Tales from the Vienna Woods (play) Tales from the Vienna Woods (play) Tales from the Vienna Woods (, 1931) is a play by Austro-Hungarian writer Ödön von Horváth. It was premièred in Berlin in 1931 and has been filmed several times. Before the première, the German writer and playwright, Carl Zuckmayer nominated the play for the Kleist Prize, which it won, the most significant literary award of the Weimar Republic. The play's title is a reference to the waltz "Tales from the Vienna Woods" by Johann Strauss II. Horváth's play premièred at the Deutsches Theater, Berlin. Written in the late 1920s during the period of catastrophic
Vienna Woods oaks and hornbeams grow throughout the north of the Wienerwald forest; in the south are conifers, mostly pines and firs. The "Föhrenberge" (Pine Mountains) natural park is in the latter region. The Vienna Woods have probably been populated since the 8th century. Vienna forest is the royal hunting grounds since the 11th century to 1850. Under the influence of the Avars, a Slavic population settled here after the Völkerwanderung, which may account for village names such as Döbling, Liesing or Gablitz. From the 16th century onwards forestry was practised. Industrial development beginning circa 1840 encouraged increased settlement of the area.