title: [The influenza pandemic of 1782, with special reference to its occurrence in the Imperial City of Nuremberg].
abstract: In Germany, very little research has been done on the flu pandemic of 1782. The year before, in 1781, an epidemic of dysentery had ravaged Central Europe quite seriously. The flu pandemic began in Germany in spring 1782. It took its origin in the Far East, probably in Imperial China. From there it slowly traveled westward and finally hit Russia and Germany. In early 1782, it arrived in eastern Prussia. Mortality rose, in Königsberg (Kaliningrad) mainly people over 30 died. From the German coast on the Baltic Sea the virus soon crossed over to England and Scotland. Within Germany it slowly moved southward, to places like Berlin, Weimar and further south. In Berlin very many people became sick. In spring 1782, in many parts of Germany, from east to west, people were bed-ridden. In Nuremberg, a young doctor described the symptoms of the disease and the therapy he gave to his patients in a pamphlet but apart from that there are few sources. Probably not many people consulted a doctor. Mortality in Nuremberg, it seems, did not rise very much. The city had been in decline since the 1750s, its population now shrunk even further. When this scourge hit Central Europe, the Holy Roman Empire was in decline, after an attack of famine and pestilence in the early 1770s and that epidemic of dysentery in 1781. It finally collapsed some 25 years later, in 1806, and the Imperial City of Nuremberg was absorbed by the Kingdom of Bavaria.
authors.affiliation: mvasold@web.de
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vasold
mesh_terms: D005858:Germany; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000266:history*; D009026:Mortality / Q000266:history*; D058873:Pandemics / Q000266:history*