Epidemics Resulting from Wars. Friedrich Prinzing
to March 1635) famine and pestilence did a great deal more damage among the population than the bullets and swords of the enemies. Whereas this population numbered from 70,000 to 80,000 in the year 1624, by October 12, 1635, it had dwindled to 16,422. After the city had surrendered to the Imperialists, people still continued to die in consequence of pestilential diseases; the town council therefore gave orders on July 7, 1635, that all refuse should be removed from the city. Not until the winter did the pestilence disappear. In Memmingen there were 1,200 deaths in 1633, and 1,400 deaths in the following year; the worst year was 1635, when the pestilence is said to have carried away 3,000 persons. The towns surrounding the city were also severely attacked. In Kempten, which was oppressed by the Swedes and Imperialists in the years 1632–3, a pestilence broke out in the year 1634 and lasted well into the next year, carrying away 3,000 people. In the surrounding country, pestilence raged so furiously that many places were completely wiped out. In the near-by towns of Kaufbeuren, Immenstadt, Pfronten, Füssen, &c., the pestilence was likewise very widespread; in 1635 there were 1,600 deaths in Füssen—about one-quarter of the inhabitants.
The predatory incursions of the Swedes extended even to the Lake of Constance. In the year 1634 the number of deaths in Lindau was 800; at the beginning of the year 1633 Weingarten, Wangen, and Tettnang were occupied by the Swedes, who brought infectious diseases with them wherever they went. Tettnang, which in 1633 had more than 2,500 inhabitants, in 1636 had but 150. In Ravensburg a plague broke out in the year 1635, reached a climax in September, and in six months carried away 3,100 people. In Constance Hungarian disease raged in 1633, and is said to have carried away its victims within a few hours; in 1635 bubonic plague also broke out and caused 2,000 deaths.
(b.) South-western Germany
The battle of Nördlingen (September 5 and 6, 1634) was an important turning-point in the war, important for Bavaria for the reason that it freed the country from the predatory incursions of the Swedes, and disastrous to Württemberg, Baden, Hessen, and the Upper and Middle Rhine region, whither the defeated Swedish-Protestant army retreated, and where the fighting was now carried on for the next few years. Nördlingen had been besieged by the Imperialists, who were supported by a Spanish army; Bernhard von Weimar and Horn tried to relieve the city, but were completely defeated in the attempt. The Swedes turned and fled to the Rhine, and in a few weeks the entire south-western part of Germany was filled with Imperialists who had followed in pursuit.
The sufferings of the inhabitants of Württemberg, partly on account of the deeds of violence committed by the Imperialists, and partly on account of pestilences, were frightful.[39] On September 10 the Imperialists entered Stuttgart, which they continued to occupy until March 30, 1638. In the year 1631 the city had 8,300 inhabitants, and in the year 1634 the number of deaths was 936, of which 672 were due to the pestilence. In the following year the pestilence became more widespread, being helped along by numerous fugitives from the surrounding country and by famine; the number of deaths was 4,379, and it was necessary to dig large ditches and bury a hundred bodies at a time. From January to July 1636, there were 319 deaths due to the pestilence, which in the following year raged even more furiously and carried away 945 persons. The mortality was equally high in the year 1638, when the city was occupied alternately by the Swedes and Imperialists; the latter, when they departed in October, left behind them 6,000 diseased and wounded men. In near-by Cannstatt 1,300 people died in 1635. In Esslingen a plague broke out in 1634 and in 1635 became more and more widespread in consequence of the continual marching back and forth of the soldiers. It made havoc especially among the 12,000 fugitives from the surrounding country, who were packed together in stables and barns, and in many cases under the open sky. Owing to the incipient famine the pestilence spread with great rapidity; 12,000 people are said to have died, among them 600 out of 1,000 citizens, notwithstanding the fact that various measures of precaution were adopted (removal of refuse, fumigations on a large scale, &c.). In Göppingen, which was occupied by Imperialist soldiers a few weeks after the battle of Nördlingen, pestilence soon broke out and carried away 656 persons between October 1 and the end of the year (1634); in the following year there were 904 deaths. In the year 1636 Gmünd had a very severe pestilence, which on many days carried away from thirty to forty persons; large graves were dug and from forty to fifty bodies buried at a time. Aalen, in consequence of the continual marching back and forth of the soldiers, of quartering, and of extortions, suffered severely; there, and in the country round about, a plague raged furiously in the year 1634. Krailsheim and Hall, comparatively speaking, fared well. In Hall, the parish of St. Michael, in which the average number of deaths for the years 1621–30 was 112, in the year 1634 had 1,116 deaths (999 in the months of August-December), while there were 372 deaths in the year 1635.