Epidemics Resulting from Wars. Friedrich Prinzing
the figure is said to be too small. Lammert mentions sixteen surrounding villages in which a total of 2,960 deaths occurred in the year 1626. In Sondershausen 54 people died up to the end of July of that year, 36 in August, 137 in September, and 143 in October; the mortality then decreased, but not until 466 persons had died, 400 of them in consequence of the plague. In the near-by towns of Frankenhausen and Langensalza the number of deaths was 915 and 913 respectively, the latter town having been visited by a plague the year before. Nordhausen, from January 1, 1626, to December 6, 1626, lost 3,283 inhabitants—2,504 natives and 779 refugees from other places. In Stolberg (north-east of Nordhausen) a plague broke out on June 27, 1626, and caused 623 deaths. Quedlinburg, Aschersleben, and Halberstadt were also attacked; in Aschersleben a plague broke out on June 15, 1625, and between then and the end of the year carried away 157 persons. The total number of deaths in the year 1625 was 534, in the following year 1,800 (1,066 in consequence of the plague), not including the soldiers; the years 1627–9 had a remarkably low mortality. In 1626 a plague carried away 549 persons in Gröningen (near Halberstadt). The cities on the Elbe and the surrounding country were severely attacked; a pestilence broke out in Dessau on September 3, 1625, and between then and the end of the year 224 persons were buried—399 in the entire year. The disease reappeared in the summer of the following year, having caused 662 deaths, while only 39 died in the year following. In Aiken-on-the-Elbe (below Dessau) 1,000 persons, including soldiers, succumbed to a plague in the year 1626. In the cities on the Saale, above its confluence with the Elbe, a plague raged furiously; in Bernburg it appeared in the second half of the year 1625, carrying away 1,340 persons in that year (the number of deaths in the following year being 425); Kalbe was also severely attacked. A plague broke out in Magdeburg at the end of June 1625, and lasted well into the next year; the wealthy citizens fled from the city, but were compelled to return by the approach of the Imperialists, and the result was that several thousand inhabitants died. The country to the south-west of Magdeburg, as far as Bode, suffered severely—Osterweddingen, Wanzleben, Gross-Salze, Förderstedt, Egeln, Wolmirsleben, and other places. Several soldiers quartered in Förderstedt had succumbed to a plague in June and July 1626, and had infected the citizens with the disease, which carried away 155 of them. A plague broke out in Egeln in October 1625, and reached its climax in February 1626; from January until August 16 of that year 296 persons died there. In Unseberg, which had been infected in August 1625, some 400 citizens and soldiers were buried in the year 1626, in addition to many who were secretly buried in gardens, thickets, and fields. The plague raged with particular fury in August 1626; in Volmirstadt 246 persons died between July 6 and October 1626—144 in September alone.
In Lower Saxony, in the region between the Elbe and the Weser, most of which to-day belongs to Hanover, a plague raged virulently in the years 1625–7. In Osterode, whither numerous country people had fled from the approaching war, a very severe pestilence broke out; in the Saint Aegidius community alone 1,500 persons died, among them many outsiders. In Klausthal 1,350, in Andreasberg 700, in Einbeck 3,000, and in Hameln 1,143 people succumbed to bubonic plague and ‘head disease’. In Goslar, where the pestilence had appeared in 1625, conditions were rendered particularly bad by the fact that many wounded Imperialists were brought there after the battle of Barenberg (near Lutter—August 27, 1626); most of these soldiers died there, 3,000 deaths due to pestilence having occurred in Goslar in the years 1625–6. Wallenstein’s soldiers also brought pestilence with them to Helmstedt (in the region of Brunswick); here one-third of the citizens died, and 295 houses were rendered tenantless. The university faculty fled several times to Brunswick, the students either going home or enlisting in the army. This plague did not come to an end for two years. The surrounding villages, furthermore, were severely attacked by it; during the siege of Göttingen by Tilly (June to August 12, 1626) it became very widespread, since the city was overcrowded with fugitives. From 50 to 60 persons were buried every day. In near-by Dransfeld 700 people died, in Wolfenbüttel 1,705. In Hanover, where a plague had already broken out in the year 1625, a reappearance of it in March 1626 drove out the garrison. The severity of this plague, which carried away 3,000 people, was increased by the numerous fugitives in the city; about one-third of the population survived. In the city of Nienburg, which was besieged by the Imperialists after the battle of Barenberg, a pestilence likewise broke out among the inhabitants and in the garrison. In Lüneburg it lasted from 1625 to 1628, and in Osnabrück from August 1625 to the end of the year.
