Daniel Christensen

Politics and the Plague in Early Modern Germany: Political Efforts to Combat Epidemics in the Duchy of Braunschweig-wolfenbüttel During the Seventeenth Century Daniel Christensen

People think of medieval medicine as primitive and non-academic, and assume modern medicine to be drastically different in state-led public health efforts, in tandem with academic medical theory. But what about the period between the medieval and the modern? The author, using archival evidence from 1580 to 1720 in the Duchy of Braunschweig- Wolfenbüttel, an important north German territory, sheds new light on the early modern period in the German lands. He demonstrates the premodern nature of the seventeenth century, as the budding state valiantly tried to limit the economic and political devastation that epidemics brought, as the central government needed the cooperation of local authorities with their own agendas, and the cooperation of existing ecclesiastical institutions, in order to accomplish anything. The plague, a catch-all term with a definite Christian meaning, ruined economies, thwarted centralization efforts, and hindered cameralist intentions. With this study the author provides a valuable addition to our growing knowledge of early modern Germany.