Armies -- Medical and sanitary affairs; Epidemics -- History; Medicine, Military -- History; Military hygiene
5. The governmental district of Swabia fared no better than the
aforesaid Bavarian countries, while the region on the northern side of
the Lake of Constance suffered terribly from the predatory raids of the
Swedes and the consequent epidemics. In Augsburg, which from April 1632
to 1635 was occupied by the Swedes, the suffering began when the city
was besieged by the Imperialists. During a siege of seven months
(September 1634 to March 1635) famine and pestilence did a great deal
more damage among the population than the bullets and swords of the
enemies. Whereas this population numbered from 70,000 to 80,000 in the
year 1624, by October 12, 1635, it had dwindled to 16,422. After the
city had surrendered to the Imperialists, people still continued to die
in consequence of pestilential diseases; the town council therefore gave
orders on July 7, 1635, that all refuse should be removed from the city.
Not until the winter did the pestilence disappear. In Memmingen there
were 1,200 deaths in 1633, and 1,400 deaths in the following year; the
worst year was 1635, when the pestilence is said to have carried away
3,000 persons. The towns surrounding the city were also severely
attacked. In Kempten, which was oppressed by the Swedes and Imperialists
in the years 1632–3, a pestilence broke out in the year 1634 and lasted
well into the next year, carrying away 3,000 people. In the surrounding
country, pestilence raged so furiously that many places were completely
wiped out. In the near-by towns of Kaufbeuren, Immenstadt, Pfronten,
Füssen, &c., the pestilence was likewise very widespread; in 1635 there
were 1,600 deaths in Füssen—about one-quarter of the inhabitants.
The predatory incursions of the Swedes extended even to the Lake of
Constance. In the year 1634 the number of deaths in Lindau was 800; at
the beginning of the year 1633 Weingarten, Wangen, and Tettnang were
occupied by the Swedes, who brought infectious diseases with them
wherever they went. Tettnang, which in 1633 had more than 2,500
inhabitants, in 1636 had but 150. In Ravensburg a plague broke out in
the year 1635, reached a climax in September, and in six months carried
away 3,100 people. In Constance Hungarian disease raged in 1633, and is
said to have carried away its victims within a few hours; in 1635
bubonic plague also broke out and caused 2,000 deaths.
_(b.) South-western Germany_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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