In the year 1623 the army of the Catholic League spread infectious diseases throughout Hesse, particularly in the region of the Werra. When the army withdrew, it left dysentery behind it, for example, in Witzenhausen, Eschwege, and Hersfeld; in July and August it carried away many victims. A pestilential disease broke out on June 3, 1624, in Hersfeld, carrying away from October 4, 1624, to January 1625, 316 persons. In 1625, ‘hunger typhus’ and bubonic plague appeared in Nassau; the pestilence began in Dillenburg on December 18, 1625, and lasted until October 30, 1626, carrying away in this time 378 people—about one-third of the population. The climax of the pestilence came in July. A plague also broke out among the soldiers in Walsdorf-on-the Ems, likewise in Idstein, remaining there for several years.
II. The War in Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg, and Pomerania (1625–30)
The years 1625 and 1626 were bad pest-years; according to Lammert, the various epidemics that occurred were partly typhus fever, partly bubonic plague, and partly dysentery. The pestilences spread over Saxony, Thuringia, Silesia, Eastern Prussia, Posen, Poland, and Moravia, and carried away large numbers of people. They were not always directly connected with warlike events, as shown by the fact that many provinces that were spared by the war were attacked by the diseases. On the other hand, the incursion of Wallenstein’s troops into Saxony and Thuringia caused pestilence to become unusually widespread.
From 1625 to the time of the battle of Breitenfeld (1631) Saxony suffered terribly from pestilences that were caused and prolonged by the war, though by no means as terribly as in the years 1631–3. Dresden and Leipzig, comparatively speaking, were but slightly affected. Of 13,000 inhabitants that Dresden had in the year 1626, 341 succumbed to a plague which began in April and disappeared in December; the disease was called ‘burning fever’, ‘spotted fever’, and ‘pestilential spotted fever’, while in the records of the town council we find mention of ‘spots, often the size of a groschen, all over the body’, and also of ‘swellings’. Inasmuch as abscesses and gangrene are often observed in cases of typhus fever, it seems likely that it was that disease.[[30]] Of 14,500 inhabitants in Leipzig only 122 succumbed to it, although houses in all the streets were infected. Here again, accordingly, we see how slight the danger to life is in the case of typhus fever.
The western part of the present kingdom of Saxony suffered considerably more than the eastern part. In the year 1625 plagues broke out in the cities of Plauen, Reichenbach (1,000 deaths), and Zwickau; the last-named city was revisited in June 1626, and between then and the end of the year 216 people died there. Pestilence also broke out in the vicinity of Leipzig in 1626—in Borna (70 deaths), in Grimma (350 deaths), and in Wurzen, where it appeared in August. The following places nearer Dresden were also the scenes of plagues that year: Rosswein (near Döbeln—376 deaths), Mitweida (outbreak on April 9, 1626—number of deaths before that day 22, between that day and the end of the year, 1,000), Frankenberg (581 deaths), Freiberg (752 deaths in the year 1626—500 of them due to the plague). The village of Dohna, south of Dresden, is also mentioned; in the year 1626 there were 157 deaths there, as compared with an average annual mortality of 60. In the Erzgebirge plagues appeared in various places in the year 1625; 134 people died in Annaberg and 323 people in Zöblitz. In 1626 there were 205 deaths in Schwarzenberg, 178 deaths in Gottesgabe, and 81 deaths in Breitenbrunn. Two towns in eastern Saxony, Bischofswerda and Zittau, are also mentioned; there were 182 deaths in the former in the year 1625.
All Thuringia suffered severely from pestilences in the years 1625–6. In the year 1625 the number of deaths in Eisenach had increased to 315, while in 1626 a plague raged so murderously that 769 persons succumbed to it; other reports say 2,500, but this number doubtless includes the refugees. In the following year the number of deaths decreased to 156. In Ruhla, a neighbouring village, 98 persons succumbed to the plague. In many Thuringian cities the epidemic had already secured a foothold in the year 1625, and was then spread over a very large territory by Wallenstein’s invasion. Schmalkalden was the scene of a plague from June to August, 1625, and in Gotha one broke out at the end of July, 1625, carrying away 722 persons that year and 209 the following year. In Erfurt, which had some 15,000 inhabitants, 3,474 people are said to have succumbed to a plague in the year 1626, the strict ordinances passed by the town council on December 25, 1625, being of no avail. The small communities and cities lying to the north of Erfurt, according to the reports, were very severely attacked; in the year 1625 Ballstädt, with a population of 600, lost 365, while in the year 1626 the number of deaths in Gräfentonna was 510, in Gebesee 275, in Kindelbrück 1,514, in Straussfurth 367, in Weissensee 500, and Cölleda 1,000. In the region south of Erfurt the village of Ohrdruf lost 203 inhabitants in the year 1625, and 143 in the following year. In Arnstadt 1,236 people succumbed in 1625 to ‘head-disease’ and bubonic plague—a number corresponding to one-quarter of the population. Gräfenroda had 1,630 deaths in the year 1625, and Tambach 400 deaths in 1626. Koburg and Rudolstadt were also visited by a plague in 1626, while towns in the vicinity of the latter, Königssee, Schwarza, Tanna, and Schleiz, had 707, 129, 195, and 181 deaths respectively. The neighbouring town of Pössnek in the year 1625 had already lost 1,000 inhabitants. Jena and Weimar both suffered, while there were 228 deaths in Gera and 1,100 deaths in Zeitz due to pestilence. Many other places in Thuringia that suffered from plagues are not mentioned here.
That part of Saxony which corresponds to the modern province of Saxony fared in much the same way as Thuringia, while those parts bordering directly on the kingdom of Saxony were relatively less severely attacked. A plague broke out in Eilenburg in September 1625, and carried away many persons there and in the surrounding country. At Delitsch (west of Eilenburg) a dangerous fever (febris maligna—probably typhus fever) spread through the wandering armies, and before the beginning of autumn carried away 150 persons. In the winter the disease subsided a little, but broke out again in June 1626, and carried away 880 people—in September alone there were 229 deaths, and numerous families were completely wiped out. A plague also raged in the vicinity of Halle; not until the following year, however, did it break out in the city itself, whither it was borne by Imperialist soldiers, and where it caused, from June to December, 3,400 deaths. In Eisleben (east of Halle) a plague began in May 1626, and carried away 30 to 50 people daily, so that the total number of deaths for the year was 3,068. Merseburg lost 341 inhabitants in the year 1626, and a plague raged in Naumburg in the years 1625–6. The town of Querfurt (west of Merseburg) in 1625 was for seven weeks the quarters of 3,000 of Wallenstein’s soldiers; they brought dysentery with them, and the result was that 200 citizens died. In the second half of the following year a plague broke out and carried away 1,400 inhabitants of the city (including 200 soldiers) and numerous inhabitants of the surrounding country. The town and vicinity of Sangershausen were also severely attacked; the pestilence began in the town in June 1626, and reached its climax in September with 570 deaths—1,323 deaths, all told, are recorded in the church register for that year, but 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.