Every year, England and Wales executed about sixteen times as many people. While in Prussia the death penalty was usually applied only in murder cases, the English also executed people for theft, sometimes even in minor cases. The German Empire (1871–1918) inflicted the death penalty for some forms of (1) high treason and for (2) murder. Murder was defined as killing with premeditation; only murder or attempted murder of one's sovereign was capital treason. Under military law, in case of a war only, some other particularly listed forms of (3) treason, some cases of (4) wrongful surrender, (5) desertion in the field in case of relapse, if the previous desertion also had taken place in the field, (6) cowardice if it led to a flight with enticing one's comrades to flight, (7) explicit disobeying an order by word or deed in the face of the enemy, (8) sedition in the face of the enemy, or in the field (only) if done as a ringleader or instigator, or with violence as a leading man. During the German empire, the legal methods were the hand-held axe, in some states also the guillotine for civilian crimes, and the firing squad for military crimes. According to Manfred Messerschmidt, "from 1907 to 1932," i. e. including World War I, "Germany had issued 1547 death warrants, of which 393 were executed. The Weimar Republic retained the death penalty for murder, and several murderers were guillotined. Nazi Germany As to the National Socialists, the leading Nazi jurist Hans Frank boasted at the 1934 Reichsparteitag of "reckless implementation of capital punishment" as a special acquisition of the Nazi regime. Under Hitler nearly 40 000 death sentences were handed down, mainly by the Volksgerichtshof and also by the Reich Military Tribunal. Executions were carried out most often by decapitation using the guillotine, which in 1936 was ordained the official means of civil execution of capital punishment. From 1942, short-drop hanging was also used, notoriously in the reprisals in the aftermath of the 20 July plot. Firing squads were reserved for military offenders. The definition of murder was changed and, in practice, extended to the rather vague definition still in force (now only with life imprisonment). Among the crimes subject to mandatory, the following non-exhaustive list illustrates the width of crimes concerned: Declared treason (mandatory for soldiers) Grave arson Aiding and abetting treason Betraying a secret Procuring a secret for