![The Zurich guillotine was tested on a sheep in 1836. Illustration by Marco Heer](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/guillotine-titel-300x225.jpg)
The guillotine maker
Johann Bücheler was a regular carpenter from Kloten. In 1836, he was commissioned by the canton of Zurich to build a guillotine. That proved the end of “normality” as he knew it.
![Following the French Revolution, the guillotine became a common execution method all over Europe.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/guillotine-franz-revolution-225x300.jpg)
![The Lucerne Guillotine.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Guillotine_©MUSEUM-LUZERN-197x300.jpg)
![The Oetenbach Prison in Zurich on a painting from 1900.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/strafanstalt-oetenbach-300x212.jpg)
No-one likes an executioner
![During the Old Zürich War, 62 men were beheaded in Greifensee in 1444. Following the “Züriputsch”, the Zurich authorities revived this execution method.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/enthauptung-uster-300x270.jpg)
![Model of the Lucerne Guillotine.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/guillotine-300x296.jpg)
Johann Bücheler was a regular carpenter from Kloten. In 1836, he was commissioned by the canton of Zurich to build a guillotine. That proved the end of “normality” as he knew it.