Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm
Speaker 1: and Mild from airin Manky listener discretion advised Heinrich the sixth,
Speaker 1: the eighteen year old King of Germany and son of
Speaker 1: Holy Roman Emperor Frederic the f Barbosa, sat by a
Speaker 1: window next to Conrad of Wittelsbach, the Archbishop of Mainz.
Speaker 1: It was the evening of July twenty fifth, eleven eighty four,
Speaker 1: and the air between the two men was tense. By
Speaker 1: this point, Heinrich and the archbishop had run out of
Speaker 1: things to say to one another. Earlier, when they had
Speaker 1: first sat down, the conversation had flowed freely. Heinrich had
Speaker 1: come to air Fort to broker an agreement between the
Speaker 1: archbishop and the Landgrave Ludwig the third of Thuringia. The
Speaker 1: two of them had some heated disputes over land right
Speaker 1: in air Fort, but by all accounts, each had come
Speaker 1: to the negotiations willingly and with high hopes for a
Speaker 1: quick resolution. Heinrich, the King of Germany, had assembled a Hoftag,
Speaker 1: an unofficial meeting attended by his court as well as
Speaker 1: the local nobility and clergy, to settle the matter once
Speaker 1: and for all.
Speaker 2: But by this.
Speaker 3: Point, however, Heinrich and the Archbishop were not talking about land,
Speaker 3: titles or anything at all. The meeting had long since crumbled,
Speaker 3: so too, quite literally had the building around them, save
Speaker 3: for the window alcove where the two men had been sitting. Now,
Speaker 3: Heinrich and the Archbishop awaited rescue in horrified silence, holding
Speaker 3: on for dear life after being forced to watch as
Speaker 3: their fellow nobles floundered and drowned below them in a
Speaker 3: roiling pit of mud, debris, and human waste. I'm Dana Schwartz,
Speaker 3: and this is noble blood. The air Fort Latrine disaster,
Speaker 3: as it would come to be called, is remembered as
Speaker 3: one of medieval history's most disgusting calamities. It was what
Speaker 3: it sounds like, a building collapsed into its underground latrine
Speaker 3: cesspot killing, injuring, or traumatizing the attendees of Heinrich the
Speaker 3: si Hulftug. Its effects, both on the lines of noble
Speaker 3: succession and on local folklore, would ripple out for generations.
Speaker 3: In order to understand how this tragic and nauseating accident occurred,
Speaker 3: we must first understand one of the most significant architectural
Speaker 3: challenges facing any media city that of dealing with human waste.
Speaker 3: Many people believe that the Middle Ages were a sort
Speaker 3: of free for all of waste disposal. While it was
Speaker 3: certainly true that many medieval people had to dispose of
Speaker 3: their waste by say, pouring it out of their windows
Speaker 3: or into the streets, in many places that was actually
Speaker 3: illegal and could carry heavy fines.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact.
Speaker 3: Medieval people, and in particular medieval municipal authorities, devoted a
Speaker 3: great deal of attention to waste management. People in the
Speaker 3: Middle Ages dealt with their waste in a number of
Speaker 3: different ways.
Speaker 2: The way you might be.