In the years 1625–6 Wallenstein’s soldiers carried pestilence into the region north of Magdeburg; in Neuhaldensleben 76 persons were carried away between the end of August and the first of the year, not including those who were buried secretly. The following year it demanded a considerably larger number of victims—583; the maximum was in June—147. In the Altmark (north-eastern part of the province of Saxony) dysentery, bubonic plague, and typhus fever broke out almost everywhere during the years 1625–8. Dysentery appeared in the Danish garrison at Tangermünde and carried away 1,600 people, and on June 29, 1626, the Danes withdrew from the place. Stendal was also visited by a plague after the departure of the Danes; it broke out in July, and in a few months caused 2,511 deaths, the normal mortality being 280–290. Numerous bodies were secretly buried, while many peasants who had fled to the city were among the dead; thus the total number of deaths was estimated at 5,000. In Osterburg 624 people died in the years 1626–8, and in Bismark 163 persons died in the year 1626. In the city of Havelberg 668 persons succumbed to dysentery, ‘head-disease’, and bubonic plague, the latter alone carrying away about 400. A pestilence was conveyed to Gardenlegen by the soldiers of Count George of Brunswick, who had his head-quarters there; the number of deaths there in the year 1626 amounted to no less than 1,514. In Salzwedel 335 persons died in the year 1625, and 451 in the following year, the plague being responsible for 400 of the latter. In Seehausen dysentery first appeared, and soon gave way to ‘war-plague’ (typhus fever), which lasted until 1628; some 200 of the soldiers quartered there died, and as many as 1,100 inhabitants.
Brandenburg also suffered, particularly in the south-eastern part, when Wallenstein’s army, in pursuit of Count Mansfeld, turned into Silesia; there were 386 deaths in Luckau, 900 in Kottbus, 500 in Forst, 112 in Spremberg, and 902 in Jüterbog.
Further north, plagues were considerably less widespread in the years 1625–6. In 1625 typhus fever broke out severely in Lübeck and the surrounding country, carrying away 6,952 people, while in Bremen, which had had cases of plague in 1625, a widespread outbreak in 1627 carried away some 10,000 people, natives and refugees. Mecklenburg, being further away from the scene of the war, suffered somewhat less. In the year 1625 bubonic plague, ‘head-disease’, and dysentery appeared in Rostock, Wismar, Schwerin, Plau, and New Brandenburg. In the following year a plague broke out in Parchim, reached its climax in May, and lasted until November, carrying away 1,600 persons. In Flensburg a plague broke out during the occupation of the Imperialists (1627) and lasted until their departure (1630).
The pestilences of the year 1627 were not very widespread, and this applies also to the territory in Saxony and Thuringia which had suffered so severely in the years 1625–6. On the other hand, the countries in the northern part of Germany, particularly Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein, were severely attacked in those years, owing to the fact that Wallenstein had transferred thither the scene of the war. In the year 1628 Hamburg had taken in a great many foreign fugitives, and the result was that typhus fever soon broke out in the city and carried away many thousands of people. The war brought great misery into North Friesland and the Frisian Islands; the Imperialists and Danes oppressed the people by enforced quartering and extortions of all kinds, and the result was famine and plague, lasting until 1630. In Stade, which Tilly in 1629 had made his head-quarters, both the inhabitants and the garrison suffered terribly from a severe epidemic of dysentery. In the city of Schleswig a plague broke out in September, and again in November, in consequence of the quartering of Imperialist troops; it devastated the entire city, so that 211 houses stood absolutely empty on Christmas Day, 1628. Mecklenburg was revisited in 1629, and on August 13 of that year a plague broke out in Rostock and Teterow. Imperialist soldiers conveyed pestilence to the city of Plau, where they passed the night of November 29; but in 1630 it appeared in a much more severe form there and carried away 600 people. In the year 1630 a plague broke out in Mecklenburg, and in Gustrow one raged from May 7 to the beginning of September.
In the years 1628–9 Pomerania was ravaged by the Imperialists, with resulting pestilence and famine. Greifswald