Cholera Epidemics in Nineteenth-Century Poznań (1831-1873)

Abstract

The article presents the history of cholera epidemics in Poznań to explain how, and with what results, the Prussian authorities used medical knowledge and practices to control the non-German population of the annexed territories of Poland in 1831-1866. The study proves the problematic nature of attributing susceptibility to cholera to Poles as a backward and inferior race, which the Prussian authorities did to justify their racist policy towards Poles. The Berlin government's instrumental treatment of the Jewish population in the conquered Polish lands is also explored. The study emphasizes the relationship between ethnicity, social status, religious denomination, internal politics, and access to medical care. Profiles of Polish, Jewish, and German doctors practising in Poznań during this period are presented because the nineteenth-century epidemics strengthened their authority as new stakeholders in the public life of the Prussian province. The study is based on reports, doctoral dissertations (rare because they were printed in small numbers), nineteenth-century biographical dictionaries, and bibliographies. Secondary literature, especially from the interwar period, was also useful.