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HAUSER, KASPAR

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 70 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HAUSER, KASPAR , a See also:German youth whose See also:life was remarkable from the circumstances of apparently inexplicable See also:mystery in which it was involved. He appeared on the 26th of May 1828, in the streets of See also:Nuremberg, dressed in the garb of a See also:peasant. and with such a helpless and bewildered See also:air that he attracted the See also:attention of the passers-by. In his See also:possession was found a See also:letter purporting to he written by a poor labourer, stating that the boy was given into his custody on the 7th of See also:October 1812, and that according to agreement he had instructed him in See also:reading. See also:writing, and the See also:Christian See also:religion, but that up to the See also:time fixed for relinquishing his custody he had kept him in See also:close confinement. Along with this letter was enclosed another purporting to be written by the boy's See also:mother, stating that he was See also:horn on the 3oth of See also:April 1812, that his name was Kaspar, and that his See also:father, formerly a See also:cavalry officer in the 6th See also:regiment at Nuremberg, was dead. The See also:appearance, bearing, and professions of the youth corresponded closely with these See also:credentials. He showed a repugnance to all nourishment except See also:bread and See also:water, was seemingly ignorant of outward See also:objects, wrote his name as Kaspar Hauser, and said that he wished to be a cavalry officer like his father. For some time he was detained in See also:prison at Nuremberg as a vagrant, but on the 18th of See also:July 1828 he was delivered over by the See also:town authorities to the care of a school-See also:master, See also:Professor Daumer, who undertook to be his See also:guardian and to take the See also:charge of his See also:education. Further mysteriesaccumulated about Kaspar's See also:personality and conduct, not altogether unconnected with the See also:vogue in See also:Germany, at that time, of " See also:animal See also:magnetism," " See also:somnambulism," and similar theories of the occult and See also:strange. See also:People associated him with all sorts of possibilities. On the 17th of October 1829 he was found to have received a See also:wound in the forehead, which, according to his own statement, had been inflicted on him by a See also:man with a blackened See also:face. Having on this See also:account been removed to the See also:house of a See also:magistrate and placed under close surveillance, he was visited by See also:Earl See also:Stanhope, who became so interested in his See also:history that he sent him in 1832 to See also:Ansbach to be educated under a certain Dr See also:Meyer. After this he became clerk in the See also:office of See also:Paul See also:John See also:Anselm von See also:Feuerbach, See also:president of the See also:court of See also:appeal, who had begun to pay attention to his See also:case in 1828; and his strange history was almost forgotten by the public when the See also:interest in it was suddenly revived by his receiving a deep wound on his See also:left See also:breast, on the 14th of See also:December 1833, and dying from it three or four days afterwards.

He affirmed that the wound was inflicted by a stranger, but many believed it to be the See also:

work of his own See also:hand, and that he did not intend it to be fatal, but only so severe as to give a sufficient colouring of truth to his See also:story. The affair created a See also:great sensation, and produced a See also:long See also:literary agitation. But the whole story remains somewhat mysterious. See also:Lord Stanhope eventually became decidedly sceptical as to Kaspar's stories, and ended by being accused of contriving his See also:death I In 183o a pamphlet was published at See also:Berlin, entitled Kaspar Hauser nicht unwahrscheinlich ein Betruger; but the truthfulness of his statements was defended by Daumer, who published Mitteilungen fiber Kaspar Hauser (Nuremberg, 1832), and Enthullungen iiber Kaspar Hauser (See also:Frankfort, 1859) ; as well as Kaspar Hauser, sein Wesen, See also:seine Unschuld, &c. (See also:Regensburg, 18i3), in See also:answer to Meyer's (a son of Kaspar's See also:tutor) Authentische Mitteilungen uber Kaspar Hauser (Ansbach, 1872). Feuerbach awakened considerable psychological interest in the case by his pamphlet Kaspar Hauser, Beispiel eines Verbrechens am Seelenleben (Ansbach, 1832), and Earl Stanhope also took See also:part in the discussion by See also:publishing Materialen zur Gesch'ichte K. Hausers (See also:Heidelberg, 1836). The theory of Daumer and Feuerbach and other pamphleteers (finally presented in 1892 by See also:Miss See also:Elizabeth E. See also:Evans in her Story of Kaspar Hauser from See also:Authentic Records) was that the youth was the See also:crown See also:prince of See also:Baden, the legitimate son of the See also:grand-See also:duke See also:Charles of Baden, and that he had been kidnapped at See also:Karlsruhe in October 1812 by minions of the countess of Hochberg (morganatic wife of the grand-duke) in See also:order to secure the See also:succession to her offspring; but this theory was answered in 1875 by the publication in the See also:Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung of the See also:official See also:record of the See also:baptism, See also:post-mortem examination and See also:burial of the See also:heir supposed to have been kidnapped. See Kaspar Hauser and sein badisches Prinzentum (Heidelberg, 1876).. In 1883 the story was again revived in a Regensburg pamphlet attacking, among other people, Dr Meyer; and the sons of the ,latter, who was dead, brought an See also:action for See also:libel, under the German See also:law, to which no See also:defence was made; all the copies of the pamphlet were ordered to be destroyed. The See also:evidence has been subtly analyzed by See also:Andrew See also:Lang in his See also:Historical Mysteries (1904), with results unfavourable to the " romantic " version of the story.

Lang's view is that possibly Kaspar was a sort of See also:

ambulatory automatist," an instance of a phenomenon, known by other cases to students of psychical abnormalities, of which the characteristics are a See also:mania for straying away and the persistence of delusions as to identity; but he inclines to regard Kaspar as simply a " See also:humbug " The " authentic records " purporting to confirm the See also:kidnapping story Lang stigmatizes as " worthless and impudent rubbish." The evidence is in -.ay case in See also:complete confusion.

End of Article: HAUSER, KASPAR

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