scientists believed that a severed head lives for another five to ten seconds. Therefore, the executioner took the severed head and showed it to the crowd so that the executed person could see the audience laughing at him.

Among those who ended their lives on the guillotine were King Louis XVI of France and his Marie Antoinette's wife, figures of the French Revolution Danton, Robespierre and Desmoulins, and even founder of modern chemistry Antoine Lavoisier.

Execution of Marie Antoinette. Photo: Public Domain

Contrary to legend, the initiator of the creation of the guillotine, Joseph Guillotin, was not guillotined, but died a natural death in 1814. His relatives tried for a long time to achieve the renaming of the guillotine, but failed, after which they preferred to change their surname.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the guillotine was little used in Europe, as it was associated with the French "revolutionary terror". Then, however, in many countries it was decided that the guillotine was cheap, reliable and practical.

Especially actively the guillotine was used in Germany. During the reign Hitler with its help, about 40 thousand members of the Resistance were executed. This was explained simply - since the Resistance fighters were not soldiers of the regular army, instead of being shot, they were subjected to "ignoble" execution as criminals.

The execution of the French revolutionary Maximilian Robespierre. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

It is curious that the guillotine as a means of execution was used in post-war Germany both in the FRG and in the GDR, and in the West it was abandoned in 1949, and in the East - only in 1966.

But, of course, the most "reverent" attitude towards the guillotine was preserved in France, where the procedure for execution on it did not change from the end of the era of "revolutionary terror" to the complete abolition of the death penalty.

Scheduled execution

Preparations for the execution began at 2:30 am. Within an hour, the executioner and his assistants brought the mechanism into working condition and checked it. An hour was allotted for this.

At 3:30 a.m., the director of the prison, a lawyer, a doctor and other officials went to the prisoner's cell. If he was asleep, the director of the prison woke him up and proclaimed:

Your request for pardon has been denied, get up, prepare to die!

After that, the convict was allowed to go to natural necessities, handed over a specially prepared shirt and jacket. Then, accompanied by two policemen, he was transferred to a room where he could write a farewell note to relatives or any other persons.

Then the condemned received a few minutes to communicate with the priest. As soon as he completed the ceremony, the police handed over the condemned to the hands of the executioner's assistants. They quickly removed the jacket from the "client", tied his hands behind his back and legs, and then put him on a stool.

While one of the executioner's assistants cut off the shirt collar with scissors, the condemned man was offered a glass of rum and a cigarette. As soon as these formalities were over, the assistants of the executioner picked up the victim and swiftly dragged him to the guillotine. Everything took a matter of seconds - the condemned was laid on a bench, his neck was fixed in the grooves, and the executioner, by pressing the lever, carried out the sentence. The body of the victim from the bench was immediately thrown into a prepared box with a substance that absorbs blood. Then the head was sent there.

The whole process was completed around 4 o'clock in the morning.

Guillotine in Pankrac Prison in Prague. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

How the President of France destroyed the labor dynasty

The last public execution in France was Eugen Weidmann, the killers of seven people, which took place on June 17, 1939 in Versailles. The execution was delayed in time and took place at 4:50 in the morning, when it was already dawn. This allowed stubborn newsreel operators to capture it on film.

The indecent behavior of the crowd and journalists during the execution of Weidmann forced the French authorities to abandon public executions. From that moment until the abolition of the death penalty in general, the procedure was carried out in closed courtyards of prisons.

The last person to be executed in France by guillotine was on October 10, 1977. Tunisian immigrant Hamida Jandoubi, sentenced to death for torturing his friend, 21-year-old Elizabeth Busquet.

In 1981 French President Francois Mitterrand signed a law abolishing the death penalty in the country.

Last French state executioner Marcel Chevalier passed away in 2008. It is interesting that Chevalier, who inherited the position of state executioner from his uncle, intended to subsequently transfer it to his son Eric, who worked as an assistant at the executions carried out by his father. However, the labor dynasty of the French executioners was interrupted due to the abolition of the profession.

Perhaps the guillotine is one of the bloodiest items in European history. Although designed with the best of intentions, this easily recognizable machine quickly became one of the symbols of nightmarish terror during the French Revolution.

The history of the guillotine is still confused, and the stories about it are contradictory. In this article you can learn about the events that made the guillotine world famous, and as you will see for yourself, this story is connected not only with France and the revolution.

