Nosferatu director F. W. Murnau’s skull reported stolen

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Sometimes the truth is more horrifying than fiction. The German news source Spiegel Online has reported that the grave of renowned German director F. W. Murnau, the man behind the silent classic NOSFERATU, has been robbed, and his skull was stolen. The investigators found wax residue that may have been left by the perpetrators and indicated that this was not the first time the family tomb had been broken into.

Some fear that this evidence indicates a possible occult connection, but who took the skull and for what purpose remains unknown.

Murnau died in 1931 as a result of a car crash in Santa Barbara on week before the opening of his film TABU. The whereabouts of his skull, which had been safely interred in Stahnsdorf until now, remain unknown, but this grisly crime is being investigated by German investigators. The cemetery administration is being forced to consider sealing the tomb or relocating Murnau's body.

Hopefully this crime is resolved as soon as possible, for everybody's sake. It's macabre acts like these that give horror fans a bad name, unnecessarily causing grief for the Murnau family and the Stahnsdorf public at large. We hope that Murnau's head is soon returned to its final resting place.