I congratulate your two editors Jeanette Römer and Simona Pinwinkler on their articles about the loss of the so-called Executioner’s House (“Stadt-Nachrichten” of 29, SN of 31 August 2024) and their call for the construction of a memorial, which I fully share.
Of course, one must distinguish between the building itself, which follows the type of Flachgau farmhouse, in which some hereditary farms in the country still exist, and its historical significance, which is linked to a cruel administration of justice.
My research has revealed little in the literature: It is well known that Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau had the high court transferred here from Schallmooser Hauptstrasse on March 5, 1599 (according to Hübner, L.: City Vol. I, p. 444), whereby the religious symbol, the monument of the three crosses, which administrator Duke Ernst of Bavaria had renovated around 1555, remained on site. Neither the authors Franz V. Zillner nor H. Widmann deal with the executioner’s house, which was also overlooked by the worthy local historian Prof. Georg Stadler in his city association publication No. 12: “Farmhouses and Meierhöfe” (1986).
I finally found a relevant historically sound text from the pen of Univ.-Prof. Dr. G. Ammerer in the century-long opus by H. Dopsch and H. Spatzenegger: “History of Salzburg”, Vol. II/1, p. 368 f., from which I can quote: “For the execution of the torture … which was at risk of life and limb, it was not the nurses and district judges who were responsible, but the Freimann alone … Franz Joseph Wohlmuth … whose ‘execution registration book’ from the year 1761 to … (Table XII) … documents a practice of criminal justice in which the spirit of the Enlightenment [unter EB Colloredo] seems to have passed without a trace.”
I therefore support Ms Jeanette Römer’s proposal to erect a memorial in the area of the now demolished executioner’s house; following the example of Schallmooser Hauptstrasse, this could be a modern Christ cross.
Prof. Dr. Adolf Hahnl, former monastery librarian and art historian, 5020 Salzburg
2024-09-08 13:57:52