Speaker 3: Most familiar with is the chamber pot or other kinds
Speaker 3: of portable toilets, But those, of course would have left
Speaker 3: you with the problem of then disposing of the waste
Speaker 3: from the chamber pots. Luckily, at least in some places,
Speaker 3: there was another option, a latrine. In this period, a
Speaker 3: latrine would have consisted, usually of a plank of wood
Speaker 3: over a hole in the ground or in the floor
Speaker 3: of a building, usually some sort of outhouse, which would
Speaker 3: let out into something such as a cesspit, a stream,
Speaker 3: a ditch, a moat, or a drain. Cesspits were often
Speaker 3: feats of engineering. While they were sometimes just big holes
Speaker 3: in the ground, many of them were reinforced with wood
Speaker 3: or less often stone to prevent groundwater pollution. One latrine
Speaker 3: would often be shared by all of the inhabitants of
Speaker 3: a given plot of land, although larger multihole latrines were
Speaker 3: sometimes used in monasteries, and some cities, like London even
Speaker 3: had public necessary houses with multiple latrine holes that opened
Speaker 3: up into a single cesspit. As you might expect, wealthier
Speaker 3: people tended to have more elaborately constructed latrines. This applied
Speaker 3: to the above ground parts as well, most notably with
Speaker 3: the construction of latrines inside the home. If you've ever
Speaker 3: visited an old castle, for example, you might have seen
Speaker 3: a little part jutting out from the wall on the
Speaker 3: outside that's called a garterobe, and it was basically a
Speaker 3: medieval toilet. Named after storage closets where valuables or linens
Speaker 3: would be kept. These would be small chambers that offered
Speaker 3: the user some privacy. Sometimes these would open up directly
Speaker 3: to the outside, emptying into a moat or some other
Speaker 3: drainage system, but often they were connected to a latrine
Speaker 3: that led out into a cesspit. These systems could be impressive,
Speaker 3: but of course they were not without their challenges. A
Speaker 3: cesspit needed proper drainage. Drainage issue could result in things
Speaker 3: like contaminated groundwater, but also, and perhaps more urgently, damage
Speaker 3: to the structure of the latrine and any overlying buildings themselves.
Speaker 3: Rotting was a major concern for latrines reinforced with wood. Often,
Speaker 3: cesspits were emptied by hand on an annual or semi
Speaker 3: annual basis, or otherwise, the waste continually boarded up until
Speaker 3: a new latrine had to be opened, but some cesspits
Speaker 3: had more advanced systems of drainage. One solution for the
Speaker 3: drainage problem was the installation of channel drains, which utilized
Speaker 3: gravity to let waste out from the cesspit into, say,
Speaker 3: a flowing river. These could work marvelously well, but like
Speaker 3: modern plumbing systems, they were also susceptible to clogs or
Speaker 3: structural damage, and, as the attendees of that fateful hoftag
Speaker 3: in air Fort would find out, when channel drain systems
Speaker 3: failed to work properly, wooden boards began to rot and
Speaker 3: nobody took steps to remedy the.
Speaker 2: Issue, disaster would ensue.
Speaker 3: Twelfth century Germany consisted of a constellation of duchies, counties,
Speaker 3: and principalities, all loosely aligned under the authority of the
Speaker 3: Holy Roman Empire, with each duke, count and prince largely
Speaker 3: sovereign over his own territory. Political life was often tense,
Speaker 3: as ruling nobles constantly sought to increase their power. Borders
Speaker 3: frequently expanded and contracted as wars, shifting alliances, and political
Speaker 3: machinations saw land pass back and forth between nobles. Of course,
Speaker 3: these were rarely clean or easy transfers of jurisdiction. It
Speaker 3: wasn't uncommon for two or more parties to claim sovereignty
Speaker 3: over the same piece of land at the same time.
Speaker 3: This was the case for Ludwig the Third, the Landgrave,
Speaker 3: a German rank of nobility roughly equivalent to account of Thuringia,
Speaker 3: and the Archbishop of Mainz Conrad of Wittelsbach. Keep in
Speaker 3: mind that during this period, high ranking clergy like bishops,
Speaker 3: archbishops and cardinals often exercised political as well as religious
Speaker 3: power in their respective domains. In this case, Conrad was
Speaker 3: both the archbishop and the Elector of Mainz, a title
Speaker 3: akin to prince, meaning he both oversaw his own territory
Speaker 3: and got to play a role in electing the Holy
Speaker 3: Roman Emperor. The territories of Ludwig's county and Conrad's archbishopric
Speaker 3: abutted each other. In fact, they sort of overlapped, with
Speaker 3: each man claiming his land to be perhaps slightly larger
Speaker 3: than it was. Their territories had not always been quite
Speaker 3: so disputed, but around eleven seventy nine, the Duke of
Speaker 3: Saxony and Bavaria, Heinrich the Lion, was stripped of his
Speaker 3: holdings by the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick the I Barbosa.
