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Historic Catastrophes: Tales of Tragedy and Unforgettable Disaster

Khalid Elhassan November 12, 2023 25 min

Disaster - Dublin Whiskey Fire — Dublin Whiskey Fire. Illustrated London News

\When Dozens of Bigwigs Drowned in Excrement

Erfurt’s Saint Peter’s Church, in green. All That is Interesting

Heinrich VI invited key nobles and clergymen from across the Holy Roman Empire to meet for a peace conference at the city of Erfurt. Dozens of bigwigs from across the empire answered his call, and on July 25^th, 1184, they gathered at a meeting room in Erfurt’s Church of Saint Peter. Their numbers included a Count Heinrich I of Schwarzburg, who was often given to emphasizing his determination to do something by stating: “If I fail, may I die in excrement!“

Beneath the church meeting room where the empire’s greatest assembled in all their finery, was the monks’ latrine. Unfortunately, the room was not structurally sound. No sooner did the meeting begin than the supporting beams holding the floor gave way, and the gathered bigwigs plummeted into the liquid excrement below. Dozens died, either from drowning in the fecal pool, or from the collapsed structure. They included Count Heinrich I, who met his end just as he had often said: drowned in shit.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.