The story of Kaspar Hauser - the man who came out of nowhere

There are many stories of children disappearing without a trace. Much less often, they appear out of nowhere, as happened on May 26, 1828 in the German city of Nuremberg. There, a teenager who looked to be 16-17 years old was found in the market square. The boy did not remember his name or where he came from. Because of this, all attempts by the townspeople to help him came to a standstill.

A shoemaker named Weichmann, who lived next to Unshlitt Square, met a strange boy. He was going to sit with a friend over a glass of beer, but on the way the men came across a stranger who was acting as if he was drunk. The teenager made a sign that he wanted to say something, and the shoemaker and his friend decided to help him.

With difficulty choosing his words, the boy asked how to get to the suburb of Neue Torstrasse. Weichmann asked his friend to wait, and he himself walked along the street with the stranger, wanting to see him off. But after taking ten steps, the young man stopped and handed the shoemaker an envelope. It was written: "To the commander of the 4th squadron of the 6th light cavalry regiment. Nuremberg."

The boy seemed unsure what to do with the letter. So Weichmann decided to change his plans. Instead of continuing on his way, he took the stranger to the nearest city guard post and handed him over to the soldiers. The soldiers, in turn, read the address on the envelope and decided to take the teenager to the house of the commander, Herr Friedrich von Wessenig, who lived in the suburbs.

Later, Nuremberg police president Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach emphasized that several serious mistakes had been made from the very beginning. Because of this, the case of Kaspar Hauser, as the teenager was later called, became extremely confusing. For example, the soldiers at the post did not write down the name of the shoemaker. As a result, his testimony appeared from nowhere and was full of contradictions.

According to one version, Weichmann was unable to find out from the boy where he came from, and according to another, when asked "Where did you come from?", Kaspar Hauser answered "From Regensburg." The city's police chief von Feuerbach himself saw the boy only two months after his appearance. The young man explained himself with gestures and fragments of phrases, and answered most questions with "I don't know" and "I want to be a cavalryman like my father." It was clear from his face that he uttered these phrases automatically, perhaps without understanding their meaning.

After the first conversation, the policeman-president decided that the shoemaker Weichmann had made up most of the story about the foundling. He probably took Kaspar for a moron and simply led him by the hand to the city guard post, and hurried to his friend who was waiting for him. The official even doubted that Kaspar had been found on the square. For some reason, the young man was unsteady on his feet and seemed unable to walk even ten steps on his own. Would he have been able to walk a few streets to the post?

But let's return to Herr Friedrich von Wessenig, to whose house the soldiers brought the young man. Kaspar Hauser entered the mansion without taking off his hat, and when asked what he wanted, he simply replied: "I want to be a cavalryman, like my father." He also added that since he was sent here, he would definitely not go anywhere else.

The servant who spoke to Kaspar recalled that he looked exhausted, hungry and scared. He was constantly crying and muttering something. The compassionate footman asked his wife to bring something to eat from the kitchen. The young man was offered meat and beer. He pounced on the food greedily, but after a moment he spat it out with a grimace of disgust. However, he ate with appetite when the meat and beer were replaced with black bread and plain water.

Apart from the stupid phrase "I want to be a cavalryman like my father," the guest said nothing more. Since von Wessenig was not at home, Kaspar was taken to the stable, where he was offered to rest on a pile of straw. The servant was afraid to leave the eccentric in the house, rightly judging that he could be a madman or a savage. But Kaspar was satisfied with his bed - he lay down in the stable and immediately fell asleep.

A few hours later, the officer returned home and was escorted to his guest. Von Wessenig tried to wake him up, but he did not respond to either shouting or pushing or slapping. He did not wake up even when the servant and the owner lifted him under the arms and tried to get him to his feet. It took half an hour to bring Kaspar to his senses.

When he awoke, he was delighted by the sight of the gallant officer. Instead of greeting him, Kaspar laughed happily, touched the hilt of von Wessenig's saber with his hand and whispered: "That's what I would like to be." But the military man immediately brought him back to earth, saying that he was too short for the cavalry and would probably be good for the infantry.

The young man was very upset by this and began to babble: "No, no, not in the infantry... I want to be this...". When the officer asked him what his name was, the boy did not answer, but he did say that his guardian had forbidden him to give his name. He also added: "My guardian advised me to always take off my hat and say 'Your Grace'".

Later, when giving evidence, von Wessenig said that the young man behaved like a little boy or a moron. His behavior was in no way consistent with his teenage years. That day, the officer was tired of communicating with the young man who spoke in stereotypes. At 8 p.m., he ordered him to be taken to the police station. Kaspar, who could barely move his legs, was taken to the police station.

At the police station they shouted at the guy, trying to bring him to his senses. But he kept saying, "I want to be a cavalryman like my father" and "Take me home." The police were at a loss. There was no evidence of a crime in the guy's actions, he did not give his name, and it was completely unclear what to do with him next.

