German and Austrian Prisons / Prisons of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Austria-Hungary; the Fortresses of Magdeburg and Spielberg

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History and Romance of Crime: German and Austrian Prisons, by Arthur George Frederick Griffiths
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Heidelberg
German and Austrian Prisons PRISONS OF PRUSSIA, BAVARIA, SAXONY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY THE FORTRESSES OF MAGDEBURG AND SPIELBERG by MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain Author of “The Mysteries of Police and Crime “Fifty Years of Public Service,” etc.
THE GROLIER SOCIETY
EDITION NATIONALE Limited to one thousand registered and numbered sets. NUMBER 307
Interest in penal matters in Germany and in Austria-Hungary centres rather in the nature and number of persons who commit crimes than the methods pursued in bringing them to justice or the places in which penalties have been imposed. The character and extent of crimes committed from time to time, attracts us more generally than the prisons designed and established for their punishment. This is the more marked because such prisons have not achieved any remarkable prominence or notoriety. They have been for the most part the ordinary institutions used for detention, repression and correction, more noted for the offenders they have held than their own imposing appearance, architectural pretensions, or the changes they have introduced in the administration of justice. Only in more recent years, since so-called penitentiary science has come to the front and the comparative value of prison systems has been much discussed, have certain institutions risen into prominence in Germany and become known as model prisons. These have been erected in various capitals of the empire, to give effect to new principles in force in the administration of justice. Among such places we may specify a few, such as Bruchsal in Baden; the Moabit prison in Berlin; the prison at Zwickau in Saxony; the prisons of Munich and Nürnberg in Bavaria and of Heilbronn in Württemberg. To these may be added the prisons of Stein on the Danube, of Marburg on the Drave, and of Pankraz Nusle near Prague in Austria-Hungary. Many others might be mentioned which have played an important part in the development of penitentiary institutions.