The total loss of human life in the Thirty Years’ War can be estimated only approximately. The statement attributed to Lammert, that the population of Germany, which amounted to sixteen or seventeen millions before the war, had dwindled down to four millions after the war, is perhaps an exaggeration. Other estimates state that Germany lost one-half of its population. In the case of a few states we have more exact figures, which probably approach more closely to the actual loss. Thus the electorate of Saxony, which was much larger in area than the modern kingdom of Saxony, in the years 1631–2 is said to have lost some 934,000 persons. The population of Bohemia is said to have decreased during the Thirty Years’ War from three millions to 780,000. In Bavaria 80,000 families are said to have been wiped out. The population of Württemberg decreased from 444,800 in the year 1622 to 97,300. The population of Hesse decreased by about one-quarter. So much, however, is sure: that in the regions where the war was carried on for several years the population decreased by far more than one-half. The most positive proof of this is afforded by the hundreds of burned-down and unrebuilt houses found in so many German cities, and the numerous unpeopled, or almost unpeopled, places which Germany had to show at the end of the war.

Deaths (1618–48).
Year.Leipzig.[[52]]Dresden.[[53]]Breslau.[[54]]Augsburg.[[55]]Frankfurt.[[56]]Strassburg.[[57]]Basel.[[58]]
16184224001,2051,3546251,343535
16195693321,3131,4855441,258257
16204774721,4561,667670996259
16216134911,6521,5176741,019352
16225803811,0451,9591,7854,388450
16235004211,0501,8757251,738336
16248124111,2601,3709551,491297
16257184813,0001,3921,8711,350297
16261,2687401,8742,4409632,590330
16275374121,2272,4947731,669266
16283884691,0203,6116801,513527
16295063981,1161,2658321,7862,656
16308814801,1569099271,425220
16311,7548441,7958591,1321,383221
16322,7893,1291,3953,4852,9002,675284
16331,4454,58513,2313,3647625,546456
16343067211,0104,6643,512 2,115
16356035979496,2436,943 560
16361,2185948737902,301 600
16374,2291,8971,0608233,152 424
16385525318636381,079 527
16399551,8459286749481,923515
16404699351,2735861,034 239
16414825251,088887735713195
16421,0806011,343593883680242
16431,0341,0411,332638523 532
16446044891,570659491707337
16454585321,133758678 220
16463314811,0421,488774651205
16474034711,2731,338662573238
16484696061,1111,208575643235

CHAPTER IV
THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

(a) Central Europe

The Thirty Years’ War left Germany for several decades in such a weakened condition that Louis XIV was able to perpetrate all sorts of outrages upon the unfortunate country. The result was a series of protracted conflicts in the countries on the Rhine. The German Emperor, however, was unable to fight with much vigour, partly because of disruption in the interior of the German Empire, and partly because the advancing Turks were gravely menacing its eastern boundary. After Louis XIV had come to terms with Holland in the Peace of Nimeguen (1679), in order to secure for his protégé the Archbishopric of Cologne, which was then vacant, he invaded Germany without declaring war, and his troops committed horrible devastations in the Palatinate and in northern Baden. A German army was organized to oppose the French, but it accomplished very little. Regarding the pestilences of that time not much is known, although it is certain that typhus fever was present in the armies. Thus we learn from a physician named R. Lentilius[[59]] that in November 1689, ‘burning head-disease’ or ‘Hungarian disease’ was disseminated by Bavarian soldiers who, under Max Emanuel, had taken part in the successful siege of Mayence (ending on September 11), and who afterwards returned home to pass the winter. Typhus fever was conveyed by them to Gundelfingen, Lauingen, Höchstädt, Donauwörth, and Wendingen (all of them places on the Danube between Ulm and Ingolstadt), causing a great many deaths. In many places—for example, in Gundelfingen—the epidemic lasted well into the following year.

In the very first year of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–14) Augsburg suffered terribly from camp-pestilences, which also spread among the non-belligerent population. In the year 1703 the city was occupied by the French and Bavarians fighting as allies, and was afterwards besieged by the Imperialists and the English.[[60]] The number of deaths in Augsburg (excluding the still-births) was:

1701906
1702900
17031,245
17043,113
1705748
1706842

Seitz reports that the troops along the Rhine were again infected with petechial fever in the year 1712; Metz, on the other hand, expressly says that no pestilences occurred at that time.

In the year 1733 a conflict again broke out between France and Germany over the Polish succession. In the year 1734 typhus fever appeared along the Rhine; in the spring and summer the outbreaks were sporadic, but in the fall, when troops were stationed along both sides of the Rhine, a virulent typhus broke out in many places, as in Heidelberg, Heilbronn, and Germersheim; the disease was borne even to Lorraine by French troops returning from the siege of Philippsburg.[[61]]

In connexion with the War of the Austrian Succession (1741–8), which Maria Theresa waged in conjunction with England and Hanover against Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, France, and Spain, we know of several outbreaks of pestilence. In the year 1742 Bavaria was overrun by Austrian troops; a severe pestilence broke out in that year in Ingolstadt and carried away several thousand of the strong French garrison there. A large number of civilians also died.[[62]] It is stated that the French garrison at Amberg lost 1,200 men, and that 400 of the inhabitants perished; it is very probable that the specific disease was typhus fever.