Did Cholera “Force” the Reform of Urban Water Infrastructure? Lessons from Nineteenth-Century Berlin

Abstract

This study of Berlin’s nineteenth-century hydrological reconfiguration challenges the popular narrative that Europe’s recurrent cholera epidemics after 1831 motivated an efficient and scientific path to safe tap water supplies and sanitary sewers. Analysis of contemporary discourse reveals that the causal link between cholera and water infrastructure reform is weak and ambiguous, with aesthetic and industrial concerns taking precedence. Far from prompting effective action, miasmatic frameworks and the limited proto-epidemiological tools of the pre-bacteriological era led to inefficient and sometimes counterproductive approaches, potentially worsening urban mortality. Understanding Western Europe’s sanitary past provides important insights into the ongoing struggle for urban sanitation in today’s developing world.