In late summer 1731 a terrible illness befell the small village of Loosen in the southwest of Mecklenburg. Whole families became ill, adults and children died. The sick people suffered from cramps all over the body, combined with terrible pain. These attacks sometimes lasted hours and came back up to ten times a day. Many people died after a short time, others suffered for days and weeks. Some people seemed to recover, but then the attacks came back after weeks or months. Even years later people died as a result from this disease which they called "Krumme Krankheit" (crooked disease).
What had happened?
People knew about ergot at those times. Especially in Germany people knew many names for it. Some names refered to the shape, some refered to mythology. Names like the German "Mutterkorn" (mother's grain) or "Totenkorn" (death's grain) obviously refered to its using in medicine or to its poisonous effect.
The farmers in Loosen also knew about the poisonous effect of the so called "Brandkorn" (burning grain) because the used it, diluted in milk, to kill flies. But probably there never had been an ergot poisoning in that region before 1731, so the people did not know about the terrible effects on human beeings.
We know about ergot poisoning in France during the Middle Ages. The people knew about the connection of "bad" grain and symptoms of ergot poisoning. But obviously the symptoms were completely different from those of "Krumme Krankheit".
In France the disease started with a general weakness, dizzyness and pains in arms and legs. After a while hands and feet became swollen, followed by extremely strong burning pain. A feeling of heat and cold alternated. The illness was called "Holy Fire"(Ignis sacer). Finally the arms and legs became numb, black und mumified. Quite often the limps fell off without pain or bleeding. A person who had lost just one arm or one leg could live for many years afterwards.
In 1100 AD monks founded a fraternity called St. Antony to care for the the diseased people. So finally the illness became known as "St. Antony's Fire".
East of the Rhine, in Germany, but also in Poland, Russia, in Scandinavia and England, another form of ergot poisoning occured. This is the convulsive form. In Germany it was often called "Kriebelkrankheit" (tingly or itching disease). It started with a tingling in hands and feet "as if ants were running across". Then cramps in fingers and toes followed which spread over the whole body. These convulsoins were combined with unbearable pain and a strong feeling of heat or cold, similiar to the symptoms of St. Antony's fire. These attacks could last for minutes or hours and could happen several times a day. The periods with convulsions could go on for weeks - if people did not die before. Some people recovered, but they stayed week and numb. Limps could stay in the cramped form (crooked, so crooked disease), hearing and seeing was damaged, some people became blind. The worst thing was increasing mental deficiency. Even months and years later, with no attacks, the convulsions could come back.
In 1581 the "Kriebelkrankheit" was described for the first time after its outbreak in the region of Lueneburg in Lower Saxony. The university of Marburg printed a description of this disease in 1597 which also contained some instructions for treatment. During the following 200 years again and again outbreaks were described from Hesse in the west of Germany to Silesia in the east, from Vogtland in Thuringia in the south to Holstein and Pommerania in the north. A connection with rye and also with ergot was discussed, but the scientists were not sure about it.
In 1717 (Holstein) and 1722 (Prignitz) two outbreaks in the close neighbourhood of Loosen occurred, but inspite of it the farmers and the Duke's clerks (Amtmänner) did not see any connection to the Krumme Krankheit in Loosen.
The first cases must have happened in September 1731. The harvest was finished and the first grain from this year's harvest was consumed. On January 24th 1732 a note was sent to the Duke's office (Amt) which said that 10 people from six farmer's families and from the people living in the herdsmen's cottages had already died and that the others were ill. In other families the disease obviously had not occurred or the symptoms were so weak that it was not mentioned.
The documents show that it was the convulsive form of ergotism in a very heavy occurrence.