Eventually the police chiefs felt sorry for the boy. They stopped shouting and gave him meat and beer. An attempt to feed Kaspar ended the same way - he grimaced and spat. He had another dinner of black bread and a glass of water. When Kaspar saw a coin with a horse in the policeman's hands, he perked up. The boy was asked to read "Our Father" and it turned out that he knew the prayer.

Not expecting success, the police placed an inkwell with a pen and a sheet of paper in front of the young man. He thought for a moment, and then wrote on the paper: "Kaspar Hauser." Thus, the strange foundling got a name. For the night, the young man was taken to a tower that served as a temporary prison for vagrants and thieves. It was not far to go, but the young man had difficulty getting there.

In the morning, Kaspar Hauser was examined and his details were recorded in the report. The young man was wearing a black felt hat, a black silk scarf, a shirt made of coarse material, a simple colorful waistcoat and a cheap peasant jacket. The boy's legs were covered in altered gray trousers, similar to part of a huntsman's uniform. On his feet were heavy boots, studded with nails. Their toes were cut off, since the shoes were clearly too small for the young man.

In the pockets of the jacket lay a handkerchief with the initials K. H. embroidered on it, several colorful scraps of cloth, and a couple of pocket prayer books. Later, Kaspar's clothes, like most of his belongings, were burned, considered old trash. This enraged the police president von Feuerbach.

Yes, the boy also had two letters with him. One of them was addressed to "His Excellency the Captain of the Cavalry" and contained a request to accept the boy into service. Attached to it was a note from the boy's mother. She wrote that her son's name was Kasper, that he had been baptized, and at the age of 17 he was to go to Nuremberg, to the Sixth Light Cavalry Regiment, where his father served.

After that, it was wrong to keep the boy in a cell with criminals. Kaspar was given shelter in the home of the city prison warden Andreas Hiltel. The experienced jailer kept an unnoticed eye on his guest, but he behaved unusually calmly. During the day, he sat with his back to the wall, his legs stretched out on the floor and staring into space, and at night, he slept soundly. He ate as usual - black bread and water.

After some time, Dr. Daumer volunteered to take care of the foundling. On July 18, 1828, he received permission from the mayor Jacob Friedrich Binder to take Kaspar to his home. Before this, the mayor insisted on a medical examination of the young man. Dr. Preu, having examined Kaspar, made a strange conclusion:

Kaspar Hauser moved into Daumer's house. But Mayor Binder did not leave him alone. Several times a week he personally questioned the young man, trying to find out at least something about his life. Some things were indeed found out. In particular, the mayor found out that the letter from Kaspar's mother was a fake. Binder published the results of his work on July 14, 1828.

And then Kaspar Hauser became famous. Not only all of Europe, but also the New World started talking about him. Newspapers in New York, Philadelphia and Boston wrote about Kaspar. Journalists wondered who the strange guy from Nuremberg really was. The theme of "Forest Children" has always been popular in Europe. They were found in the forests and had no experience of living in human society. Many believed that Kaspar was one of them. There were also suggestions that the guy was an illegitimate offspring of a royal family.

Kaspar lived quite well, especially considering his simple tastes in food and unpretentiousness in clothing. He quickly found a common language with Dr. Daumer, who was only twelve years older. But on October 17, 1829, something terrible happened. While the doctor was away, a man in black clothes burst into Kaspar's house. In his hands he held a large butcher's knife, but for some unknown reason he never used it.

The murderer hit Kaspar on the head with something, shouting: "You must die before you leave Nuremberg!" After that, the young man lost consciousness. The doctor's household found the young man covered in blood on the floor. The criminal could not be found. Two years later, on June 15, 1831, Kaspar, a guest at von Feuerbach's, said that he had once again communicated with strange strangers in black.

They came when the boy was alone at home, writing at the table. Two men entered the room and asked him what he was writing. He replied that it was his autobiography. The visitors asked him a few questions and left without causing harm. They also tried to find these people according to Kaspar's description, but the search was unsuccessful.

Kaspar Hauser met his killer on December 14, 1833. In a city park, he was approached by a stranger who took him to a secluded place, supposedly to hand over an important document. There, the man stabbed the young man several times in the chest with a long knife and disappeared. The wounded Kaspar himself came home and told what had happened. Two doctors who were called to him found his four wounds harmless.

Kaspar then led the police to the scene, wrote statements for the magistrate, and was interrogated several times. The young man was even accused of cutting himself with a knife to attract attention to himself. But Kaspar grew worse and worse, and on December 17, 1833, he died. An autopsy showed that one of the wounds was fatal. A long, thin blade pierced the lung, passed through the pericardium, and entered the abdominal cavity. Surprisingly, Kaspar did not die immediately.

The autopsy revealed several other remarkable facts. Kaspar Hauser's brain and lungs were too small for his age. But his liver was unusually large. On December 28, he was buried in the presence of many people. King Ludwig of Bavaria offered a reward of ten thousand guilders for the capture of the murderer, but the crime remained unsolved.

The mystery of Kaspar Hauser is still controversial: was he the heir of a noble family, the victim of a conspiracy, or simply a talented hoaxer? Who do you think he really was?