Speaker 2: This created a power.
Speaker 3: Vacuum that resulted in an even more tenuous, contested web
Speaker 3: of territories than had existed before. By eleven eighty four,
Speaker 3: five years later, Ludwig and the archbishop had developed a
Speaker 3: land dispute over the city of air Fort that had
Speaker 3: become so heated it drew the attention of the Holy
Speaker 3: Roman Emperor. But we don't know much of the details
Speaker 3: of how oh this contentious situation developed. Specifically, Some sources
Speaker 3: point to the archbishop's construction of a fortified castle in
Speaker 3: or near the city around eleven eighty, but it's unclear
Speaker 3: whether that was in fact the inciting incident or simply
Speaker 3: a move made as part of a pre existing conflict.
Speaker 3: In any case, the dispute boiled down to an argument
Speaker 3: over whether the clergy or the lay nobility should have
Speaker 3: control over air Fort. This was a pressing issue that
Speaker 3: touched not only on the daily lives of the people
Speaker 3: living in the city, but also on bigger debates over
Speaker 3: the rights of religious versus secular powers that had overtaken
Speaker 3: Europe in the wake of the Investiture controversy and the
Speaker 3: wars of the Guelphs and Ghibelin that followed. After some
Speaker 3: four years of conflict over this land, the Holy Roman
Speaker 3: Emperor had had enough. He sent his son Heinrich the sixth,
Speaker 3: the King of Germany, to mediate the matter. In the
Speaker 3: summer of eleven eighty four, Heinrich traveled to Airport and
Speaker 3: called a hoftag on July twenty fifth, where he would
Speaker 3: mediate a piece between Ludwig and the archbishop. The meeting
Speaker 3: drew an audience of nobles and high ranking clergy from
Speaker 3: all around the area, each of whom sought both to
Speaker 3: help mediate the meeting and possibly to act in their
Speaker 3: best interests sources disagree over whether the Hoftag was held
Speaker 3: at the cathedral, provosts building or the bishop's residence, but
Speaker 3: we do know that it was nearby the air Fort's cathedral,
Speaker 3: and that the meeting took place on the second floor
Speaker 3: of whatever building it was in. Over sixty people some
Speaker 3: sources say over one hundred crowded the meeting room as
Speaker 3: the proceedings began. We know little about how the meeting went.
Speaker 3: It's possible the nobles shouted over each other, jocking to
Speaker 3: get a word in. Maybe it was a friendly gathering,
Speaker 3: with everyone acting in good faith, trying to maintain peace
Speaker 3: and reach a resolution. Maybe it was only getting started
Speaker 3: and clergy and nobles were still asking after each other's
Speaker 3: families and children. We do know that at one point
Speaker 3: King Heinrich and the archbishop walked over to a window
Speaker 3: to speak privately. Then all of a sudden, a rumble
Speaker 3: tore through the building. The walls began to shake, and
Speaker 3: before the meeting's attendees even realized what was happening, the
Speaker 3: floor collapsed beneath them. In his book of German Legends,
Speaker 3: the nineteenth century German folklorist Ludwig Bechstein recounted the story
Speaker 3: of quote the Count's proverb. His story centered on a
Speaker 3: noble Count Heinrich, the seventh of Schwarzburg. As Bechstein told it,
Speaker 3: Count Heinrich had a nasty habit. Whenever there was something
Speaker 3: he didn't want to do or didn't think he could do,
Speaker 3: he would say, in a huff, quote, if I did that,
Speaker 3: I'd have to drown.
Speaker 2: In the privy.
Speaker 3: You can probably see where this story is going. Bechstein's
Speaker 3: tale was a fictionalized account of the air Fort Latrine disaster,
Speaker 3: which did actually happen. He altered some of the historical details.
