Few of the people who live in this area near the main railway station today know that Offenbach's gallows once stood here on the meadows where the former Schäfer'sche Wachstuchfabrik was later built. "The Rabenstein" was once the name of Offenbach's execution site.
The corridor on which it stood, visible from afar, was called "In den Sümpfen" by the people of Offenbach. The gate in the town wall near the market square, which the condemned had to pass through on their "last walk", was popularly known as the "gallows gate". The gallows were probably erected in 1557 under the rule of the Counts of Isenburg.
Exactly 175 years ago, in 1827, the three pillars on which the crossbeams rested were torn down. The gallows were last used for their intended purpose 190 years ago, in 1812. The notorious pair of robbers and murderers, the brothers Konrad and Johannes Werner, who made the area from the Main to the Odenwald unsafe, were to be executed. However, only Konrad was sent to the gallows. His brother had hanged himself in his cell in the prison on Schloßplatz the night before the execution. The Schinderknecht wrapped him in a cowhide the next morning, transported him in a cart to the Rabenstein and buried him under the gallows.
Johannes feared the public spectacle at the place of execution, and rightly so. "Everything that had legs", it was reported, "turned up" to watch the ceremony, which would be abhorrent from today's perspective. And it is easy to imagine that where there are many people, flying merchants and jugglers once provided a macabre accompanying program. In 1812, there was no longer an executioner working in Offenbach. So the executioner Hofmann had to come from Frankfurt to do the bloody work.
After 1812, the death penalty was no longer carried out in Offenbach. The facility had become dispensable. In a report by the district judge at the time, Strecker, it was stated that the gallows were a useless remnant that offended the sense of beauty and caused annoyance. Of course, its material, the three 16-foot (about four meters) high wooden pillars and its three 18-foot long crossbeams, on which two executions could be carried out at the same time, could be marketed well. The Offenbacher Frage- und Anzeigenblatt of January 12, 1827, advertised the facility for auction. The stone blocks and beams were bought at auction by Johann Phillipp Holzmann, who founded the Frankfurt construction business Holzmann und Kompanie, a company that was to develop into a global corporation in the 20th century, but later had to file for insolvency. Holzmann paid 35 guilders and 30 kreuzer for the materials. Master mason Beck's estimate for the demolition amounted to 24 guilders.
Holzmann used the long, round timber to support the upper floor of the rear building he had erected at Geleitsstraße 30. As was common in buildings of the time, the second floor towered horizontally above the first floor. Legend has it that many an old Offenbach resident cut a chip out of the wood before the gallows were demolished. Whether as a lucky charm, souvenir or gruesome devotional object is left to the imagination of the reader today. The demolition of the old gallows, along with many other developments and details of local history, is documented in the Offenbach City Archives, Herrnstraße 61. Text City of Offenbach
