weeks in the latter part of the summer. In his subsequent letter, dated July
22, Martensen inquired about developments with respect to “cholera in
Lolland,” unhappily noting its “violent spread in Copenhagen.” Gude ap-
parently replied to Martensen that he was very welcome, but Martensen
nonetheless decided to prolong his stay in Slesvig “right up to the end of
the vacation.”
And that was probably the most intelligent thing to do. For while these
clerics were quite furiously writing about, to, for, with, and against one an-
other,therewerepeoplewhohadsomethingentirelydifferenttothinkabout.
“One Day I Saw the Corpse Bus Come”
For twenty years the Asiatic cholera had been lying in wait just beyond the
Danish border, reaching Berlin, Hamburg, and Holstein in 1831. Precau-
tionary measures were taken—people arriving by sea were quarantined, and
the border in southern Jutland was closed. An Extraordinary Health Com-
mission was convened in Copenhagen, cholera wards were set up in the
navalhospital andinthe workhouseaffiliatedwith theChurchof OurLady,
and instructions about how to deal with the illness were circulated. But
the danger passed, the Health Commission was disbanded, and the other
arrangements came to nothing.
In the course of 1848, the disease reached Saint Petersburg, thence to
Helsingfors in Finland, and in Denmark a few cases appeared in Dragør,
southeast of Copenhagen. In 1850, the southern Swedish city of Malmo ̈,
just across the Sound from Copenhagen, and the north German city of
Lu ̈beck reported cases of cholera, and there were a few cases in Denmark,
specifically in Bandholm, a small town on the southern island of Lolland,
and in Korsør, a market town in southwest Zealand. These cases prompted
new mobilizations. The old arrangements were trotted out once again, the
Health Commission was revived, and a quarantine ward, headed by an in-
dustrious physician named Dr. Hjaltelin, was set up in Klampenborg, about
eight miles north of Copenhagen. But there was still little in the way of
reforms in the sanitation system, and even the most modest proposals—
for example, having courtyards swept and gutters cleaned—were met with
disapproval and inertia on the part of the landowners represented in the city
government. No one really believed that such arrangements would do any
good, and they were suspended once again in 1852.
Butthencamethesummerofcholera,1853.Thefirstcaseswerereported
on June 11, and the first deaths four days later. During the following week
eight more died, and on June 24 the city was officially declared to be in-