The Last Public Execution in France (1939)

Eugen Weidmann, the last condemned person executed 
publicly in France

What do you think?

Should European countries bring back the death penalty? 

Should the death penalty be administered in public?

Why do you think the death penalty was secluded from public view in the 20th century? Many found the final death blows unsettling, so the offense or extreme nature of the proceedings alone cannot explain why capital punishment was removed from public view.

Why have we seen more countries abolish the death penalty in the first place?

Here's a dramatization of the final public execution in France:

In 1939, France carried out its last public guillotine execution.

This is a video reproduction made in the 1960s. pic.twitter.com/G1SntsPPzZ

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 7, 2026

Many will be shocked to learn that European countries still administered the death penalty via guillotine in the late 20th century, and not just France:

(Result from Google AI search)

The guillotine was primarily used in France until capital punishment was abolished there in 1981. However, several other nations and territories also adopted the device for executions before completely abolishing the death penalty (or before abandoning the guillotine for other execution methods): [1, 2, 3]

• Germany: Used extensively (particularly during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich). West Germany abolished the death penalty in 1949, and East Germany used the guillotine until 1967. [1]
Switzerland: Used for executions until the abolition of the death penalty for civil crimes in 1942. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Belgium: Utilized as a standard execution method until 1916. [1]
Sweden: Replaced manual beheading with the guillotine in 1906, executing only one person with it in 1910 before abolishing capital punishment in 1921. [1]
Greece: Used the device from 1834 to 1913. [1]
Luxembourg: Used the guillotine between 1798 and 1821. [1, 2]
Monaco: Utilized the device until 1847. [1]
Vietnam: Employed the machine during the French colonial era and by the Republic of Vietnam until 1961. [1]
The Papal States: Used a guillotine (introduced in 1810) until the capture of Rome in 1870. [1]

For a long time, I had believed that the death penalty was abolished in France in 1977, but that form of punishment was outlawed in 1981. France's final execution by guillotine took place in 1977. In fact, it was the last execution by guillotine ever to take place!