In 1736 a document reports that the disease had been going on for four years. 10 families were affected. Especially in winter convulsion attacks occurred. The document says:
The convulsions
"wie sich solche bey der Epilepsie zu äußern pflegen, welche jedoch ins gemein noch weit vehementer ausfallen“ (are like those which occur with epilepsy, but these are much stronger), „Was dabey das elendste, so werden die Patienten endlich theils wahnwitzig, teils contract, wenigstens aber bleiben sie so wol an Leibes als Gemüths-Kräfften schwach und sind zu geschäften untüchtig“ (the worst thing is that the diseased finally get mentally deficient or stay crooked, or at least they stay physically and mentally weak and are not able to work).
In January 1736 the document says that already 80 people had died since the outbreak in 1731. In the churchregisters usually no death causes are mentioned . So we don not find any hint to Krumme Krankheit. When I compare the number of deaths between 1726 and 1743 I find a significant increase in 1732 and 1732, and a slightly increased number in 1731, 1734 and 1741. In the other years five people died in average, in 1721 and 1734 died each ten people. In 1741 fifteen died, in 1733 twenty-one and in 1732 twenty-eight. When you add up all deceased in Loosen between September 1731 and January 1736 you get 71 persons. The number of 80 people is too high because you have to count all the people who died from other causes, too. But probably some farmhands and maids who had been working on the affected farms and had become ill, were taken to their families in other villages where they died. They would have to be added to the number as well.
The scientist George Barger assumes a mortality number of 10 to 20 %, children up to 50 %. If you assume that about 60 people died until 1736 from Krumme Krankheit (about two thirds children) you can say that about 100 adults and 80 children had been affected.
Around 1730 in Loosen there had been about 30 households with five to eight members each. That adds up to about 200 to 250 people. It means that about 70 to 90 % became ill.
Because also during the following years people died as a result from the disease the real number of diseased could have been abou 100 %. Perhaps the symptoms were quite weak at some people who had not eaten so much of the ergot so they were not mentioned in the documents.
The development in Loosen was causing sorrow at the Duke's office. Because many farmers could not work on their fields properly they also could not pay the high taxes any more. So the office sent a doctor to the village because the farmers could not afford to pay a doctor on their own. People assumed that the disease was contagious and the clerks were afraid that it would spread out.
Also the Buedner (small farmer) Friedrich Hagen of Parchim and his mother were sent to Loosen by the office to treat the people. 30 years later Hagen claimed that he had cured everybody and got quite famous because of this. Indeed he could not have been very successful. A farmer whose family had been affected grumbled in 1743 that "jedem Haußwirth im Dorffe angesaget ward, dem Weibe, die sich damahlen angab, daß sie die krancken leute curiren wollte, 16 ßl zu Medicamenten und Arztlohn zu geben“ (every farmer in the village was ordred to pay 16 ßl for treatment to the woman who had claimed that she would heal the people). But no quackery had helped whatever the cheating woman had used. His wife had died nevertheless.
Already in 1597 the Marburg documents recommend laxatives and sudorifics and also eating butter, milk and eggs. We find this hint to butter and eggs again and again in other documents, too.
Barger assumes that a lack of vitamin A benefits the disease. Ill people very often were heavily infected by roundworms (Ascaris) which can lead to a lack of vitamin A.
You can find ergot very often on plants growing on moors, sandy or damp soil. Also a minimum of treatment (as with the typical wooden plough (Haken) in the southwest of Mecklenburg) favours ergot.
On sandy soil where farmers could have only a few cows ergotism occurres quite frequently (Lueneburger Heide, Celle, Brandenburg, Loosen in Griese Gegend). In regions with fat soil and large herds no ergotism occurred. Barger assumes that people in sandy regions have a lack of vitamin A because of the lack of milk products and so they are more predestinated for the disease as people in other regions.
In 1710 the fields of Loosen are described like this:
„Acker bestehet meistens in schlecht Sandt, so daß Sie nur Rogken, wenig Gärsten, Raugen Habern, undt Buchweitzen säen können; haben etwas Heu-Winnung, aber nur schlechte Weyde“ (The fields consist mainly of poor sand so that the farmers can only sow rye, a little bit of barley, oat and buckwheat. They have a little bit of hay but only poor meadows).
