January 1, 1856 - Alois Seyfried
Seyfried served as a state executioner across two distinct political regimes, carrying out officially sanctioned capital punishment in both the Austro-Hungarian Empire and its successor state in the Balkans. His career spanned decades of upheaval — wars, the dissolution of an empire, the birth of new nations — yet his function within the machinery of state justice continued uninterrupted. The role of the professional executioner occupies an uncomfortable place in legal history, embodying the state's ultimate authority over life and death as exercised by a single appointed individual.
From Wikipedia
Alois Seyfried (1856–1938) was an executioner active in Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He was born in Brunn am Gebirge on 27 May 1856 to Franz and Caroline Seyfried (née Herger). On 1 August 1886, he was appointed temporary executioner (provisorischer Scharfrichter) for Bosnia, which was then under Austro-Hungarian occupation in accordance with the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. On 1 February 1897, Seyfried became the permanent State Executioner for Bosnia.
After World War I, Bosnia became a part of the newly created Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed Yugoslavia). Seyfried remained in the service of the new government until his retirement in 1922. Upon his retirement, he stayed in Sarajevo until 1930, when he left for his hometown in Austria, where he died on 9 October 1938.
Seyfried’s two brothers – Jozef (b.
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