Speaker 3: It was Count Heinrich the first who attended, for example,
Speaker 3: not the seventh, but the basic contours of the story remained,
Speaker 3: with an ironic twist in the form of his Heinrich's
Speaker 3: tragically prescient catchphrase in both the story and real life.
Speaker 3: The second floor of the building collapsed, the force of
Speaker 3: which collapsed the first floor, and everyone save for King
Speaker 3: Heinrich and Archbishop Conrad, fell into the cesspit below. A
Speaker 3: few survived the fall, but most did not. In reality,
Speaker 3: we have very few contemporary sources about the actual collapse,
Speaker 3: and what we do have doesn't offer much. In the
Speaker 3: way of details on how the collapse happened. Later writers
Speaker 3: supposed that the beams supporting the second floor where the
Speaker 3: hoftag were held, had been rotting for some time, and
Speaker 3: the weight of so many people caused it to collapse.
Speaker 3: Because we don't know which building this was exactly, it's
Speaker 3: hard for us to know whether a latrine contributed to
Speaker 3: that rotting. If that were the case, it would have
Speaker 3: had to have been a wood reinforced latrine that reached
Speaker 3: the second floor. It's also possible that the color collapse
Speaker 3: was unrelated and the cesspit was simply an unfortunate landing
Speaker 3: place for the collapsing building. Either way, the cesspit and
Speaker 3: its draining system seems to have played an essential role
Speaker 3: in the tragic way the disaster played out. Some sources
Speaker 3: say that the building's cesspit had a channel drain system
Speaker 3: which would have emptied out into the nearby Gera River.
Speaker 3: This would have meant that when everything collapsed, the sudden
Speaker 3: inflow of materials and bodies would have forced the entire
Speaker 3: system to flow wildly and uncontrollably out to the river.
Speaker 3: The result was a whirling pit of death. Most estimates
Speaker 3: say about sixty of the meeting's attendees died as a.
Speaker 2: Result of the collapse.
Speaker 3: Some died from the fall, others were crushed by debris,
Speaker 3: and others were I'm sorry, drowned in the sewage or
Speaker 3: asphyxiated in its toxic fumes. The Chronicle of Saint Peter's
Speaker 3: in Airport, which began to be compiled about twenty five
Speaker 3: years after the fact in twelve eight, listed some of
Speaker 3: the noblemen who died in the collapse. Count Friedrich the
Speaker 3: first of Aubenberg, Count Heinrich, the first of Schwarzburg, Count
Speaker 3: Gozmar the third of ziegenhein Gozmar's brother in law, Bougrave
Speaker 3: Friedrich the first of Kirsberg, Count Berkhard of Vartberg, and
Speaker 3: Barringer von Wellington, among other quote lesser nobles whom the
Speaker 3: chronicler felt were not necessary to record. Landgrave Ludwig, one
Speaker 3: of the main two parties involved in the dispute that
Speaker 3: was a reason for all of this, fell into the sewage,
Speaker 3: but luckily was rescued and survived seemingly with no major injuries.
Speaker 3: King Heinrich and the Archbishop had to cling to the
Speaker 3: window as they awaited rescue, but they also eventually escaped unharmed.
Speaker 3: Disgusted and shell shocked, King Heinrich departed from air Fort
Speaker 3: with his retinue almost immediately, never to return. In addition
Speaker 3: to its relatively quick entrance into the annals of local folklore,
Speaker 3: the air Fort latrine disaster impacted the lines of succession
Speaker 3: of much of the local nobility, as estates passed to sons, brothers,
Speaker 3: and even daughters of the deceased. As for the dispute
Speaker 3: between Landgrave Ludwig and Archbishop Conrad that remains unsolved.
Speaker 2: To this day.
Speaker 3: That's the very gross story of the Airport latrine disaster.