[40] The fugitives in the city and the people who died there are not included. In Oehringen, after the town was plundered by the Imperialists from September 13 to 18, a very severe pestilence broke out and carried away 1,131 persons. The neighbouring towns and villages also had a great many deaths due to pestilence—Neuenstein 1,100, Waldenburg 452, and Künzelsau 900. The entire Hohenlohe Plateau was severely attacked by pestilence; in the little town of Grossbottwar, first ‘head-disease’ broke out in 1635, then dysentery, and finally bubonic plague; between the months of July and December 692 persons succumbed to these three diseases. In June 1635, there were 775 deaths in Lauffen-on-the Neckar, 1,609 in Heilbronn, 646 in Weinsberg (out of 1,416 inhabitants), 1,802 in Vaihingen (only 48 in 1631), and 1,019 in Bönnigheim (among them many outsiders).
In the towns on the Upper Neckar and on the northern border of the Swabian Alp a very severe pestilence likewise broke out. Nürtingen was devastated by the Imperialists after the battle of Nördlingen, and in the years 1634–5 there were 1,154 deaths in consequence of a pestilence. The surrounding country also fared badly; for example, Urach and the near-by Alp villages. In the year 1634 a plague broke out in Tübingen, and in the following year it spread widely in consequence of famine, compelling the university faculty to leave the city. The highest mortality was reached in October (386 deaths), while the total number of deaths for the entire year was 1,485. The plague raged no less furiously in Rottenburg-on-the-Neckar. Nor was the Swabian Alp spared; in the village of Gruibingen there were 90 deaths in 1634 and eighty-six deaths in the year 1635. Böhmenkirch was almost completely wiped out. In Gussenstadt, whither many inhabitants of the surrounding country had fled, the usual mortality per annum was 12 or 14; in the year 1634 there were 313 deaths up to December 7, while in the year 1635 there were 137 deaths up to September 23. In the months of November and December (1634) alone there were 157 deaths, and the inhabitants frequently died at the rate of 4–6 per diem.[41]
After the battle of Nördlingen thousands of the inhabitants of the surrounding country fled to Ulm, where epidemics had broken out in the year 1634 and carried away 1,871 persons. In June 1635, the general misery caused a plague to break out there; in the morning many dead bodies would be found lying in the streets and in front of houses. In the course of eight months 15,000 persons were carried away, among them 4,033 fugitives and 5,672 beggars; in the following year only 496 persons died, all told. Even the Black Forest district of Württemberg suffered in consequence of the war and of pestilence; Tuttlingen in the year 1635 had 546 deaths, Calw 772, and Freudenstadt 434; Neuenburg, Nagold, Sulz, and other places were also attacked.
How terrible was the loss of human life in Württemberg in consequence of the war and of pestilence is shown by the fact that the population of the city decreased from 444,800 in the year 1622 to 97,300 in the year 1639; the population in 1634 was 414,536. In the short period of five years (1634–9), in consequence of the invasion of the Imperialists after the battle of Nördlingen, and of the pestilence and famine caused thereby, the country lost 300,000 inhabitants, or about three-fourths of its population.
The northern part of Baden suffered severely in the years 1634–6; Pforzheim lost at least one-third of its inhabitants in consequence of famine and pestilence, while Durlach and Mannheim are also reported to have been attacked.
That part of Hessen lying on the right side of the Rhine was likewise visited by pestilence. In Wimpfen-on-the-Neckar a plague broke out in August, 1635, and in the period between August 12 and December 31 there were 494 deaths there. Bensheim, Zwingenberg, Gernsheim, Babenhausen, and Seligenstadt fared no better. Darmstadt, with 212 deaths in 1633 and 220 deaths in 1634, had