The Beheaded Chancellor - Neumarkt
A single cobblestone carved with the letters 'Kr.' is set into the Neumarkt paving to mark the exact spot where Saxon chancellor Nikolaus Krell was publicly beheaded by sword on 9 October 1601, condemned after nearly ten years of imprisonment for the charge of secret Calvinism.
Sobre este lugar
At a corner of the Neumarkt, in front of the long facade of the Johanneum museum, a modest stone in the pavement records one of Saxony's most chilling judicial killings. Nikolaus Krell was a highly educated lawyer who became chancellor of Electoral Saxony in 1589 and, under Elector Christian I, pushed the territory's churches toward Calvinist doctrine. When his protector died suddenly in 1591, Krell had no defence. Arrested on 23 October 1591, he was locked in Königstein fortress above the Elbe while his case was routed through the imperial courts for almost ten years. On 8 September 1601 the Bohemian appeals court in Prague convicted him of Landfriedensbruch, breach of the public peace, and sentenced him to death. On 9 October 1601 the executioner raised his sword here on the Neumarkt, and when the blow fell, called to the crowd: 'Das war ein calvinischer Streich!' meaning 'That was a Calvinist cut!' Many historians now see Krell as a judicial scapegoat for an entire policy. His grave was in the old Frauenkirche churchyard; the sword that killed him is kept to this day in the Rüstkammer armoury.
Datos clave
- 10 years imprisoned — Krell spent almost ten years locked in Königstein fortress from his arrest on 23 October 1591 to his execution on 9 October 1601.
- 31 days — Only 31 days elapsed between the Bohemian appeals court's death sentence on 8 September 1601 and the sword falling here on the Neumarkt.
- 2011 year reset — The commemorative 'Kr.' cobblestone was reset into its original position in 2011 when the square was repaved, so the execution spot would not be lost.