Rituals of retribution

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The book opens with an exploration of traditional capital punishment in German law, detailing the associated rituals and cultural interpretations during the early modern period. It discusses the breakdown of this system due to secularization and social changes in the early nineteenth century. The abolition of the death penalty emerged as a prominent liberal cause, achieving temporary success in 1848. However, its reinstatement by Bismarck in the 1880s aligned with the rise of Social Darwinist views on criminality, setting the stage for the significant increase in capital punishment during Hitler's regime. Following 1945, the death penalty was abolished in West Germany but persisted in East Germany until the 1980s. This insightful study presents extensive new evidence regarding German perspectives on law, order, deviance, cruelty, suffering, and death. It recounts the experiences of those executed, the politicians and philosophers who debated their fates, and the executioners tasked with carrying out the sentences. The findings challenge Norbert Elias's notion of a 'civilizing process' deficit in Germany, engage with Michel Foucault's concept of a 'carceral society,' and illuminate the social history of death, following the groundwork laid by Philippe Ariès.