Research suggests new cause of Bertolt Brecht death
German playwright Bertolt Brecht may have died due to an undiagnosed childhood illness, new research claims.
After looking through medical records, University of Manchester professor Stephen Parker found Brecht suffered from rheumatic fever as a child.
Documents showed the illness attacked his heart and motorneural system, triggering chronic heart failure.
There has long been speculation about Brecht's sudden 1956 death, officially attributed to a heart attack.
Rheumatic fever was a little understood condition in the early 1900s.
As a result, the future poet and theatre director was simply labelled a nervous child with an enlarged heart.
But records show Brecht, born in Bavaria in 1898, also suffered from Sydenham's chorea, a disease linked to rheumatic fever.
Further research showed his condition was compounded by urological complaints....
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After looking through medical records, University of Manchester professor Stephen Parker found Brecht suffered from rheumatic fever as a child.
Documents showed the illness attacked his heart and motorneural system, triggering chronic heart failure.
There has long been speculation about Brecht's sudden 1956 death, officially attributed to a heart attack.
Rheumatic fever was a little understood condition in the early 1900s.
As a result, the future poet and theatre director was simply labelled a nervous child with an enlarged heart.
But records show Brecht, born in Bavaria in 1898, also suffered from Sydenham's chorea, a disease linked to rheumatic fever.
Further research showed his condition was compounded by urological complaints....