Speaker 3: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 3: about another interesting thing that happened in a pit in
Speaker 3: air Fort. If I had a gold ingot for every
Speaker 3: time something noteworthy happened in a pit in air Fort,
Speaker 3: well i'd have two gold ingots. Actually, in fact, in
Speaker 3: nineteen ninety eight, archaeologists excavated fourteen gold ingots, among other treasures,
Speaker 3: hidden in the wall of a medieval cellar entry under
Speaker 3: the Michael Estrass, a small street in Airport where the
Speaker 3: structure of a medieval synagogue had been discovered during excavations
Speaker 3: a few years prior. It was an extraordinary discovery. In
Speaker 3: addition to the gold ingots, there were over three thousand
Speaker 3: Tornassel silver coins, a kind of coin commonly used in
Speaker 3: the Middle Ages and early modern periods, instituting the largest
Speaker 3: extant collection of these kind of coins in the world.
Speaker 3: There were also seven hundred works of goldsmithing dating to
Speaker 3: the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. There was silver tableware, gilded
Speaker 3: goblets from the early fourteenth century, garment applicats and belt adornments,
Speaker 3: eight brooches with inlaid stones, and eight rings. The most
Speaker 3: magnificent of the rings, and the most telling about the
Speaker 3: cash and its history, was an Ashkenazi Jewish wedding ring,
Speaker 3: one of the very few to survive from the fourteenth
Speaker 3: century and one of the very few to be found
Speaker 3: in Germany. The ring was struck in gold without any stones,
Speaker 3: as was tradition, and featured an intricate engraving of a
Speaker 3: Gothic tower and above it the Hebrew phrase mazeltov, meaning
Speaker 3: good fate or good fortune, a phrase of congratulations traditionally
Speaker 3: offered at significant life events like weddings. It is this
Speaker 3: ring which seems to have allowed scholars to figure out
Speaker 3: where this mass of treasure came from and begin to
Speaker 3: guess at who might have hidden it. In thirteen forty nine,
Speaker 3: as the Black Death tore throughout Europe, many communities found
Speaker 3: a convenient scapegoat in Jewish people, blaming them for causing
Speaker 3: the pandemic or believing that they facilitated its spread. There
Speaker 3: are many reasons why these theories developed, but the most
Speaker 3: significant impact was the widespread murders and exiles of European
Speaker 3: Jewish communities. In March thirteen forty nine, the city of
Speaker 3: air Fort did just that in what came to be
Speaker 3: known as the air Fort Massacre. Between March twenty first
Speaker 3: and twenty second, mob's life lynched anywhere from one hundred
Speaker 3: to three thousand Jewish people throughout the city. As the
Speaker 3: violence erupted, many members of the Jewish community chose to
Speaker 3: set fire to their homes and possessions, choosing death over
Speaker 3: the violence of the mob. Others chose to hide their possessions,
Speaker 3: potentially hoping that perhaps they could escape and come back
Speaker 3: for them later. It is believed that one of them,
Speaker 3: potentially a money changer or merchant named Kalmen via Hid
Speaker 3: his treasure before he was killed, either hoping that he
Speaker 3: would survive the mob and be able to retrieve it,
Speaker 3: or knowing that his murderers would not be able to
Speaker 3: profit from his death. Following the massacre, the remaining members
Speaker 3: of the Jewish community were exiled from the city. They
Speaker 3: would return a few years later and re establish a
Speaker 3: new community in the city before being exiled again in
Speaker 3: fourteen fifty eight eight. The hidden treasure, however, remained in airport,
Speaker 3: untouched and intact for over six hundred years. Today, it
Speaker 3: remains on permanent display at the restored old Synagogue, just
Speaker 3: steps from where it was found. Noble Blood is a
Speaker 3: production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
Speaker 3: Noble Blood is hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional
Speaker 3: writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannaswick, Courtney Sender, Amy
Speaker 3: Hit and Julia Milaney. The show is edited and produced
Speaker 3: by Jesse Funk, with supervising producerrima il KLi and executive
Speaker 3: producers Aaron Mankey, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more
Speaker 3: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 3: wherever you listen to your favorite shows,