Great plague from 1708 to 1714

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Samuel Donnet: Illustration of the Great Plague in Danzig 1709
Painting of the plague in Vilnius

The Great Plague from 1708 to 1714 spread during the Great Northern War in Northern and Eastern Europe, with a focus on the Baltic Sea region . The plague epidemic peaked from 1708 to 1712 and raged until 1714 . The plague occurred in Transylvania , Poland-Lithuania , the Kingdom of Prussia , Courland , Swedish-Livonia , Swedish-Estonia , Pskow and Novgorod in Tsarism Russia , Finland , Sweden , Western Pomerania and Swedish-Pomerania , Denmark , Schleswig and Holstein , Hamburg and Bremen -Verden , Hungary , Bohemia and Moravia , Austria and the Upper Palatinate . Over a million Europeans died in these seven years.

course

The epidemic was likely part of a widespread pandemic that stretched from Central Asia via Constantinople to the Mediterranean coast. First the plague was diagnosed in Pińczów in southern Poland in 1702 in a Swedish military hospital . It then spread along the trade routes and along the advance routes of the armies of Sweden , Saxony and Russia . So all the Baltic Sea areas were gradually hit by the plague wave. The course of the war and the spread of the plague influenced each other. While soldiers and war refugees were often unknowingly attacked by the plague, they infected people on their marching routes. The death rate in the military as well as the depopulation of the cities and rural areas in the combat zones had a considerable influence on the fighting and in some cases led to interruptions in the course of the war. The plague reached the Baltic Sea from Prussia in 1711 , crossed it in summer and from there reached Central Europe with Prague and Vienna.

The plague from 1708 to 1714 was the last pandemic in the Baltic Sea region. Outbreaks of the plague had occurred there before, especially in the 14th century. However, the extent of the plague in the first decade of the 18th century was significantly higher than previous outbreaks. Prussia and Estonia were particularly hard hit. The death rate in many of the areas was 66 to 75 percent of the population. Many farms and villages were completely depopulated. With the plague, hunger and other illnesses emerged that exacerbated the effects of the plague . Plague bumps were among the diagnosed symptoms of the victims. However, many deaths were not adequately diagnosed or were generally recorded as victims of the plague.

In some cities, the plague occurred only one year, while in other regions it was repeated annually. Increased death rates occurred particularly among children and women, but this can also be influenced by the consequences of hunger and the entry of men into the army. The cause of the plague was unknown to the people of the time. Bad air or God's punishment were the usual explanations. In order to combat the plague, in addition to the means of containment and the separation of the healthy from the sick, various methods such as goods and people boycotts or cleaning measures were used. Affected cities like Königsberg or Stralsund were surrounded and isolated by health zones. However, there was heavy black trafficking in forged health passports. The Kingdom of Prussia was also cordoned off; but this did not prevent large parts of the population from dying (cf. Great Plague (Prussia) ). Another zone was established between Skåne and the Danish islands along the sound , with Saltholm as the central quarantine station. Plague houses were built. The Charité in Berlin was created due to the plague danger, but the plague in the Mark Brandenburg only affected the peripheral areas of the Uckermark and Neumark .

consequences

From July to December 1708, more than 23,000 of the 50,000 inhabitants died in Danzig . Between 1708 and 1710, between 9,000 and 10,000 of the 40,000 inhabitants died in Königsberg. In Prussia, where around 15,000 people usually died annually, around 230,000 of 600,000 people lost their lives between 1708 and 1710. Of Riga's 10,500 inhabitants , up to 7,350 died in 1710 and 1711. In Stockholm up to 23,000 of the 55,000 inhabitants died of the plague in 1710 and 1711. Hamburg , with its 70,000 inhabitants, also suffered up to 10,000 deaths from the plague in 1711. In Copenhagen in 1711 23,000 people died within six months. The then common value for births and deaths in the city of 60,000 inhabitants was around 2,000 each.

literature

  • Karl-Erik Frandsen: The Last Plague in the Baltic Region 1709-1713. Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen 2010. ISBN 978-87-635-0770-7
  • Liliana Górska: "Theatrum atrocissimorum fatorum". Religious coping with the plague in Danzig 1709. Der Andere Verlag, Tönning, Lübeck, Marburg 2010. ISBN 978-3-86247-007-5
  • Katrin Möller-Funck: The crisis in the crisis. Existential threat and social recession in the Kingdom of Prussia at the beginning of the 18th century . Dissertation, University of Rostock, 2015 ( PDF ).
  • Stefan Kroll, Kersten Krüger (ed.): City system and urbanization in the Baltic Sea region in the early modern period. Urban living spaces and historical information systems. Contributions to the scientific colloquium in Rostock on November 15 and 16, 2004 . LIT, Berlin 2006. ISBN 3-8258-8778-2 (with several articles on the plague epidemic from 1708 to 1714, including by Stefan Kroll: Pest in Stralsund during the Great Northern War in 1710 and 1711 , Karsten Labahn: To develop and use the Historical information system "PestStralsund1710" )
  • Georg Sticker : The plague in India and on the Levant from 1683 to 1724; their sowing to Europe. In: The story of the plague (= treatises from the history of epidemics and epidemic theory. Volume 1, part 1.) Töpelmann, Gießen 1908, pp. 209–236: Digitized
  • Manfred Vasold: The plague. End of a myth. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1779-3 , pp. 142ff.
  • Carl Christian Wahrmann: Communication of the plague. Seaside cities in the Baltic Sea region and the threat posed by the epidemic 1708–1713 (= historical research (HF), volume 98) . Duncker & Humblot Publishing House, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3428138814
  • Jörg Zapnik: Plague and War in the Baltic Sea Region: The "Black Death" in Stralsund during the Great Northern War (1700–1721) (= Greifswald Historical Studies. Volume 7). Publishing house Dr. Kovac , Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8300-3118-5

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Manfred Vasold: The plague. End of a myth. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2003. ISBN 3-8062-1779-3 . P. 142ff.
  2. ^ Research project The last outbreak of the plague in the Baltic region at the beginning of the 18th century , Rostock University
  3. ↑ Rostock 2004 conference program
  4. ↑ Table of contents and reviews. Retrieved June 11, 2020 .
  5. ^ Review by Jean-Luc Le Cam