Elsewhere
There were guillotine-like devices in countries other than France before 1792. A number of countries, especially in Europe, continued to employ this method of execution into modern times.
Although sources assert that the device was invented in the late 18th century, other accounts recognise that similar 'decapitation machines' have a long history. The Halifax Gibbet was a monolithic wooden structure consisting of two wooden uprights, capped by a horizontal beam, of a total height of 15 feet. The blade was an axe head weighing 3.5 kg, attached to the bottom of a massive wooden block that slid up and down via grooves in the uprights. This device was mounted on a large square platform four feet high. The Halifax Gibbet was certainly substantial, but no date of first use has been made certain as of yet. The first recorded execution in Halifax dates from 1280, but that execution may have been by sword, axe, or by use of the Gibbet. Executions took place in the town's Market Place on Saturdays, and the machine remained in use until Oliver Cromwell forbade capital punishment for petty theft. It was used for the last time, for the execution of two criminals on a single day, on April 30th, 1650.
Another early example is immortalised in the picture 'The execution of Murcod Ballagh near to Merton in Ireland 1307'. As the title suggests, the victim was called Murcod Ballagh, and he was decapitated by equipment looking remarkably similar to the later French guillotines. Another unrelated picture depicts an execution with elements of both a guillotine-style device and a traditional beheading. While the condemned is lying on a bench, a device holds an axe head in position above the neck. The executioner, who is shown wielding a large hammer, strikes down on the mechanism and drives the blade down. Traditional execution by decapitation by sword or axe were notably gruesome, and the aforementioned design was probably conceived in an attempt to improve the accuracy and effectiveness; however, no reference to its actual use has been found.
In Antwerp (Belgium), the last person to be beheaded was Francis Kol. Convicted for robbery with murder, he underwent his punishment on 8 May 1856. During the period from March 19th, 1798 until March 30th, 1856, Antwerp counted 19 beheadings.
In Germany, where the guillotine is known as Fallbeil ("falling axe"), it was used in various German states from the 17th century onwards, becoming the preferred method of execution in Napoleonic times in many parts of Germany. The guillotine and the firing squad were the legal methods of execution during the German Empire (1871–1918) and the Weimar Republic (1919–1933).
The original German guillotines resembled the French Berger 1872 model, but they eventually evolved into more specialised machines largely built of metal with a much heavier blade enabling shorter uprights to be used. Accompanied by a more efficient blade recovery system and the eventual removal of the tilting board (or bascule) this allowed a quicker turn-around time between executions, the condemned being decapitated either face-up or face-down, depending on how the executioner predicted they would react to the sight of the machine. Those deemed likely to struggle were backed up from behind a curtain to shield their view of the device.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler had a guillotine constructed and tested. He was impressed enough to order 20 more constructed and pressed into immediate service. National Socialist records indicate that between 1933 and 1945, 16,500 people were executed by guillotine in Germany and Austria. It was used for the last time in West Germany in 1949 (in the execution of Richard Schuh) and in East Germany in 1966 (in the execution of Horst Fischer). In Switzerland it was used for the last time by the canton of Obwalden in the execution of murderer Hans Vollenweider in 1940.
The Scottish Maiden (supposedly based on the Halifax Gibbet) was introduced to Edinburgh by James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton in the 16th century and remained in use until 1708. The scaffold itself is now housed in the National Museum of Scotland.
In Sweden, where beheading became the mandatory method of execution in 1866, the guillotine replaced manual beheading in 1903 and was used only once, in the execution of murderer Alfred Ander in 1910 at Långholmen Prison, Stockholm.
In South Vietnam, after the Diệm regime enacted the 10/59 Decree in 1959, mobile special military courts dispatched to the countryside to intimidate the rural peoples used guillotines belonging to the former French colonial power to carry out death sentences on the spot. One such guillotine is still on show at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.
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