Ödön von Horváth (1901-1938)

Death: 1st June 1938
Location: Heiligenstädter Friedhof, Döbling, Vienna, Austria
Cause of death: Hit by a falling branch and killed during a thunderstorm on the Champs Élysées, Paris
Photo taken by:   Toanke
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German-language playwright. Important topics in Horváth's works were popular culture, politics and history. He especially tried to warn of the dawn of fascism and its dangers.
In 1931, he was awarded the Kleist Prize. In 1933, with the beginning of the Nazi regime in Germany, he relocated to Vienna. In 1938, when Austria was annexed to Germany, he emigrated to Paris. There, Horváth, who lived in fear of being struck by lightning all his life, was hit by a falling branch and killed during a thunderstorm on the Champs Élysées, opposite the Théâtre Marigny. 
Ödön von Horváth was buried in Saint-Ouen cemetery in northern Paris but his remains were transferred to Heiligenstädter Friedhof in Austria in 1988 on the 50th anniversary of his death.

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