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The mystery of Kaspar Hauser
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One day in 1828, a plainly dressed, bewildered-looking youth turned up in the streets of NA?rnberg, carrying two letters addressed to the authorities. One was from a labourer who claimed to have guarded him for the past sixteen years, albeit in conditions of close confinement; the other purported to be from his natural mother, stating that his deceased father had been a cavalry officer. The boy gave his name as
Kaspar Hauser
, but he was unable to tell anyone where he came from, shunned all nourishment except for bread and water and seemed to lack all knowledge of external objects. His appearance caused an immediate sensation in the local press; this soon spread across Germany and beyond, fuelled by the burgeoning interest in psychology and the abnormal. There were all kinds of wild speculations as to his origins: one theory that was particularly popular was that he was the eldest son of Grand Duke Carl Ludwig of Baden, who had been kidnapped by order of his stepmother, though this seemed to be contradicted by evidence that the child in question had died in infancy, and was conclusively disproved by DNA tests carried out in 1997. In due course Kaspar was educated and proved to be highly intelligent and creative. He moved to Ansbach in 1831, becoming clerk to the president of the court of appeal. Two years later, just as he seemed to be falling out of the limelight, he met his violent death there. His murderer was never found, adding a final unsettling mystery to his life story: many suspected that he had died by his own hand. Much has been written about him since, little of it conclusive.
A highly effective fictionalization of the story by the Jewish author Jakob Wassermann, which was once among the most widely read German novels, is the most rewarding book on the subject Other useful information
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Germany,
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