RevDem Podcast · Review of Democracy

Did Fear of Vampires Inspire Early Scientific Inquiry? A Discussion with Ádám Mézes

·29 min·2 clips

Habsburg plague doctors accidentally created the contagious vampire myth we know today.

This episode of the RevDem Podcast features historian Ádám Mézes discussing vampire beliefs in the 18th-century Habsburg Empire and their influence on early scientific inquiry. Host Adrian Matus interviews Mézes, a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, whose research project is titled "Living with Vampires." Mézes specializes in the history of vampires, focusing on the cultural and administrative contexts of the Habsburg borderlands. The conversation centers on a 1732 definition of vampires as contagious "returning dead," created by Habsburg medical personnel sensitive to epidemic threats. Mézes explains that local Serbian and Romanian settlers held diverse beliefs, which German administrators often misunderstood through interpreters. The Orthodox Church had its own doctrine, viewing revenants as sinners trapped by excommunication. Imperial quarantine physician Johann Flückringer and other surgeons conducted dissections on multiple exhumed corpses suspected of vampirism. These investigations provided rare opportunities for comparative study of human decay, as fresh corpses were typically used for anatomical study. Mézes references administrative archives, autopsy reports, and remuneration invoices as key sources, noting a German surgeon who learned local languages to become a vampire expert. A key insight is that the contagious aspect of vampirism may have been amplified by administrators whose primary duty was to assess epidemic risks. The dissections allowed medics to gather empirical data on putrefaction under conditions mainstream science considered immoral or irrelevant. Mézes argues that this on-the-ground knowledge from gravediggers, soldiers, and surgeons preceded formal forensic science by centuries, with systematic body decomposition studies only emerging in the 20th century. He notes that local settlers used their autonomy and tax privileges as leverage to demand vampire executions from Habsburg authorities. The tone is academic and educational, structured as a detailed interview exploring historical methodology and source analysis. The style is conversational but dense with specific references to archival findings and historiographical debates. Listeners interested in the history of science, folklore, and the Enlightenment will find this episode compelling. Those seeking narrative storytelling or casual entertainment might find the discussion too specialized.

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