On May 5, 1820, the Supreme Court of the Grand-Duchy of Baden passed sentence on him in these terms: “That the accused Karl Ludwig Sand is convicted, on his own confession, of the wilful murder of the Russian counsellor of state, Von Kotzebue; therefore, as a just punishment to himself and as a deterrent example to others, he is to be executed with a sword,” etc., etc.

May 20th, the Saturday before Whitsuntide, was the day fixed for the execution. The place selected was a meadow just outside the Heidelberg gate. The scaffold erected there was from five to six feet high. In spite of precautions, the news of the approaching event spread far and wide so that crowds poured into Mannheim. The students’ association had agreed to mourn in silence at home. Most of the students, therefore, came to the fatal spot only when the bloody spectacle was over. Measures were taken to avoid disturbances by strengthening the prison guard, surrounding the scaffold with a force of infantry, using a detachment of cavalry to escort the procession from the prison, and providing a detachment of artillery under arms to call upon if necessary. Those of the educated inhabitants of Mannheim who felt sympathy for Sand did not show themselves outside their houses. Nevertheless, the streets were thronged, but in spite of this everything passed off quietly. When the scaffold was completed, the executioner appeared with his assistants. Widemann, the executioner, wore a beaver overcoat under which he concealed his sword, but the assistants were dressed in black. They are reported to have eaten their breakfasts and smoked their pipes on the scaffold. In the covered courtyard of the prison Sand was lifted into a low open chaise, which was bought for the purpose, as no vehicle could be borrowed or hired in Mannheim for such an occasion. Looking around, he silently bowed his head to the prisoners whose weeping faces appeared behind their grated windows. It is said that during the course of the trial they were careful when being led past his window to hold up their chains so that the rattle might not annoy him. When the door of the yard was opened and the assembled crowd perceived the condemned man, loud sobs were heard in every direction. Upon perceiving this Sand begged the governor of the prison to call upon him by name should he manifest any sign of weakness. The place of execution was hardly eight hundred feet from the prison. The procession moved slowly. Two warders with crape bands round their hats walked on either side of the chaise. Another carriage followed, in which were town officials. The bells were not tolled. Only individual voices saying, “Farewell, Sand,” interrupted the pervading silence.

Rain had recently fallen, and the air was cold. Sand was too weak to remain sitting upright. He sat half leaning back, supported by the governor’s arm. His face was drawn with suffering, his forehead open and unclouded. His features were interesting without being handsome; every trace of youth had left them. He wore a dark green overcoat, white linen trousers and laced boots, and his head was uncovered. Hardly was the execution over than all present surged up to the scaffold. The fresh blood was wiped up with cloths; the block was thrown to the ground and broken up; the pieces were divided among the crowd, and those who could not obtain possession of one of these, cut splinters of wood from the scaffolding. According to other accounts, a landed proprietor of the neighbourhood bought the block, or beheading chair, from the executioner and erected it on his estate. Single hairs are said to have been bidden for, but the headsman protested against the accusation of having sold anything at all. The body and head were promptly deposited in a coffin which was immediately nailed down. After it had been taken back to the prison under military escort and its contents examined by the governor so that he might assure himself of the identity of the corpse, it was removed to the Lutheran cemetery where Kotzebue’s remains were also interred.

CHAPTER VII
THE STORY OF A VAGRANT

The biography of a German tramp—Miserable and neglected childhood—Becomes a professional beggar and thief—Committed to an industrial school—Joins a fraternity of beggars and becomes very expert—Meets with varied luck on the road—Arrested and punished—Gives some account of German prisons—Perpetrates a robbery on a large scale at Mannheim—Is caught with part of the stolen property in his possession and sentenced to penal servitude.

Germany has suffered grievously in recent years from the growth of vagrancy. The highroads are infested with tramps, and the prisons are perpetually full. Every good citizen is keenly desirous of reducing these scourges of society, but the progress of reform is slow. It is a difficult problem, but the first step toward solving it is to acquire a more accurate knowledge of the true spirit and character of these wrong-doers. One of the most unregenerate and irreclaimable has revealed the whole story of his life and transgressions, and some quotations from the account may throw light on the difficulties of the problem confronting the prison reformer.

“My name is Joseph Kürper and I was born at H. in the Palatinate on June 14, 1849. I was an illegitimate child and I spent my early years with my mother. When I was four years old, she went to service and I, thrown on my own resources, was forced to beg for broken victuals from door to door. Sometimes I was driven away with hard words or the dogs were set on me. I cannot remember ever having owned a pair of shoes, and as a child I had no bed to sleep in. I suffered all kinds of hardships. When the time came for me to go to school, my troubles increased. As I was dressed in evil smelling rags and tatters, I was kept apart, treated like a leper and an outcast, and if I played truant I was cruelly beaten. Nevertheless, I managed to evade instruction almost entirely and did not learn much more than the alphabet. My life was that of a poor waif forsaken by God and man.

“At first I bore no ill-will to the well-to-do, and I had no quarrel with those who had treated me so harshly. Gradually, however, I realised my grievance against society and began to wage war on it by acts of pilfering, the first of which I committed in the house of a small farmer where my mother was in service. Tormented by hunger, I got in through a window and stole a loaf of bread and a few kreutzers. This was my first theft and it had bad results for me, for, when taxed with it, I confessed and was cruelly flogged by the farmer. Out of revenge I killed one of his fowls every day. Presently my mother again gave birth to an illegitimate child, a girl, and when the little thing was just able to toddle, she sent us out to beg in company, preferring this mode of support to that of working herself. We were beaten if we returned empty-handed to our hovel, so I became an expert thief in order to avoid the stick. My mother applauded me and my success was my ruin.

“At last, in the continued practice of stealing, I committed a theft that brought me for the first time within reach of the law. In the spring of 1860, when in my eleventh year, I laid hands on a watch in an empty house in the village of Kottweiler. I broke it up into its different component parts, which I sold separately to the children of our own village for pieces of bread. Though the watch was missed, I was not suspected and, growing bolder still, I soon after audaciously possessed myself of another watch hanging in a bake-house. This time I was caught red-handed, severely flogged, and then taken before the magistrate at Kusel. He put me through a cross-examination and I confessed everything. On my return home the village authorities vented their rage against me by beating me black and blue, and my little sister having let out the secret that I was also the thief of the watch at Kottweiler, I was again arrested and taken back by a police official to the magistrate at Kusel, who, on account of my youth, only sentenced me to two years’ detention at the industrial school at Speier. I was allowed to go home with my mother before being sent there, and when the police came to convey me, I ran away and managed to get over the Prussian frontier to St. Wedel. Here I first begged and then worked for a small farmer in the neighbourhood. After a time I ran away again, taking with me the watch of this brutal man who had maltreated me. I now tried to live by carrying luggage at the railway station of the town. Here I found several opportunities for committing daring thefts and finally absconded, after helping myself to some money from the till of the refreshment room. After again intermittently working and stealing, I tried to set up as a highway robber, but without success, and was soon arrested by a police official who had a warrant out against me, and actually handed over to the authorities of the industrial school at Speier.