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Cholera in the City of Poznań

Did the Death Toll of the 1866 Cholera Epidemic Reflect Social and Economic Differences

Bibliographic Data

ID16478617
AuthorsGrażyna Liczbińska (0000-0002-0922-4612, Institute of Human Biology and Evolution, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University , Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6 , Poznań , Poland, corresponding author), Jörg Vögele (0000-0002-1252-8457, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)
Year2025
Volume66
Issue2
Pages341-364
Publication date2025-11-25
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0075-2800 • E-ISSN: 2196-6842
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/jbwg-2025-0013
OpenAlexW4415211098
LanguageEN
Citations received2

The objective of this paper is to study whether and to what extent the 1866 cholera epidemic reflected social and economic differences. Individuallevel information on the deceased in Poznań in 1866 was collected from parish death registers. The different exposure levels, sickness and death rates in the different city districts of Poznań are discussed at length. What becomes evident from the quantitative results: the poorest social groups were the most frequent victims of cholera, due to poor living conditions, malnutrition, poor hygiene, lack of awareness of the risks, and pursuit of professions that increased the risk of exposure to germs. Women, who performed domestic work as servants or at home, were at especially high risk of exposure and death. However, cholera also affected those better off: while they contracted the disease less often, if they did so, they were more likely to succumb to it. The approach and methods used show the complexities of a 19 th century local epidemic in great granularity

Cholera · Death toll · Disease · Public health · Socioeconomic status · Toll · Work (physics · Vibrio bacteria research studies · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research · Zoonotic diseases and public health

  • "Searching for a Needle in a Haystack". The Intricacies of Sources on Causes of Death, Their Interpretation, and the Construction of a Database for the City of Poznań, 1830–1900

    Open Access•Grażyna Liczbińska, Patryk Pankowski et al.•Historical Life Course Studies•2026

  • Love in the time of cholera. Cholera epidemics and changes in the marriage market in nineteenth-century Poznań

    Grażyna Liczbińska, Marek Brabec et al.•The History of the Family•2025

Citations per year2
Citation span2025 - 2026 (2)
Highly citedNo

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