Because the main food for the farmers in Loosen was rye, and because they had to use all of it because of their poor economic situation, the concentration of ergot in their food was comparativly high.
In the region of Celle near Hannover another mass poisoning occurred. The office clerks exchanged the farmer's rye for cleaned rye and so the disease could be controlled. Some farmer's did not want an exchange and "ate death with their own harvest". Also in Hamburg, Holstein, Rostock, Verden, Duisburg, Fulda and in the Harz mountains outbreaks occurred in 1770. The offices in Mecklenburg became alarmed. Cleark zur Nedden remembered not only from his youth the massive ergot infections of the rye and the poisonings in the Amt Grabow, especially in Loosen. He had already heared of the outbreak in the region of Celle and had warned the people in Amt Doemitz. He had ordered to sort out the "Brandkorn" (ergot) from the grain but only few people had listened to him.
At least at the Duke's household the grain should be checked carefully, and the Duke's family should avoid rye bread completely.
Order was given that in the mills the ergot should be sorted out very carefully, too.
Clerk zur Nedden stated:
„Der Bauer aber lachet großen Theils darüber“. „Die Leute achten nicht darauf [auf das Brandkorn], sondern vermalen es mit zu Brod. Alsdann spüren sie freylich von der Schädlichkeit wenig...es soll daneben das Mehl zwar etwas bläulicht machen, dem Brode aber einen lieblichen Geschmack geben. Ist von anderen es gehöret, ja es schmeckt gut; warum sollte es denn eben izo schaden, und warum solltest Du nicht auch dies Jahr dergleichen Brod essen? Woraus da wegen des fast algemeinen Rocke-Mangels der Rocken so theür ist, und wenn Du noch das viele Brandkorn davon absondern solltest, der Scheffel dir noch theürer würde" (Most farmers only laugh about these orders.The people don't care about the ergot but grind it with the grain. They don't notice much of the poisonous effect. Ergot is said to give a light blue touch to the flour and make it taste sweetly. They heared from other people that it tastes well. So why should it do any harm this year? Why shouldn't I eat it this year, too? Because there is lack of rye this year and the rye became very expensive the rye became even more expensive if I would sort out the ergot.)
Nevertheless zur Nedden hoped that there would be no large outbreaks. Firts ergot would appear only in a few regions, second it would be only harmful if eaten in large amounts, third ergot could be sorted out very easily and finally the farmers would eat much more potatoes than in former times, especially when the rye is so expensive.
At least in the region of Loosen no massive outbreak occurred in 1770 or in the following years.
The documents in the Landeshauptarchiv Schwerin and the church records of Leussow show us a view on the damage the Krumme Krankheit made in Loosen.
In 1732 seven households were affected, in 1736 ten.
Barger says that usually the poorest families were affected because they were forced to use all grain, and because their general food was of a low quality.
In Loosen there were no wealthy families. The economic situation of all farmers was quite bad, but some had more peoblems than others because of livestock diseases, fire, illness etc. Why were only ten families affected severely while the others did not become ill?
In January 1732 the affected families were the following:
1) Jochim Busch, 4 dead, the others ill.
Until 1738 died Jochim Busch, his wife and seven of eight children, some of them already adults. The deceased mentioned in 1732 probably were the three youngest children between four and thirteen years and the 22 year old farm heir.
Because no son survived the farm was taken by one of the sons-in-law.
The only daughter who was not affected was working on a farm in Leussow in 1731/32 which was not affected by the disease. It is interesting that the oldest daughter who was already married in 1731 and lived on her husband's farm became ill, while her husband and their children were not affected.
The economic situation of the farm must have been quite good because several young men tried to overtake the farm.
2) Hans Losen, 3 dead, the others very ill.
The dead persons are probably the wife, the two years old daughter and the adult halfsister of Hans Losen. He died in March 1732, alst of the family. His halfbrother Hartwig Prueß could not overtake the farm because he was very ill, too, and not able to work as a farmer any more. He died in 1759, the farm was overtaken by Hans Dubbe.
