Deadly Beard

Hey, Johanna.

Hello, Amanda.

Random question.

But have you ever been to the Iowa State Fair?

Oh, I have not.

I really would like to go one day.

I am a big fan of state and county fairs in general.

I would love to go.

Yes.

Me too, especially to just eat through all of the fried everything.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

I want to see some butter sculptures.

Yes.

Sign me up.

Absolutely.

And the reason I ask about this is because I recently learned that at the Iowa State Fair,

they have a lot of beard-growing contests.

Like facial hair.

Yeah.

Okay.

So some, then there's a bunch of different categories.

I think there's like a manicured mustache category.

There's a most historical beard category.

But the one that I was most intrigued by and most, I guess, impressed by was just straight up

the longest beard.

So the person with the longest beard wins.

Man.

I just have to say there truly is something for everyone.

The Iowa State Fair and state fairs in general.

But how long was the winning longest beard?

Estonishingly.

The most recent winner.

So this past year, 2025, his name is Harold Stevenson.

His beard was 28 inches long.

So over two feet long.

That is wild.

Do we know how long does it take to grow a beard that long?

So just from a very unscientific survey of the interviews that Iowa Public Radio did with the contestants,

it seemed like two years was a good amount of time to grow a long beard.

And apparently these, of course, are like very difficult to maintain.

So the winner of one national beard championship from a couple of years ago said that he spends two hours a day.

Doing manicuring, brushing, oiling the beard to keep it nice and moist.

It's like true Rapunzel behavior right there.

Absolutely.

Beauty is pain or beauty is work, I guess.

No pain, no gain.

But I do want to say that this is not all like sunshine and roses here because while a long beard can win you a lot of fame and fortune,

it can also be dangerous.

And the story I want to tell you today is about a beard that was in fact downright deadly.

Deadly?

What a tease.

I'm Johanna Mayer and I'm Amanda McGowan.

And this is Atlas Obscura, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

And today we are examining the only known case of death by beard.

That is after this.

Okay, so I want to start here by showing you a photo.

Okay, can you see this photo?

Sure can.

Great.

What are you seeing here?

Oh boy.

Okay, so first of all, it looks big.

It looks like it's perhaps a life-size statue of a man.

It looks like it's carved kind of into a relief, like into a block.

The man looks sprightly.

He's like trim and has his hands on his hips and looks like he's feeling himself.

And of course, the absolute central aspect of this photo is hanging down all the way to the ground

beyond his feet is what appears to be a quite luscious beard.

Yeah, it's a beautifully carved beard.

As you mentioned, it goes all the way down to his feet.

It kind of splits into two halves and it has this beautiful wave to it.

Yes.

Yes.

What is the statue of Amanda?

Where did this come from?

Okay, so this statue is on the side of a church building.

It's, you know, like kind of a relief in the side as you pointed out.

And it's in this little town in Austria called Brownau in.

So Brownau is a town on the river Inn, which is where it gets its name from.

Today, unfortunately, the town is mostly well known for being the birthplace of Hitler.

But this fellow on the wall lived many, many centuries before that in the 1500s.

So this is a real person?

This statue?

Is a real person, even though he has a kind of fairy tale.

Yeah, totally.

This is a real guy.

His name was Hans Steininger.

And he was the mayor of Brownau Amin in the 1560s.

And he was apparently a very, very popular and well regarded mayor.

But as you can see, his main calling card was this like fantastic beard that he had.

Incredible long.

Definitely a statement piece.

His beard was around two meters long.

So over six feet.

He would have put all those Iowa state fair competitors just shame.

He would have cleaned up the contest absolutely.

And supposedly it was so long that he didn't usually let it drag on the ground.

And he was walking around.

He would kind of roll it up and stick it into his pocket.

Practicality.

Oh, man, that would be such a good party trick to be able to pull your beard out of your pocket and let it unfurl.

Yeah.

Okay.

So clearly this guy had pretty strong sense of personal style.

Undeniably.

Was there any other reason that he wanted to grow his beard out this long?

Or it was truly just like a statement.

So I was fascinated to learn as I was digging through some journal articles online that at the time Steininger was alive in the Holy Roman Empire,

which Austria was a part of.

Beards were definitely a sort of status symbol.

They were affiliated with the nobility.

And I also think they were a symbol of masculinity.

Yeah.

Evidently.

I guess there was a famous military advisor at the Habsburg court who had like Hans this floor length beard.

And he told people at least that he could use it to lift up an anvil.

A symbol of strength and manliness, I guess.

And that article that I was reading about this also mentioned our friend Hans because apparently his beard was so long and luscious that the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire had granted him nobility status because of his beard.

What?

Yeah.

So it was that good that this beard was that good that it made him a lord essentially.

