It appears that quite a few people have been killed or brought to justice for having failed to deliver on their promise of turning ordinary metals into gold, in other words, alchemy. One was the English chemist James Price, who took his own life after his deception was exposed. Another was Georg Honauer, whose downfall ended not in disgrace alone but in a spectacular public execution.
Georg Honauer was born in Olomouc, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), in 1572. In 1596, he entered the service of Friedrich I, Duke of Württemberg, in Stuttgart after persuading the duke that he was both a skilled goldsmith and a successful alchemist.
An etching depicting the execution of the alchemist, Georg Honauer. Credit: Science History Institute
Honauer claimed he possessed the ability to transform iron into gold. Eager to benefit from such a discovery, Duke Friedrich agreed to meet the substantial financial demands that Honauer insisted were necessary for his experiments. The duke converted his summer residence in Stuttgart into a laboratory and provided additional facilities at Kirchheim unter Teck, a short distance from the city.
The duke's interest was driven by more than simple greed. Like many princes of his age, Friedrich was fascinated by alchemy, viewing it as both a natural science and an occult art. At considerable expense, he had nearly two metric tons of iron (36 hundredweight and 18 pounds) transported from Mömpelgard for the promised transmutation. Honauer also requisitioned large quantities of other materials, including 1,030 pounds of saltpetre, 1,852 pounds of lead, and similar amounts of "white copper" and "mountain antimony," along with numerous other reagents required for the operation.
When Honauer's experiments repeatedly failed to produce the promised gold, Duke Friedrich's patience finally ran out. Determined to punish the fraud, the duke ordered his arrest and execution. Honauer, however, sensed the danger and fled Stuttgart before he could be seized. To aid in the hunt, Friedrich commissioned a series of illustrated "wanted" notices which were distributed throughout the region. The effort eventually proved successful, and Honauer was captured.
Another broadsheet bearing the news of Georg Honauer’s execution. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
He was brought to trial and found guilty not only of defrauding the duke but also of falsely presenting himself as a member of the nobility. The court sentenced him to death.
For the execution, the Duke ordered the construction of a spectacular gallows out of the very iron that Honauer had promised to turn into gold. The towering structure rose 12 meters and was adorned with finial balls and hanging chains. It was mounted upon a specially prepared stone plinth. As a final mockery of his claimed abilities, the gallows was gilded.
On 2 April 1597, Honauer was led to the scaffold dressed in a lavishly embroidered tunic woven with gold brocade, and hanged before a large crowd.
The sensational execution was intended to serve as a warning to would-be fraudsters and was widely publicized through printed leaflets distributed across the duchy. Yet, neither the Duke nor the succession of self-proclaimed alchemists learned anything from it.
In the years that followed, the Duke was deceived by at least three more goldmakers who promised to unlock the secret of transmutation. Like Honauer before them, they failed to deliver and ultimately met the same end, executed on the very gallows erected from the iron that was supposed to have become gold.
The iron scaffold itself outlived both the Duke and the alchemists who perished upon it. Remaining in use for more than a century, it became one of Württemberg's most notorious instruments of execution. Its most famous victim was Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, the financial adviser to Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg, who was hanged there on 4 February 1738.
References:
# The Gilded Gallows of Georg Honauer. Public Domain Review
# Execution of an Alchemist. Science History Institute
# Georg Honauer. Wikipedia
# Richtstätten in Stuttgart. Wikipedia
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