🔗 Erfurt Latrine Disaster of 1184

🔗 Germany 🔗 Disaster management 🔗 European history 🔗 Royalty and Nobility 🔗 Germany/Holy Roman Empire

In July 1184, Henry VI, King of Germany (later Holy Roman Emperor), held court at a Hoftag in the Petersberg Citadel in Erfurt. On the morning of 26 July, the combined weight of the assembled nobles caused the wooden second story floor of the building to collapse and most of them fell through into the latrine cesspit below the ground floor, where about 60 of them drowned in liquid excrement. This event is called Erfurter Latrinensturz (lit. 'Erfurt latrine fall') in several German sources.