Drowning in Politics: The Erfurt Latrine Collapse

On July 26, 1184, the city of Erfurt witnessed a disaster that’s still enough to make you squirm—and not just because of the stench. In the middle of a tense political meeting, a group of nobles—who had gathered to hash out some royal business—found themselves plunging into an absolute nightmare. No, this wasn’t some medieval game of musical chairs gone wrong. Instead, the floor beneath their feet gave way, sending them tumbling into a massive cesspit that had been conveniently located right underneath them.

Imagine it: the grandiose meeting, probably full of backstabbing and political intrigue, suddenly turning into a death trap—literally. Some nobles fell to their deaths when the floor collapsed, while others—trapped in filth and muck—met a much slower, and much grosser, fate. The noble elite? Downed by the very thing they’d probably spent their entire lives pretending to be too good for. The whole event unfolded in a horrifying mix of medieval slips, slips, and a whole lot of unintentional bodily fluids.

But wait! Some people survived. Emperor Henry VI himself was among the lucky few who managed to cling to an iron railing and escape the horror below. Maybe it was luck. Maybe it was divine intervention. Or maybe it was just that Henry’s taste in royal meetings was so bad it kept him out of harm’s way. Either way, the nobles who didn’t make it were left to rot in the muck, proving that even the highest of highborn can’t escape a bad situation when fate (and questionable architecture) has other plans.

What’s the moral of the story? Don’t host political meetings on top of cesspits. And for a more enjoyable exploration of how this stinky disaster unfolded, tune in to Catastrophe Chronicles. It's the only place we can promise that, while we might not have clean humor, we sure have a dirty one! Dive deep into the filth, laughter, and pure chaos of the Erfurt cesspit collapse—because sometimes, the most disastrous moments leave us with the best stories.

Articles:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/medieval-toilet

https://www.historyen.com/toilets/

https://brilliantmaps.com/peak-holy-roman-empire/

https://web.archive.org/web/20190903042810/http://www.thefortweekly.com/issues/issue-1/curio-1-the-erfurter-latrinensturz/

https://allthatsinteresting.com/erfurt-latrine-disaster

https://www.historyhit.com/the-history-of-the-toilet/

https://oddfeed.net/erfurt-latrine-disaster/