Rituals of retribution

The ideals of the Enlightenment transformed execution from a barbarous public spectacle into a far more impersonal, civilized process. Yet moves towards the complete abolition of the death penalty ground to a halt in 1870, with the creation of Bismarck's Empire. The Weimar Republic virtually abolished capital punishment - and then gave way to the Nazi bloodbath. It was not until 1949 that executions were outlawed in West Germany; in the Communist East they continued into the 1980s.