1829: William Maxwell, the last hanged for sodomy by the Royal Navy 1453: Stefano Porcari

1795: Franz Hebenstreit, Wiener Jakobiner

January 8th, 2019 Headsman

Vienna utopian Franz Hebenstreit, the world’s first communist, was publicly hanged on this date in 1795.

Philosophy student turned cavalry officer and sometime poet, Hebenstreit along with Andreas von Riedel became in the wake of the French Revolution the foremost proponents of constitutional monarchy within the Habsburg empire.

As these visionaries trended, with France, ever more republican they became in like proportion ever more odious to Emperor Franz II. Finally in 1794 the “Wiener Jakobiner” types were arrested; Hebenstreit caught a death sentence for treason via a show trial designed to exaggerate the group’s threat. (Riedel would be imprisoned, and freed from his dungeons by Napoleon.)

On this day..

Entry Filed under: 18th Century,Artists,Austria,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,Habsburg Realm,Hanged,History,Martyrs,Public Executions,Revolutionaries,Soldiers,Treason

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