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. (from Wikipedia)
Here's a longer version of the "OH SHIT" story.
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15 comments:
The shorter version is just fine. I bet repairs to the floor were made much stronger.
I read the longer version and came across this sentence:
"It’s hard to say for sure whether the rich noblemen who died in the Erfurt latrine disaster had been killed by the fall itself or by being suffocated by the pool of filth they fell into."
Had I been one of those noblemen, I would have preferred to have been killed by the former and not the latter.
River - Or at least the floor was inspected a little more often.
Kirk - Even if they survived the fall, I'm sure there was not much oxygen in the pit.
Reminds me of that scene in Paul Verhoeven's ludicrously under-rated 2006 masterwork "BLACK BOOK" with Carice van Outen. Also, 838 years later the original occurance is now literally screaming out to be rein-acted using todays state-of-the-art special effects in any random Adam Sandler comedy movie, it would be mind-bogglingly hilarious.
History buff that I am, I'm astounded that I'm first learning about this event. I'm already thinking about how to turn this into my own blog post next July. Or sooner.
What a foul way to die.
The original Shitstorm ?
Gawd, what a terrible way to go.
I second Debra.
LJ - "BLACK BOOK" with Carice van Outen isn't on Netflix anymore.
Bill - I think you'll have fun with this one.
Lady - Nice pun.
Stu - The rain of effluent after the big splash would have been that exactly.
Deb - Sort of like being carried away in a portapotty by a storm. (It happened.) https://nypost.com/video/worker-gets-swept-away-in-porta-potty/
Kathy - Watch the video and remember it before you use one in a storm.
Excellent. That is one heck of a story to pass down to the generations.
Susan - Imagine finding out one of those guys was your ancestor.
Presumably you have seen it though ! ?, if so you`ll be familiar with the scene i was referring to ! ! !.
I see parallels with where we are today. Perhaps your way ahead of me! I can't believe I've never heard of this. I'm almost as avid a collector of trivia as yourself. Mike
LJ - Nope, haven't seen it.
Cloudia - You and Bill are beside yourselves with disbelief. 😄
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