Britannica
Sources used in this answer
What illness caused Rainer Maria Rilkeās death in 1926?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Austro-German poet and writer Rainer Maria Rilke, 1902.
Rainer Maria Rilke died on December 29, 1926, due to a rare and incurable form of leukemia.1
Although he had been in declining health since 1923, the specific nature of his illness was not diagnosed until just a few weeks before his death at a sanatorium near Lake Geneva.1