They find the first corpses very close to the St. Michaeliskirche. The dead have large dark bumps on their necks and groins. The sight terrifies people. Because the corpses in the Gerkenshof are the surefire sign:the plague has caught Hamburg. It is the autumn of 1712. The inhabitants know that difficult times are ahead. Since the trauma of the "Black Death" in the Middle Ages, the plague has come to the Hanseatic city every few decades, killing several hundred of them. But the people of Hamburg have no idea that this time the worst outbreak of plague in modern times awaits them.
Isolation of the sick
The Gerkenshof no longer exists today. But city guide Wiebke Johannsen knows the spot where the first dead are said to have lain 300 years ago. In the drizzle she stands in Böhmkenstrasse in Hamburg's Neustadt. "Here was a narrow, gloomy lane, a poor people's area." Dock workers probably lived there. Johannsen says:"After the first signs of the plague, the Gerkenshof was boarded up on one side and soldiers kept watch on the other side." Hamburg wants to curb the plague problem by isolating the sick. At that time there was little hope for those infected:A medical report from November 1712 states that in the following weeks all 53 residents of the Gerkenshof contracted the plague. 18 die.
Hunger greater than the fear of the plague?
However, the lockdown doesn't work. According to another doctor's report from that time, additional people entered the corridor, "who probably made their way in via the roofs because of the good food and drink that the blocked people get." Apparently, the need of some people is so great that they are not even deterred by the deadly plague when there is something to get. In the coming weeks, the cries of pain of the sick will also be heard in other slums. The city can no longer stop the spread of the plague.
The epidemic has been raging in Hamburg's neighbors for years
Since 1709 at the latest, the people of Hamburg have been afraid of something coming their way:For years, Swedes and Danes have been fighting a bloody war over control of the Baltic Sea region. And people don't just die on the battlefields:the plague spreads in the wake of the Great Northern War. In 1709 Danzig was hit. In Hamburg, people are alarmed:the council decides on a trade ban with "suspicious countries", such as Prussia and Poland. City guide Johannsen says that the "plague mandate" also prohibits trading in "poison-catching goods" - including old clothes, beds, feathers, hair and furs. The bad news from other cities does not stop:in 1711 the deadly plague ravaged Copenhagen. It is probably from there that the disease spread to Schleswig-Holstein. Then people die in Bremen, Stade, Rellingen and Pinneberg. In 1712 the situation in Hamburg was extremely tense. 12,000 Danish soldiers are camped in the neighboring town of Altona - they too are suspected of having the plague. Hamburg has the western city gate, the Millerntor, closed in summer. Only the most necessary goods and important people are allowed to pass through. It is also a blow to the Jewish population in Altona. Because the Jews are only allowed to enter Hamburg through the Millerntor.
The Black Death - Scourge since the Middle Ages
Doctors still believe in the 18th century that the infection occurs through contaminated air - some wear masks to protect themselves from the plague.Since the Middle Ages, the plague has been the most feared plague alongside hunger and war. In the 14th century, when the worst pandemic of all time is raging, one in three Europeans dies from the plague and its consequences. In 1350 the disease, probably imported from Asia, reached northern Germany - first the large Hanseatic cities with their far-reaching trade connections. At that time, nobody knew the cause of the Black Death, which was spreading at breakneck speed. 300 years later, the Christian Reformation and the printing press have already laid the foundations for the age of science. It is the eve of the Enlightenment. But even at the beginning of the 18th century, the plague was still a mystery to people. Even scholars consider miasms, i.e. smelly air or pathogenic vapors, to be the trigger. And Hamburg has enough stench to offer. The plague doctors try to protect themselves from infection with a kind of beak mask. You breathe through cloths soaked in essential oils. At that time nobody knew that the plague was spread by fleas.
Freedom of trade or epidemic hygiene?
