Ecological Conditions vs. Religious Denomination. Mortality Among Catholics and Lutherans in Nineteenth-Century Poznań Grażyna Liczbińska Published online: 11 October 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Introduction Many historical studies have concluded that there is a causal relationship between environmental conditions in urban areas, mostly access to a water-supply system or the presence of a sewage system, and the level of mortality, especially due to airborne and waterborne diseases (e.g., Budnik and Liczbińska 2006; Condran 1987; Condran and Crimmis-Gardner 1978; Kintner 1988; Knodel 1974; Landers 1992, 1993; Oris et al. 2004; Preston and van de Walle 1978; van Poppel and van der Heijden 1997; Vögele 1998; Wolleswinkel-van den Bosch et al. 1998, 2001). Watterson (1988) and Williams and Galley (1995) docu- mented the effect of poor sanitary conditions on infant mortality rates (IMRs) for England and Wales during the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. Woods et al. (1988, 1989), investigating infant mortality in cities in England and Wales of the same period, described the extremely high mortality caused by dysentery and diarrhoea related with poor sanitation as the ‘urban-sanitary-diarrhoeal effect.’ In nineteenth century France, Preston and van de Walle (1978) observed the fastest and greatest decline in mortality rates in Lyon, where a water-supply system to private houses and a sewage system were first constructed in the 1850s. In Marseille, contaminated water was used until 1898, and infant mortality remained high till the end of the century. A similar high frequency of deaths caused by lack of sewage systems and access to piped water has been documented for a number of other European cities, including Paris (Preston and van de Walle 1978), Berlin, London, Liverpool and Manchester (Burnett 1991; Knodel 1974; Landers 1993), Tilburg and other Dutch towns (van Poppel and van der Heijden 1997; Wolleswinkel-van den Bosch et al. 1997; 1998) and the Polish cities of Gdańsk (Budnik 2005; Budnik and Liczbińska 1997; Liczbińska 1999,) and Poznań (Budnik and Liczbińska 2005, 2006; Liczbińska 2009a, b). Condran and Crimmis-Gardner (1978) showed the introduction of sewerage and waterworks in U.S. cities during the last decade of the nineteenth century caused a decrease in mortality, notably from typhoid and diarrhoea. In large German towns at the beginning of the twentieth century Vögele (1998) found that sanitary reforms were the ‘catalytic agent’ helping to eliminate typhoid fever. While the relationship between mortality and ecological conditions, especially water-supply and sewage systems, is well documented in the literature, some authors stress the link may not be so direct. Van Poppel and van der Heijden (1997), for example, claim that there are many methodo- logical difficulties involved in assessing the impact of water quality on mortality level, and a number of other researchers have cited strong links not only between mortality rates and degree of urbanization and ecological conditions, but also between mortality measures and religious denomination (e.g., Liczbińska 2009a, b; Lindberg 1986; McQuillan 1999; O’Connell 1986; Schellekens and van Poppel 2006; van Poppel 1992; van Poppel et al. 2002; Wolleswinkel-van den Bosch et al. 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001). For example, in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century higher mortality measures were recorded for areas with a majority Catholic rather than Lutheran population (Wolleswinkel-van den Bosch et al. 1997, 1998, 2001). Similarly, in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Germany a higher G. Liczbińska (*) Faculty of Biology, Institute of Anthropology, Adam Mickiewicz University, ul. Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznań, Poland e-mail: grazyna@amu.edu.pl Hum Ecol (2011) 39:795–806 DOI 10.1007/s10745-011-9428-5