Was a woman executed in Germany in 1943 for making a joke about Hitler?

There was a review in the Sunday Times yesterday of a book called Dead Funny: Humour in Hitler’s Germany. Here’s the link, though it’s behind a paywall:-

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/books/non_fiction/article644045.ece

This gist is that a woman called Marianne Elise K told the following joke to a colleague:

"Hitler and Goering are standing atop the Berlin radio tower. Hitler says he wants to do something to put a smile on Berliners’ face. So Goering says ‘Why don’t you jump?’ "

The review then goes on to say that the colleague reported Marianne to the authorities and was executed for this via guillotine on June 26, 1943.

Did this really happen? Google results in sites just repeating the story.

It’s not clear from the review whether the story comes from the book, or just from the reviewer (Dominic Sandbrook, seemingly a reputable historian).

Sorry, no help on the OP. But, I thought that the guy that started the Reichstag fire was the last person guillotined in Germany, which would be, what, 1933? Could be wrong, tho.

Best wishes,
hh

The Guillotine was in pretty popular use in Germany through-out the Third Reich period. Here’s a cite.

Dunno about the rest of the OPs story though.

I don’t know about ‘Marianne K.’, but I’ve certainly heard of Joseph Müller in other history books (who it also appears is mentioned in the reviewed book).

They guillotined the White Rose leader Sophie Scholl in 1943. One of the great heroes of all time, who deserves greater acclaim.

They guillotined the guy who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front’s sister because they couldn’t get to him, for pity’s sake.

The last person guillotined in Germany, or Western Germany, at least, was Berthold Wehmeyer, a 24 year old murderer and thief, in 1949. Just after that, West Germany became independent and its constitution banned the death penalty.

I don’t know about the woman you mentioned, but this article mentions both Walther Bethke and the Rev. Joseph Muller, convicted by the People’s Courts and executed for telling private jokes about Hitler, a doctor for telling a patient she was “courageous” for having a baby in 1944, and a lawyer who wrote a letter of condolence to the sister of a man executed. In general, the Peoples Courts were very eager to hand out death sentences for what they saw as treason, and defeatism, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that woman was executed for telling a joke about Hitler.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,899630,00.html

Also, the young piano prodigy Karlrobert Kreiten was executed for saying, at a party, “Hitler’s crazy, and the Germans are soon going to be free of him. In a few months, there’ll be a revolution, and Hitler, Goering, Goebbels and Frick will all be a head shorter. Either that, or we’ll lose the war, and German civilization will be destroyed forever.”