3) Clas Hagen„sind im gantzen Hause alle Miserabl und dabey rasend daß sie müssen angebunden werden“(everybody in the house is ill and so furious that they have to be tied up).
Clas Hagen died a few days later, his oldest daughter in May 1732, three years old. If the daughter who was born in July and died half a year later was infected we do not know. Barger says that the disease affects the child during pregnancy so that all children die shortly after birth. The disease is not contagious by breast feeding. The wife died in 1740 (of which cause?) after she had married Christoph Bartold Penning, the new farmer.
Clas Hagen's economic situation was not very good in spring 1731. He had written to the office for help to buy some horses.
4) Christian Schur, everybody ill.
His wife and he himself died in 1734, three of his five children between 1732 and 1736, sixteen to tewnty-seven years old. The oldest daughter had been married already and was living on another farm. Son Hans Juergen survived and married in 1733. The farm heir, Hartwich Sehland, stepson of Christian Schur, was too ill to overtake the farm. He did not want his halfbrother Hans Juergen Schuer to overtake the farm because he still hoped to recover, but he died in 1736. His wife had already died in 1732, while his only child, born 1730 survived and died in 1797. Sehland married once more, the widow of Juergen Bluehdorn in 1734.
5) Peter Schriefer, everybody ill.
Peter Schriefer and his fifteen year old son died in February 1732. His wife lived until 1750. Two children survived and raised families, two children died as unmarried adults (1735, 1756).
Schriefer's stepchildren from his wife's first marriage survived, except the oldest son who died in 1732, thirty years old. The other three stepchildren married in 1732 and 1733 and died at old age.
Schriefer had been damaged in 1727 by the death of his livestock and by soldier's accommodation. He had been supprted by the office so that his economic situation probably had improved until 1731.
6) Koehn Strufe, ill.
Strufe is the man who lamented about the quack woman. He died in 1775 as old man. His wife died in 1732 of the disease, the only son in 1745 (cause?).
Strufe's parents and three of their children probably lived in the same household. His mother died in 1741, his father in 1748, very old. One son, seventeen years old, died in 1732, one daughter in 1746, thirty-three years old and unmarried. The youngest daughter survived ind married.
Strufe had overtaken the farm from his father in 1730. The economic situation was very bad, and he had not recieved the promised support even in 1736. His situation was still bad.
7) In the herdsmen's cottages 3 are dead, the other herdsmen ill.
Probably these were
a) Hinrich Prieß, herdsman
His wife died in 1732, he himself in 1738, five of six known children died between 1731 and 1733 (one 1/2 to over thirteen years old). He married the widow of teacher Prehn who probably also lived in one of the cottages.
b) perhaps Hans Hinrich Prehn, teacher
He died in 1733, three of his four children between 1732 and 1733 (two to fourteen years). One daughter lived until 1740 and died, twenty-four years old.
c) Johann Lehnhardt, shepherd, herdsman
His wife died 1733, shortly after having born a dead child. His six year old son died in December 1731. If he had more children I do not know.
d) Johann or Jochim Pentzjan, herdsman
He died 1736, one daughter 1743. She had been married to Hartwig Prueß since 1732 (see number 2). Another daughter was alive in 1733. If he had more children I do not know.
e) Jochim Buß, shepherd
His wife died 1735, his three oldest children in January and February 1732 (two to five). A fourth child was born in 1734 and survived at least until 1736. After this there is no trace of Jochim Buß and his little son.
Another affected family is mentioned in a document of April 1733:
8) Jacob Daebeler, farmer, dead, all children ill, wife healthy
He had died in March 1733, his son 1732, sixteen years old. His two daughters died in 1734 and 1735 (15, 25). His wife married once more but died in 1741. Her second husband Hinrich David Meinke overtook the farm.
1) Akten des Landeshauptarchivs (LHA) Schwerin: