The term “plague” was originally used to describe any disease that was of an epidemic and fatal nature. It is therefore very difficult to distinguish between smallpox, typhus and pneumonic, skin or bubonic plague at an early age. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is said to have died of the plague in Vienna.
The most devastating plague epidemic is known to have occurred between 1348 and 1350. Around 25 million people, or about a quarter of the population of Europe at the time, were killed. It is estimated that Vienna also lost two thirds of its population. Order collapsed and the survivors became “outlaws”. Corpses were laid out on the streets at night to avoid being locked up in the house with them.
The years before the outbreak were marked by severe disasters . Huge moths and spiders, worms, beetles and mice spread rapidly, swarms of migratory locusts devoured the fields. Earthquakes shook the country and crop failures and famines weakened the population. Celestial phenomena, such as a comet of terrifying blackness, did their part to underpin the wrath of God as the cause of this disease.
The epidemic spread very quickly and this was probably due to the catastrophic sanitary conditions of the time as well as large movements of pilgrims. A “privet” is not known for Vienna until 1345. The residents of two houses often had a common entrance. The eviction was the responsibility of the homeowners. At best, the faeces were discharged into the streams that served as cesspools in Tiefen Graben and Rotenturmstraße, which eventually flowed into the next branch of the Danube.
The stench must have been unbearable. Many complaints about unacceptable odor nuisance have been preserved in the archives. This “polluted” air was also suspected to be the cause of the epidemic and fumigation was ordered and sick people were placed as high as possible from the stinking ground.
At the time of the great plague of 1349 , there was excrement and garbage in front of the houses, in which numerous pigs were rooting around. Throughout the Middle Ages there were still farmsteads and stables in the town. Livestock was kept and the animals roamed the streets. The alleyways were only cleaned for special festivities, such as the entry of a prince. The first invoice for street paving dates back to 1358. The wells were often contaminated by leachate. Anyone who left the house put on wooden overshoes, so-called “Trippen”.
The plague repeatedly plagued the city of Vienna every few years. The next outbreaks followed in 1360, 1381, 1399, 1404, 1410, 1428 and so on. Given this frequency and the high infant mortality rate, it is understandable that life expectancy was only 24 years….or until the next epidemic…
Time Travel Tip: Visit Time Travel and experience the last great plague epidemic in 1679.
