Erfurt latrine fall

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Heinrich VI., Here a representation from the Codex Manesse , survived the fall of the Erfurt latrine.

The Erfurt latrine fall was a misfortune at a royal court conference in Erfurt in 1184, in which around 60 people, including many nobles, were killed and many more injured. The name latrine fall comes from the course of the accident in which the victims fell through two floors of the Dompropstei of the Marienstift into the toilet pit below and died partly from the fall and falling debris, but mostly from drowning or suffocation in the body excretions.

The misfortune

In July 1184 the king and later emperor Heinrich VI came. on a campaign against Poland to Erfurt and held court there briefly. He tried to settle a serious dispute that after the fall of Henry the Lion between Archbishop Konrad I of Mainz and Landgrave Ludwig III. broke out of Thuringia .

On July 26th, Heinrich was sitting with a large entourage on the upper floor of the Dompropstei of the Marienstift when the old and probably rotten floor of the second floor suddenly collapsed under the extraordinary weight of the many people. In this case, most of those present collapsed in the depth, where the bottom of the first bullet did not withstand the sudden impact of this load, so that the cascading deeper into an underlying privy pit fell. Many were killed in the process (contemporary sources speak of around 60 dead): the majority drowned or suffocated in the body excretions in the toilet pit, others were killed or injured by falling beams and stones. The Chronicle of St. Peter in Erfurt mentions Count Gozmar III among the fatalities . von Ziegenhain , Count Friedrich I. von Abenberg , Burgrave Friedrich I. von Kirchberg , Count Heinrich von Schwarzburg , Burgrave Burchard von der Wartburg and Beringer I. von Meldingen .

At the time of the accident, King Heinrich himself was sitting in a brick window niche in the stone outer wall and was brought to safety by means of ladders. He left Erfurt immediately.

Extract from the chronicle of St. Peter zu Erfurt

“King Heinrich came to Erfurt on the train against Poland and there found Cunrad of Mainz in a violent dispute with Landgrave Lodewig about the damage done to the diocese. When he was sitting in an upper room at Rath, trying to establish peace between them, surrounded by many, the building suddenly collapsed and many fell into the cesspool below, some of which were rescued with difficulty, while others were suffocated in the morass. There died: Friderich, Count von Abinberc, Heinrich, a Count from Thuringia, Gozmar, a Hessian Count, Friderich, Count von Kirchberg, Burchard von Wartburg and others of lesser names a pitiful death on July 26th. "

reception

The Erfurt latrine fall is described in detail in the Wartburg War novel War of the Singers (2012) by Robert Löhr .

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Chronicle of Erfurt ( Memento of October 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )

Web links