The Austrian-Hungarian writer and playwright Ödön von Horváth wrote Casimir and Caroline at the beginning of the 1930s, only a year before Hitler’s rise to power. The break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the economic crisis and the experience of the First World War were the main cause of the intensification of nationalist tendencies throughout Europe and of the fact that segregation based on ethnic, religious or any other affiliation became a legalised permanent feature. The social mood was represented by simple folks who were fed up with their ever-lasting existential issues and therefore willing to put the blame on someone else.