When the epidemic broke out in 1712, Hamburg was faced with a dilemma:the stricter the measures taken to prevent the spread, the more obvious it would be for trading partners around the world that the city was "contaminated" and that one should beware of contact. The historian Kathrin Boyens comes to the conclusion that Hamburg has decided to favor trade at the expense of epidemic hygiene:"In order to limit the freedom of movement of merchants as little as possible, the Hamburg city fathers, for example, refrained from quarantining people and goods, although this helped plague defense was quite common elsewhere."
Northern War:Hamburg gets caught between the fronts
According to Boyens, Hamburg is facing great dangers from outside at this time:The Danes are the first to benefit from the weakness of the Hanseatic city. They block Hamburg's shipping from Altona and rage in rural areas such as Hamm and Billwerder. In November 1712, Hamburg bought its freedom. 250,000 Reichsthaler change hands, the Danes withdraw their troops. This in turn makes Sweden suspect a conspiracy with their archenemy - it demands the same sum from the people of Hamburg. After the Swedes are about to invade in January and set fire to the Danish town of Altona, Hamburg pays. And another major power is harming the plague-weakened city:Russia. Its troops plunder the countryside on a march through until Hamburg pays 200,000 Reichsthaler in May.
40 gravediggers and death penalty for looters
The plague in Hamburg reached its peak in 1713. In today's St. Pauli, the city has had a plague farm since 1606, which is intended to serve as a treatment center for the sick. However, due to the closure of the Millerntor, this hospital can hardly be used. Hamburg has four more military hospitals built. Infected people who have to leave their homes are taken in there. For example, maids and servants who are kicked out by their masters as soon as they show signs of infection. City guide Johannsen reports that at the peak of the epidemic, Hamburg employed six city plague doctors, 30 "nurses", two plague preachers, as many plague nurses, four "beds" who are supposed to prevent looting - and 40 gravediggers. And apparently it is necessary to give strict rules to city officials:
From the Oath of the Gravedigger
"When collecting the dead, I want to deal with the bodies modestly. Not throwing them down the stairs, nor dragging and handling them like cattle; but carry them out and down with all quietness from the houses, apartments, halls, cellars, into the Lay the coffin, nail it shut, put it on the death wagon, lead it away and carry it away in silence and without bickering, noise, shouting or other wantonness."
("Eyd der Pest-träger", Hamburg Pestbuch 1712 /13)
From the Oath of the Hospital Wardens
"But I especially want to, since I have been ordered to be a nurse in the hospital, to diligently and faithfully care for the poor infected people and not let myself put up with any trouble, frustration, worry and danger; I also want to diligently pray and sing with them and take them to confession and admonish communion." - Only after singing and praying does the promise follow "to give them the prescribed medication at the right time as well as food and drink in the prescribed quantities". (Eyd of the wardens in the lazareth, Hamburg plague book 1712/13)
Looting Act
"But should anyone dare to break into such locked dwellings in order to take something out, or to enter them in one way or another, he should, even if the property stolen or taken away is of no value, without any mercy be punished alive." (Hamburg Plague Mandate of September 1713)
From the oath of the cooks in the hospital
"But wear clean and clean clothes and linen for my person and refrain from dealing with healthy people who are assigned to me. Should I still want or have to talk to uninfected people, I want to do so in an open field at a proper, harmless distance do and they warn me not to come too close, but the city, while I am completely contained in my service and otherwise do what an honest cook is entitled to. (Eyd der Kochinnen im Lazareth, Hamburger Pestbuch 1712/13)
Bells ringing and cheers - thank God it's over!
A mass grave is created in front of the Dammtor, the plague mound. There is a lot to do for the gravediggers:almost 11,000 Hamburgers succumb to the disease - about one in seven residents dies. Then finally - in the winter of 1713/14, the epidemic subsided. The people of Hamburg thank the Lord. At that time, people did not know that winter often means the end of a plague because the disease-carrying fleas no longer multiply. On March 22, 1714, the survivors celebrate the end of the plague with a service in St. Petri. All the city bells are ringing, the festively flagged ships are firing volleys of joy.