"Great Guillotine": "Halifax Gallows"

For a long time it was believed that the guillotine was invented at the end of the 18th century, however, recent research has shown that such "decapitation machines" have a longer history.

The most famous, and perhaps one of the first, was a car called the Halifax Gallows (Halifax Gibbet), which was a monolithic wooden building with two racks of 15 feet, topped with a horizontal beam. The blade was an ax that slid up and down slots in the uprights. This device was installed in the city square. Most likely, the creation of this "Halifax Gallows" dates back to 1066, although the first serious mention of it dates back to the 1280s. Executions took place in the city's market square on Saturdays and the machine remained in use until April 30, 1650.

Great Guillotine: Ireland

Another early reference to an execution machine is found in the painting Execution of Markod Ballag near Merton, Ireland, 1307. As the name suggests, the name of the victim is Marcod Ballag, and he was beheaded with equipment that is remarkably similar to a late French guillotine.

Also, a similar device is found in a picture depicting a combination of a guillotine machine and traditional decapitation. The victim was lying on a bench, with an ax supported by some kind of mechanism and raised above her neck. The difference lies in the executioner standing next to the large hammer, ready to strike the mechanism and send the blade down.

There were many other execution machines, including the Scottish Maiden and the Italian Mannaya, wooden structures created in the mid-16th century in the likeness of the Halifax Gallows.

Since the Middle Ages, execution by beheading was only possible for rich and influential people. Decapitation was thought to be more generous, and certainly less painful, than other methods. However, let us recall the “Halifax Gibbet” already known to us - it was undoubtedly an exception to the rule, since it was used in the execution of punishment for any people, regardless of their position in society, including for the poor.

Pre-revolutionary methods of execution of punishment in France

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, many methods of execution were used in France, which were often painful, bloody, painful and monstrous. Hanging, burning at the stake, quartering were commonplace. Rich and influential people were beheaded with an ax or sword, while compilations of death and torture were often used to carry out the punishment of the common population. These methods had a dual purpose: to punish the offender and prevent new crimes, for which most executions were carried out in public.

Gradually, the people grew indignant at such monstrous punishments. These grievances were fueled mainly by Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire and Locke who argued for more humane methods of execution. One of their supporters was Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin; however, it is still unclear whether the doctor was an advocate for capital punishment or ultimately sought its abolition.

Dr. Guillotin's Suggestions

The French Revolution began in 1789 and shook the whole of France, changing the social, cultural and political structure of the country. Accordingly, the legal system of the country was revised rather quickly. On October 10th, 1789 - the second day of the debate on the French penal code - Dr. Guillotin proposed six articles to the new Legislative Assembly, one of which called for decapitation to be the only method of execution in France. According to his proposal, the execution should have been carried out with a simple machine and should not have turned into torture. Guillotin presented the assembly with an engraving that illustrated such a device - a stone column with a falling blade controlled by an executioner. In addition, Guillotin demanded that the car be hidden from prying eyes, since, in his opinion, the execution should be a private and worthy affair. However, this proposal was rejected.

The texts often ignore other reforms proposed by Guillotin. First, he proposed to introduce a system of nationwide standardization of punishment. Secondly, the criminal family protection system, which should not have suffered or been discredited. Thirdly, the property of the punished should not be confiscated. Fourthly, the body of the punished must be returned to the family. On December 1, 1789, these proposals by Guillotin were accepted, but execution by machine was rejected.

The situation changed in 1791, when the General Assembly finally began to discuss a more humane and equitable method of execution than many previous methods that were considered too barbaric and unsuitable. The Assembly accepted the proposal of the Marquis Lepeletier de San Fargeo, ruling that "every person sentenced to death must be executed by decapitation". Guillotin's proposals for a "beheading machine" began to gain more and more popularity, despite the fact that the doctor himself had already abandoned this idea. The traditional methods of cutting off the head (with a sword or ax) had their drawbacks - they were considered dirty and difficult to perform. In order for everything to go right, a professional executioner was required, not allowing a slip or a hitch. There are cases when the punished suffered terribly in agony due to a mistake or insufficient skill of the executioner. The machine, on the other hand, does not make mistakes, does everything quickly and reliably, and besides, it does not get tired. France's chief executioner, Charles-Henri Sanson, defended these arguments.

First guillotine

The design of the decapitating machine was entrusted to Dr. Antoine Louis, secretary of the Academy of Surgery in France, and its construction was entrusted to the German engineer Tobias Schmidt.

