Ödön von Horváth, born in 1901 in Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia), first came to Murnau in 1920 with his parents and his brother Lajos for the summer. In 1924, the family moved into a newly built villa on Bahnhofstrasse, which was demolished in 1974. In Murnau, the writer drew crucial inspiration for his works. As a social and moral critic, he observed the "petty bourgeois" and researched their thoughts, feelings and actions. His well-known folk plays "Stories from the Vienna Woods" (1931), "Kasimir and Karoline" (1932) and "Faith, Love, Hope" (1933) were written in Murnau. The connection to Horváth's experiences in and around Murnau is particularly clear in his "Sports Fairy Tales" (1924), the comedy "The Beautiful View" (1926) and the folk play "Italian Night" (1930). He was also on friendly terms with the painter Gabriele Münter, as documented by a joint hike to the Fürstalm in 1929 and an oil sketch with numerous preliminary drawings from 1931. A Hitler Youth tent camp near Murnau is one of the settings of his novel “Youth Without God” (1937). After a confrontation with National Socialists in the Hotel Post, Horváth fled Murnau in 1933 and died in Paris in 1938. He is one of the most important German-speaking writers and playwrights of the 20th century. The Murnau Castle Museum shows the world's only permanent exhibition on Horváth. The Ödön von Horváth Society, founded in 2003, maintains the cultural heritage through regular events. Since 2013, the Ödön von Horváth Foundation has awarded the Ödön von Horváth Prize every three years.