Plague in Braunschweig

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The plague epidemics in Braunschweig , detectable between 1350 and 1681 , claimed thousands of lives with loss rates of in some cases more than 30% of the population. They influenced the city's political and economic history and contributed to the loss of urban freedom during the 17th century.

The disease

The plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis . Clinically, four forms can be distinguished: bubonic plague , also known as bubonic plague , pulmonary plague , plague sepsis and abortive plague . It is transmitted by rat and human fleas and, in the case of pneumonic plague, from person to person by droplet infection. The incubation period for bubonic plague is two to ten days and, if left untreated, is 25 to 50% fatal. Pulmonary plague has an incubation period of only one to two days and is always fatal without treatment.

The "Black Death" 1350

Spread of the plague in Europe between 1347 and 1351

The " Black Death ", the great from Central Asia entrained European plague pandemic of the years 1347 to 1353, reached in the form of a skin, bubonic and pneumonic plague in April / May 1350, the City of Brunswick and lasted until January 1351. There are no numbers or estimates of the death rate for Braunschweig . The numbers of fatalities in the northern German cities of Magdeburg , Hamburg and Bremen , which were between a third and half of the population, give clues . The European plague claimed an estimated 25 million deaths, which is a third of the population at the time. According to the later chronicler Hermann Bote, only one monk survived in the Franciscan monastery in Braunschweig . The New Town's Fortification and New Citizens Register noted in 1350 that many died and many miracles occurred . To avert the plague, perceived as God's punishment, the council promised an annual procession on the day of the city saint, Auctor , on August 20th. This led from the Cathedral of St. Blasii to the Aegidienkirche , in which the relics of the saint were located. Another measure was the construction of the St. Jodoci Hospital outside the city walls in front of the Wendentor between 1351 and 1358 . In 1358 and 1365/66 the plague raged again in the city.

15th - 17th century

The Alexiusspital on today's Münzstrasse

During another epidemic of the plague in 1473, the Alexius Brothers , an order of nursing that can be traced back to the 13th century , settled at the dam. They built the St. Alexius Hospital on an Oker peninsula . Further outbreaks of the plague are documented for the years 1565, 1582, 1597 and 1609.

During the Thirty Years' War , the plague of 1625 claimed around 3,000 victims in Braunschweig. The high number of deaths was a result of the overpopulation of the city caused by war refugees and the poor hygienic conditions associated with it.

The plague epidemic of 1657/58

Braunschweig's mayor, chronicler and contemporary witness Christoph Gerke (1628–1714) describes the great plague epidemic of 1657/58 in his city chronicle: In the year of Christ in 1657, God righteously visited this good city with a severe pestilence, which included many thousands of people /: Some say twelve thousand: / are taken away and carried away by the temporal death, but no mayor or preacher died from it, but God has such an honorable advice, as the ministry is guarding here with grace. According to his description, the epidemic, coming from Bremen, where it had claimed around 1,600 deaths in 1655/56, reached the city of Braunschweig in the spring of 1657 ( umb Fasenacht ). It broke at Pentecost on 27./28. May was violent and raged until the beginning of 1658. After the end of the epidemic, a public Danckfest was held on January 31, 1658 . According to the church records, this plague epidemic claimed 5,420 deaths. The Braunschweiger Stadtphysikus Lorenz Gieseler († 1684/85) published in 1657 his writing Kurtze but necessary remembrance and instruction how to behave with every currently felt epidemic . The work experienced several editions in the following decades.

The last outbreak of a plague epidemic in Braunschweig is documented for the year 1681.

Consequences and measures

The demographic effects were considerable due to the high population losses, although no figures are available for Braunschweig for the first plague epidemic in 1350. The economic damage resulted from the mass extinction and the consequent labor shortage. The revenue from taxes and interest fell and the interruption of trade often led to bankruptcies of merchants and craftsmen. On the trade blockade during the plague in 1657/58, chronicler Gerke writes: God keep us from such and such evil with grace: for what harm from this occluding the city, in which those from the small towns and other traders drove away from the city, andt the food was looked for elsewhere, was added to it, was learned afterwards.

The cultural and historical consequences were expressed in the search for an explanation for the sudden epidemics. As in large parts of the empire , there were also persecutions of Jews in northern Germany , which were declared to be " well poisoners " and thus responsible for the spread of the plague. The God who punishes mankind should be made gracious through penitential and supplication processions, church foundations and the invocation of certain saints. Various official defense and control measures, which were laid down in detailed plague orders, did not lead to success until the middle of the 16th century. The city doctors wore protective clothing, the sick were isolated in plague hospitals outside the city, homes at risk were marked, and the belongings of those suffering from the plague or the deceased were often burned.

Political effects : In Braunschweig, the plague epidemics of the 14th century and the demographic and economic consequences that went with it led to the uprising of the " great class " of 1374. Another turning point in the city's history, the conquest of the autonomous city of Braunschweig by the Guelph sovereign in 1671 , can also be linked to the plague epidemics. The Thirty Years' War and the two plague epidemics of 1625 and 1657/58 had weakened the economic strength and the will to defend the citizens to such an extent that the duke's siege army of 20,000 men was able to take the city without any significant fighting.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Lechel : Adumbratio Pestis, or Kurtze Description of Pestilentz: According to the essence and properties / clock jump and mark , Braunschweig 1681.

Web links