Kaspar Hauser's story is one of the most mysterious and romantic in European history. It recalls the story of the "man in the iron mask."
Forty-nine volumes of the criminal case did not shed light on either the mysterious life or the even more mysterious death of the "European orphan." Thousands of articles, books are devoted to his fate, and even Paul Verlaine dedicated poetry to him.
Numerous tourists flock to Ansbach, where Kaspar Hauser's days were recently established. Surprisingly, the mysteries surrounding this name only multiply. On the grave of the mysterious youth, the inscription was carved: “Here lies the mystery of the century. His birth was shrouded in mystery, and his death was also mysterious.
They first spoke of Kaspar Hauser in 1828, when a young man dressed in rags appeared in Nuremberg. He barely walked and stuck to the walls of the houses. Interrogation at the police station did not clarify the picture: the answer to all questions was only strange muttering.
The stranger behaved like a child, although he looked sixteen years old. He had no documents, but they found two letters in his pocket, where the alleged adoptive parents wrote that the baby was thrown to them, but because of poverty, they can no longer take care of him.
City of Nuremberg. 19th century photo.
Having received the sheet and paper, the teenager scrawled only two words uncertainly - Kaspar Hauser. The young man responded to all requests to write at least something else with a complete lack of understanding. The impression was that he grew up far from people: he did not understand the meaning of the questions asked and did not know the obvious things. Even the fire he saw for the first time, trying to touch the flame of the candle with his hand, burnt himself and wept. After interrogation, which gave nothing, Kaspar was subjected to medical examinations and expert examination.
It was found that he is not faking and really does not understand what is happening. In addition, the doctors suggested that the teenager had been kept in terrible conditions all his life: in a small room without light, through which he could only move on all fours. And judging by the fact that his stomach took only bread and water, this was what he ate.
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The President of the Royal Court of Justice in Ansbach, the prominent German criminologist Paul von Feuerbach, became seriously interested in the case of Kaspar Hauser. He drew attention to the traces of vaccinations on the body of a young man and suggested that his parents were hardly commoners - in those years it was a rarity and a privilege of aristocrats. He also discovered superpowers in Kaspar: the young man could catch the faintest smells, see in the dark, and had an amazing intuition.
Taking care of Kaspar, the Nuremberg authorities transferred him to the care of Professor Daumer, thanks to whom the young man learned to speak, began to make progress in his studies, mastered playing musical instruments, became more sociable, and, finally, was able to tell about what was happening to him.
Kaspar Hauser (1812 - 1833).
From his words it became clear that he spent all the years as a prisoner alone. There was no window in the room where he spent all his life, no one spoke to him, only from time to time a man in a mask brought food. The same man taught Kaspar to write his name. One fine day he took the young man out of the dugout and ordered him to go into the city, while he himself left in an unknown direction. So Kaspar ended up in Nuremberg.
After Kaspar was found and socialized, his life was relatively calm. Everything changed after the forensic scientist von Feuerbach did not hypothesize that Caspar could be the crown prince: the son of the Grand Duke of Baden Karl and his wife, Duchess Stephanie de Beauharnais.
He could be replaced at birth or later for a very weak child who died. This was done in order to prevent Stephanie's children from accessing the throne. Because it was precisely the gentility of the “prisoner” that could explain such a careful observance of secrecy. If this was true, then the date of birth of Kaspar Hauser is September 29, 1812.
And from this moment new riddles begin. In 1829, the first attempt was made on the young man. The man, "whose face was black, as if covered with soot," hit him on the head and disappeared.
Interestingly, in this case, Casper's intuition did not disappoint. The attacker is hiding in the house, but the young man, even seeing him, feels the presence of this person and knows about the danger. Casper is hurt, but this time he will survive. The investigation was unsuccessful.
For a while, security is assigned to Kaspar. But the desire to find out about his origin was so great that on December 14, 1833, he agreed to go at night to the city park to meet with a complete stranger. But instead of the long-awaited information, Kaspar is stabbed with a dagger. With a serious injury, he returns home and for three days the doctors are fighting for his life, but to no avail.
Duke Ludwig of Bavaria appointed a thousand ducats for the head of Kaspar Hauser's killer, but they could not find the killer.
In memory of this amazing story, a monument was erected in Ansbach, representing the figures of two young men. One figure is a young man in rags, as Kaspar came to Nuremberg, the other is a respectable young man who was raised from a foundling. At the place of Kaspar's murder, a memorial stele was installed with an inscription in Latin, which literally translates as: "Here an unknown person died at the hands of an unknown person."
Monument to Kaspar Hauser "Child of Europe", the old center of Ansbach, Germany.
For a long time, three mysteries of Kasper Hauser do not give people peace.
The first riddle:
Who was Kaspar Hauser really?
Riddle two:
How did it happen that a person who lived in complete isolation from infancy was able to fully socialize? History knows many examples of children raised by animals who could not return to society.
Riddle three:
It was formulated by director Herzog, who directed the film "The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser"
Herzog was least of all interested in the mystery of the origin of his hero and the mystery of the murder. His story is about what society does to us, how it "drowns out" the individuality of a person, forcing him to dance to the same tune with others. In the case of Kaspar, in a few years he lost those amazing abilities that he had - an animal foreboding of danger, amazing hearing and intuition that always helped him out.
Engraving depicting Kaspar Hauser.
… It would seem that there are so many mysteries in this story that there is nothing to add to them. However, another one has recently appeared!
It turned out that the grave of the legendary youth is empty. There is evidence that the body was stolen almost immediately after the funeral. But this fact did not in any way reduce the flow of tourists. On the contrary, the mysterious story of the life and death of Kaspar Hauser continues to be of great interest.
He went down in history under different names and nicknames. He was called "the mysterious foundling" and the "European orphan", but the most interesting thing is that all his riddles have not yet been solved.
Author: Viktorya Nekrasova
