[Observations on child mortality in the Middle Ages. Difficulties and possibilities of historical research]

The paper touches the problem which of the results of historical anthropology having aroused much attention over the past years require more scepticism than has usually been assumed, i.e. the function of the nurses during the Middle Ages and the different way of life of children and adolescents between birth and the age of fifteen. Subsequently, some examples are adduced to show during which centuries of the Middle Ages a fear of future diseases of the children was wide-spread and during which centuries contacts among men and children in the course of their early years were especially close.