The Dancing Plague of 1518

The Dancing Plague of 1518

When Movement Became Madness: The Unexplained Mass Hysteria That Claimed Dozens of Lives

In the sweltering summer heat of July 1518, in the Holy Roman Empire city of Strasbourg (now part of modern-day France), one of history's most bizarre and terrifying epidemics began with a single woman.

July 14, 1518 - Frau Troffea steps into the narrow cobblestone street outside her home and begins to dance. Not the coordinated movements of celebration, but wild, frenzied steps. Her husband attempts to guide her home as neighbors gather to watch. Hours pass, but she doesn't stop. As night falls, her feet bleeding through worn shoes, she finally collapses from exhaustion. Before dawn, she rises and begins again.

July 15, 1518 - Local physician Johannes Geiler is summoned to examine Frau Troffea. In his journal, he writes: "The woman dances as though possessed by a force not her own. Her eyes show terror, yet her limbs will not obey her pleas to stop." By afternoon, three more women join her in the uncontrolled dancing.

July 22, 1518 - City records document 34 people now dancing day and night in the summer heat. The Strasbourg City Council meets in emergency session. Believing the affliction might be caused by "hot blood," they decide the dancers need to expel the sickness by dancing more. They clear the grain market and guildhalls, hire musicians, and construct a wooden stage.

August 1, 1518 - The epidemic reaches its peak. Municipal records show that up to 400 people are now caught in the grip of the dancing mania. Strasbourg's Council of Elders documents: "Many dance until they fall unconscious. Some have broken ribs from falling. At least fifteen persons perish daily from exhaustion."

August 3, 1518 - Sebastian Brant, a prominent humanist in Strasbourg, writes in his private correspondence: "I witnessed a woman dance until blood soaked through her shoes. When finally her heart gave out, another immediately took her place, as though the madness passed from the dead to the living."

August 7, 1518 - Physician Paracelsus, traveling through the region, observes the phenomenon. In his medical texts, he later notes: The afflicted move not with joy but with expressions of fear and despair. Their limbs twist until joints visibly separate. Some cry for mercy from God even as their bodies refuse to obey their minds.

August 12, 1518 - Church officials, initially reluctant to intervene in what some considered demonic possession, finally act. Father Matthias Weinsberger records in church documents: "We performed exorcisms on seven of the most afflicted dancers. While the holy words were spoken, their bodies convulsed more violently, as though demons fought to remain. One woman's back arched so severely we feared it would snap.

August 15, 1518 - Strasbourg's magistrate Hans Virdung notes in city records: "The dancers' faces contort in agony, yet none can cease. When restrained by ropes or chains, their struggling causes greater injury. Several have chewed through their tongues, creating a horrific scene as they dance with bloodied mouths, unable to scream."

The city's authorities, desperate to contain the horror, eventually transport the dancers to a shrine dedicated to St. Vitus, hoping for divine intervention. They are isolated in mountain shrines and prayed over by monks.

August 24, 1518 - A letter from Strasbourg merchant Christoph Heidenreich to his business partner in Nuremberg reveals the psychological impact: The city lies under a pall of dread. Households bar their doors at night, fearing the contagion. Mothers tie their children to beds, terrified they will join the dancers. I myself have witnessed a neighbor of twenty years succumb—her eyes recognized me even as her body jerked and twisted against her will.

August 30, 1518 - Court physician Johannes Wehinger documents attempted treatments: "We have bled the dancers, applied hot irons to draw out vapors, forced them to consume mixtures of rare herbs. Nothing halts their movements. When physically exhausted beyond measure, they collapse, only to rise and dance again when strength returns. It is as though their bodies are no longer their own.

By early September, the dancing gradually subsides. The final death toll remains debated, but contemporary accounts suggest between 50 and 400 people died from heart attacks, strokes, and exhaustion.

The regional context adds another layer of terror to this event. Strasbourg had suffered repeated famines in the years prior. The spring of 1518 brought widespread crop failures, and with them, malnutrition and social instability. The populace lived in constant fear of disease, with painful memories of the Black Death that had ravaged the region repeatedly. Some historians believe this background of collective trauma created the psychological conditions for mass hysteria. What makes this event uniquely disturbing is how it turned the victims' own bodies into instruments of torture. Unlike plagues where victims could at least rest as death approached, the dancers remained in constant, painful motion until their final moments—fully conscious of their plight but powerless to stop it.

Centuries later, the dancing plague of 1518 remains one of history's most thoroughly documented cases of mass psychogenic illness. Modern theories range from ergot poisoning (fungus that grows on rye) to stress-induced psychosis following years of famine and disease. Some neurologists now suggest it may have been an outbreak of sydenham's chorea, a disorder that causes involuntary movements following streptococcal infections.

What makes this event truly chilling is not just its inexplicable nature but how thoroughly it was recorded in municipal records, physician accounts, and personal correspondence. These people didn't simply imagine they were dancing—they really danced themselves to death, powerless to stop as their own bodies betrayed them in a most public and terrifying way.