On this date in 1947, Ernst Kundt was hanged in Prague’s Pankrac Prison.
Kundt (right) is honored at Prague Castle by Hans Frank. (Frank was hanged through the Nuremberg Trial.)
Kundt co-founded the Sudeten German Party, a nationalist-fascist party that would play a leading role as one of Nazi Germany’s stalking-horses as the latter maneuvered in the 1930s towards the takeover of Czechoslovakia.
The leaders of this movement were amply rewarded by Czechoslovakia’s new masters; for Kundt, this meant a transition from an MP in Prague to a seat in the Reichstag, a gig in the Luftwaffe, and various state posts around the Third Reich.
And of course, many of these Sudeten big wheels collected a different sort of reward after 1945. He was arrested in Czechoslovakia after the war and tried with a number of other Sudeten German leaders.
On this day..
- 1946: Maliq Bushati, Lef Nosi, and Anton Harapi, of Balli Kombëtar
- 706: Leontios and Apsimar
- 1673: Kaelkompte and Keketamape, Albany milestones
- 2014: A.R. and N.J., a double hanging caught on video
- 1926: Josef Jakubowski, Weimar Germany wrongful execution
- 904: Pope Leo V and Antipope Christopher, at the dawn of the Pornocracy
- 1864: The Kinston hangings
- 1907: Gen. Antonio Paredes, Venezuelan rebel
- 1688: Philip Standsfield
- 1979: Four Generals of the Shah
- 1573: Matija Gubec, peasant revolt leader
- 1839: Five Patriotes Canadiens, leaders of the Lower Canada Rebellion