COME-ON-A MY HAUS-ER
Let's say you're in Nuremberg, Germany on May 26th, 1828. Normal day, doing normal German stuff - eating pretzels, drinking beer, wearing Lederhosen - when suddenly a young man of about 16 approaches town square. Citizens say he looks "drunk or crazy." A shoemaker goes up to the boy who says "I want to be a soldier like my father," and repeats that phrase for days anytime he's spoken to. The boy hands over two letters addressed to a specific Calvary man. The boy is taken to him, but the soldier does not recognize the boy. The first letter, written by the boy's mother, says he is named Kaspar Hauser and he was born April 30, 1812. His father was a Calvary man who is now deceased. She could not take care of him and left him with a man. The second letter is from that man who says the boy knows basic reading and writing. The man can no longer care for the boy and says "keep him, or kill him." The handwriting on both letters looks strikingly the same. The boy is given paper and pencil and when asked his name he writes, Kaspar Hauser, thus beginning a mystery unsolved for almost 200 years.
Kaspar Hauser was taken to jail as a vagabond (common practice for the day.) He spent two months in the care of the jailer. He seemed in good health and physical condition, but possibly was intellectually impaired. He refused any food but bread and water. The town adopted the boy and raise funds for his care. Frederick Daumer, a school teacher, looked after the boy and discovered he had drawing talent.
As Kaspar began to learn German he told the story of his days prior to his arrival in Nuremberg. He lived in a cell not tall enough for him to stand in. He slept on a straw bed. He had two horse toys and a carved wooden dog. Each morning fresh bread and water had been placed by his bed. Sometimes the water tasted bitter and he fell asleep. When he woke his hair and nails were trimmed. Shortly before coming to Nuremberg a man visited him and refused to show his face. He taught Kaspar to write his name, and taught him to say "I want to be a calvary man as my father was."
From then on Kaspar Hauser bounced around from caretaker to caretaker - all saying he had a tendency to lie. After such a quarrel with Daumer he was found bleeding of a wound to his forehead. Kaspar Hauser's story was that a man attacked him at the outhouse and said "you still have to die before you leave the city of Nuremberg." Kaspar Hauser purported the attacker was the man who brought him to Nuremberg some years before. Many people believed Kaspar Hauser faked the attack for sympathy.
He was placed with Johann Biberbach, a school master. But again his caretaker called Kaspar Hauser out for lying, especially after Kaspar Hauser "accidentally" shot himself with a pistol. He claimed he climbed up on the stool to reach a high shelf, began to fall off, grabbed at what happened to be a wall mounted pistol to steady himself. The gun fired and Kaspar Hauser was wounded. Again this story was seen as a lie to gain attention, as the shot was suspiciously superficial.
In 1831 British Lord Stanhope took custody of Kaspar Hauser. Stanhope wanted to prove that Kaspar Hauser was the missing heir to the House of Baden. Stanhope promised to take Kaspar Hauser to England. He abandoned Kaspar's care to George Meyer (another school master,) and never took Kaspar to England as promised. Again Kaspar faced a strained relationship with yet another caretaker - one of them wrote he was "a smart scheming codger, a rogue, a good-for-nothing who ought to be killed."
Perhaps Kaspar Hauser took that assessment to heart. On December 14, 1833 Kaspar Hauser claimed to again be beset upon by an unknown assailant. This time Kaspar Hauser was stabbed in the chest. He claimed he'd received a note telling him to be in the garden - signed M. L. O. Police searched the garden and found the note. While suffering from his wound Kaspar Hauser muttered about "writing in pencil," leading people to believe he wrote the note then stabbed himself. Kaspar Hauser died 3 days later. There has never been any definitive way to prove who Kaspar Hauser really was or if his claims were true, or what outcome he sought if he indeed he were the architect of some scheme. In November 1996 blood found on clothing believed - but not proven to - belong to Kaspar Hauser was tested and did not prove he was a member of the House of Baden. Again, if the blood was not his, any "proof" would be moot. Chances are no one will ever uncover the truth. The mystery of Kaspar Hauser has been the subject of literature, film, ballet and musicals. His epitaph reads - here lies Kaspar Hauser - enigma of his time... mysterious in his death.
SOURCES :
Conradt, Stacey. "The Mysterious Life and Death of Kaspar Hauser." Mental Floss, 25 May, 2015.
Flowers, Ashley, host. "THE UNKNOWN : Kaspar Houser." Supernatural. Parcast, 6 January 2021.
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