 Many German states had used a guillotine-like device known as a "Fallbeil" ("falling axe") since the 17th and 18th centuries, and decapitation by guillotine was the usual means of execution in Germany until the abolition of the death penalty in West Germany in 1949.It was last used in communist East Germany in 1966.In Nazi Germany, the "Fallbeil" was reserved for common criminals and people convicted of political crimes, including treason.