the strategies behind the reactions and the counterstrategies kept as short as possible. Almost two centuries later, the Nazi regime in Germany forbade the presence of crucifixes and priests in execution chambers. In addition, pastoral care was exceedingly difficult due to the notification of the execution coming very late. In 1943 the Catholic conference of bishops for Germany requested that the prison chaplains should have at least one hour to prepare the condemned. Their request was denied.808 • Ia Seeking to reduce the importance of spirituality at the execution, for example, by moving the devotional parts of the ceremony to after the death of the criminal, thereby aiming to reduce the interest in the criminal and her way to heaven. Additionally, changing the ceremonies around the execution to make it less of a positive celebration and to present the delinquent to a lesser degree as saintly. Other changes could, for example, affect transports and clothing, songs, and speeches. At a more advanced stage (or perhaps a separate strategy) letting the spiritual dimension of the execution fade out. Thus, replacing transcendence with immanence as it is, in this more extreme position of this line of thought, of no interest for the state if somebody goes to heaven or not – at least not publicly. It might even be useful to suggest that the prospects of the condemned rather were in the direction of hell. Rising doubt about the salvation of the condemned as an objective for the state in conducting the execution must be seen as a major deviation from earlier praxis and ideas. To this stage we can also count the prohibition of priestly presence at the execution. The more extreme purpose of such changes was to challenge the belief that the eternal consequences for those who were executed could be diminished or erased by the preparations or the actions of the church and the priests at the execution. From the perspective of the in reality secularised state, this implied that the eternal fate of individuals was of no concern and was subordinated to the present interests of the state. Thus, priests and religion were seen as irrelevant or wholly immanent. These views seem to presuppose either a clearly atheistic belief 808 Oleschinski 1993 p 178 sqq, see also Alt 1946 p 12, 39. 225
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