I have to say just love that there's like a whole body of scholarly work about the significance of Beards during this period of time.

That is crazy.

Yes.

Thank goodness for the internet.

Something I say to myself at least once a day.

But yeah.

And I mean, as you can see, Hans milked this beard for all it was worth.

He got quite a bit out of it.

But the beard would also end up being his downfall quite literally.

I might have some suspicions, but what happened to poor Hans?

On September 20th, 1567, this massive fire broke out in the town of Browne-Aumin.

And there was chaos everywhere, you know, everyone's running around trying to escape, trying to get out of their homes.

And Hans was one of these people.

He was apparently in a building.

He was trying to get out very quickly to escape the fire.

So he was running down the stairs.

Oh, no.

And as you may remember, I said before that he didn't usually have the beard out.

He would roll it up and put it in this pocket for practicality.

Because everything was so crazy during this fire.

He either forgot to tuck the beard away or it flew out of this pocket.

Oh, no.

And he ended up tripping on it and falling down the stairs.

And he broke his neck and died.

Oh, my God.

Poor Hans.

This is a true story.

This is a true story.

This is a true story.

Well, this absolutely feels like a cartoon.

This is something that would happen in a cartoon.

Absolutely.

It has a kind of like fairy tale story.

And I mean, from what I can tell, it seems to be a true story.

I'm sure some of the details have been embellished or...

A bit apocryphal.

Yeah.

So many things are.

Yeah.

Poor Hans.

Poor Hans.

And according to this one book that I came across, a book of medical curiosities, they said

that this is the only known case of death by beard.

I mean, I simply can't imagine what another one could be.

Yeah.

Another...

Another scenario.

Oh, man.

But one kind of funny thing about this is that even though Hans died.

His beard lives on in a way.

Uh...

Excuse me?

What exactly do you mean by that?

So...

Or do you just mean it's like in the statue?

I don't just mean that.

It is in the statue, but the beard itself has been preserved.

It didn't burn up in the fire?

No.

So after Hans's death, somehow they recovered his body.

The family clipped the beard because they wanted something to remember him by, I suppose.

And it was kept as a treasured family heirloom until 1911.

Whoa.

When the family gave it to the city of Brownow, I'm in, along with some of Hans' documents.

And maybe even a diary.

It seemed different from something that I read.

And if you visit today, you can actually see the beard on display in the regional museum in town.

And if you scroll down, there is an image of it that you can look at.

If you want to try it at the same time.

I, okay, let me try.

All right.

So it's in a glass case, a long glass case.

Looks like it's about seven or eight feet long.

And I don't know what to say.

You know what it looks like?

It looks like two extremely long dreadlocks.

It does.

It is split.

Like it is in the statue.

But yeah, it just looks like the world's longest dreadlocks kind of fraying at the end.

Yeah.

And I personally am shocked that hair can survive for 450 years.

And again, I mean, this kind of reminds me of what you were asking earlier about whether this is a true story.

Supposedly, the museum has written testimony from multiple dermatologists to a test in the back.

But this is a real artifact.

What?

I did reach out to the museum to see if they would talk to me about this.

But it was apparently not high on their priorities.

But I guess according to museum preservation experts online, all you have to do to care for is to kind of manage the humidity and the temperature.

And you can keep your beard for as long as you want.

Just in case anyone at home is listening to this.

I was state fair competitors take note.

It's funny.

I do feel like there is something about hair preservation that has...

It's been a thing for centuries upon centuries, you know, from like parents keeping a lock of their children's hair, like sniffing a lock of the hair of a loved one who was dying or something.

I guess just because it is like such a deeply personal part of your person.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Wow. So we can just go see this beard today.

Absolutely.

Yeah, it's at the regional museum in Brownow in.

And you can go check it out along with other documents related to Hans.

The history of the city.

Thank you for that extremely advocacy story today, Amanda.

Thank you.

I think we can say the moral of the story is two feet long is a solid map.

Maximum.

Yeah, no longer.

Any beard longer than that is hazardous.

Potentially desi.

Cosine.

Don't be the second case of death by beard.

That's right.

Or there will be an Alice.

No, not you.

Yes.

It's a point.

Our podcast is the co-production of Atlas Obscura and Sirius Exxon Podcasts.

The production team for this episode includes Dylan Thoris, Kelly McEvers, Doug Baldinger,

Camille Stanley, Johanna Mayer, Manola Morales, Jerome Campbell, Alexa Lim, Casey Holford,

and loose loving.

Our theme music is by Sam Tindall.

If you're digging our show, give us a good review and rating wherever you get your podcasts.

And make sure to follow us so you never miss an episode.

I'm Johanna Mayer, and I'm Amanda McGowan.

See you next time.

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