10 Weirdest Deaths In History

Straddling the border of Austria and Germany is a little town called Braunau am Inn. Though it now sits on the Austrian side, it was part of Bavaria (now a German state) until 1779. Bavaria reclaimed it in 1809, only to cede it back to Austria in 1816. In 1889, it would become the birthplace of none other than the walking mound of human refuse known as Adolf Hitler.

Long before that, though, Braunau was presided over by one Hans Staininger. Staininger was the town's burgomaster, the chief magistrate. Essentially, he was the mayor, and Mayor Staininger had one very notable thing going for him: his luscious, rockin' beard. Yes, this man's face curtain was a magnificent 4.5 feet long. Absolutely glorious.

Until it wasn't, of course.

One day, in 1567, Hans Staininger was walking... somewhere. That hardly matters. What matters is that he tripped over his monstrous ZZ Top beard, fell to the ground, and broke his neck. You get that? The mayor of a town died after he tripped on his own beard and broke his neck.

It's hard to know how to feel about this death. It's sad, yes, but... maybe just trim your facial hair a bit? How 'bout it? One thing's for sure: this is only the second-worst bit of facial hair to come out of Braunau.