Schmidt built the first machine and tested it, first on animals and then on human corpses. The guillotine consisted of two fourteen-foot beams with a crossbeam, the inner edges of which were smeared with grease and oil; the blade suspended from above was either straight or curved like an axe. The system was controlled through a rope and a pulley, while the building itself was installed on a high platform.

Final testing took place at Bicêtre Hospital, where three carefully selected corpses of strong, stocky men were successfully decapitated. The first guillotining took place on April 25, 1792, when a robber named Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier was executed. After that, some changes were made to the mechanism, but, in general, the guillotine was ready.

The guillotine spreads across France

So, the guillotine was approved by the General Assembly, and its copies were sent to every French department. In Paris, the guillotine was first installed on the Carousel Square, but then it was moved.

After Pelletier's execution, the decapitation machine was given the name "Louisette" or "Louison", after its designer, Dr. Louis, but this name was soon forgotten. After some time, the car began to be called "Guillotin" / Guillotin, named after Dr. Guillotin, who was the first to officially propose its approval. And, finally, even later, the name was transformed into "guillotine" / la guillotine. It is still not known exactly when the last “e” was added to the name in French. There are suggestions that it appeared from folk attempts to rhyme in poetry and chants the name of Guillotin with his car.

So, the guillotine was designed to quickly and painlessly execute any criminal, regardless of age, gender, wealth or position. Ironically, in those days the guillotine became the embodiment of such concepts as "equality" and "humanism".

Perhaps the most indescribable aspect of the history of the guillotine is the extraordinary speed and scale of its adoption and use. Indeed, by 1795, only a year and a half after its first use, the guillotine had beheaded more than a thousand people in Paris alone. Of course, when mentioning these figures, one cannot ignore the role of time, since in France the machine was introduced only a few months before the bloodiest period of the French Revolution: the terror.

In 1793, political events in France led to the emergence of a new government body: the Committee of Public Safety. This body was supposed to work quickly and efficiently, protecting the Republic from enemies, but in practice it became the embodiment of the dictatorship ruled by Robespierre. The committee arrested and executed anyone whose behavior, connections, or writings at least indirectly indicated that he was a supporter of tyranny and federalism. This definition was so broad that it could apply to almost any citizen of France ... During the years 1793-1794, thousands of people were sent to the guillotine.

It's easy to see why this car so quickly pierced the culture of France and all of Europe. If earlier the executioners were proud of their skills and professionalism, now there was no need for this - speed has become the main advantage of the execution process. Between 1541 and 1650, 53 people were executed on the Halifax Gallows. The guillotine easily surpassed this number in some days of its existence.

Horrific images of the guillotine accompanied by morbid humorous comments began to appear in magazines and pamphlets. They wrote about her, composed songs and poems, she was depicted in caricatures and frightening drawings ... The guillotine touched everything - fashion, literature and even children's toys, it became an integral part of French history.

However, despite all the horror of that period and the revolutionary bloodshed, the guillotine did not become hated by the people. The nicknames given to her by the people were more sad and romantic than hateful and intimidating - "national razor", "widow", "Madame Guillotin". An important fact in this phenomenon is that the guillotine itself was never associated with any particular stratum of society, and also that Robespierre himself was beheaded on it. On the guillotine, both yesterday's king and an ordinary criminal or political rebel could be executed. This allowed the machine to rise above petty party politics and become the arbiter of higher justice.

Post-revolutionary use

The history of the guillotine does not end with the French Revolution.

This machine was adopted in many countries of the world, including Belgium, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden and some German states, as well as in the French colonies. Moreover, in France it continued to be used and improved for at least another century.

Public executions continued in France until 1939, when Eugène Weidmann became the last "outdoor" victim. Thus, it took almost 150 years for Guillotin's wishes to be hidden from prying eyes to be realized. The last state use of the guillotine in France was on September 10, 1977, when Hamid Djandoubi was executed. The next execution was to take place in 1981, but the alleged victim, Philippe Maurice, received a pardon. The death penalty was abolished in France in the same year.

And finally, I would like to say that despite all the terrible historical events associated with the guillotine, today this word is used to name professional equipment for cutting metal sheets of different thicknesses. In our modern world, the guillotine is a complex device used in production. It allows you to quickly and accurately cut sheets of metal of different thicknesses.

P.S. The fate of Dr. Guillotin

And at the end of this sad story, I would like to note that, contrary to legend, Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin was not executed in his own car. He lived until 1814 and died a natural death.

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