Kaspar Hauser
Kaspar Hauser The boy who's life was just as peculiar and mysterious as his death.
Could he have been a kidnapped prince or a brilliant scam artist.
You decide
On May 26 1828, a teenage boy appeared in the streets of Nuremberg, Germany. He carried a letter with him addressed to the captain of the 4th squadron of the 6th cavalry regiment, Captain von Wessenig. The anonymous author said that the boy was given into his custody as an infant on October 7th 1812 and that he instructed him in reading, writing and the Christian religion, but never let him "take a single step out of his house". The letter stated that the boy would now like to be a cavalryman "as his father was" and invited the captain either to take him in or to hang him.
There was another short letter enclosed that was supposedly from his mother to his prior caretaker. It stated that his name was Kaspar, that he was born on April 30th 1812 and that his father, a cavalryman of the 6th regiment, was dead.
A shoemaker named Weickmann took the boy to the house of Captain von Wessenig, where he would repeat only the words "I want to be a cavalryman, as my father was" and "Horse! Horse!" When pushed further to answer questions the boy would burst into tears or Proclaim the words "Don't know." He was taken to a police station, where he would write a name: Kaspar Hauser. He showed that he was familiar with money, could say some prayers and read a little, but he answered few questions and his vocabulary appeared to be rather limited. Because he provided no real background for himself, he was imprisoned as a homeless vagabond.
He spent the following two months in Luginsland Tower in Nuremberg Castle in the care of a jailer named Andreas Hiltel. He seemed quite healthy and approximately 16 years old, but appeared to be intellectually impaired. Mayor Binder, however, claimed that the boy had an excellent memory and was learning quickly. Various curious people visited him to his apparent delight. Strange thing is He refused all food except bread and water. Suggesting he really may have grown up in some sort of prison.
At first it was assumed that he was raised half-wild in forests, but during many conversations with Mayor Binder, Hauser eventually told a different version of his past life, which he later also wrote down in more detail. According to this story, for as long as he could remember he spent his life totally alone in a darkened cell about two metres long, one metre wide and one and a half high with only a straw bed to sleep on and two horses and a dog carved out of wood for toys.
He claimed that he found rye bread and water next to his bed each morning. Periodically the water would taste bitter and drinking it would cause him to sleep more heavily than usual. On such occasions, when he awakened, his straw was changed and his hair and nails were cut. Hauser claimed that the first Person he could remember ever was a mysterious man who visited him not long before his release, always taking great care not to reveal his face to him. This man, Hauser said, taught him to write his name by leading his hand. After learning to stand and walk, he was brought to Nuremberg. Furthermore, the stranger allegedly taught him to say the phrase "I want to be a cavalryman, as my father was" (in Old Bavarian dialect), but Hauser claimed that he did not understand what these words meant.
This Peculiar tale aroused great curiosity and made Hauser an object of international attention. Rumours arose that he was of princely parentage, possibly of Baden origin, but there were also those who saw him as an imposter
According to contemporary rumours, probably current as early as 1829, Kaspar Hauser was the hereditary prince of Baden who was born September 29 1812, and who, according to known history, died October 16th of the same year. It was alleged that this prince was switched with a dying baby and surfaced 16 years later as Kaspar Hauser in Nuremberg. In this case, his parents would have been Charles, Grand Duke of Baden and Stéphanie de Beauharnais, cousin by marriage and adopted daughter of Napoleon. Because Charles had no surviving male progeny, his successor was his uncle Louis, who was later succeeded by his half-brother, Leopold. Leopold's mother, the Countess of Hochberg, was the alleged culprit of the boy's captivity. The Countess was supposed to have disguised herself as a ghost, the "White Lady", when kidnapping the prince. Her motive evidently would have been to secure the succession for her sons.
In 1876, evidence was presented against this theory based on the official documents about the prince's emergency baptism, autopsy and burial. The Grand Duchess was too ill to be permitted to see her dead baby, in 1812, but the baby's father, grandmother, and aunt, with the ten Court physicians, the nurses and others, must have seen it, in death, and it is too absurd to suppose, on no authority, that they were all parties to the White Lady's plot. Furthermore, letters of the Grand Duke's mother, published in 1951, give detailed accounts of the child's birth, illness and death, corroborating the evidence against the alleged switch of babies.
In 2002, the Institute for Forensic Medicine of the University of Münster analyzed hair and body cells from locks of hair and items of clothing that belonged to Kaspar Hauser. The analysts took from the items used in the test six different DNA samples, all of which turned out to be identical, The DNA samples were compared to a DNA segment from a descendant in the female line of Stéphanie de Beauharnais. The sequences were not identical but the deviation observed is not large enough to exclude a relationship as the difference could be caused by a mutation. Or due to this being someone from many generations after his life time On the other hand, the relatively high similarity by no means proves the alleged relationship, as the "Hauser samples" showed a pattern that is common among the German population.
The House of Baden does not allow any medical examination of the remains of Stéphanie de Beauharnais or of the child that was buried as her son in the family vault
Further life in Nuremberg
The president of the Bavarian court of appeals, began to investigate the case. Then Hauser was formally adopted by the hole town of Nuremberg and money was donated for his upkeep and education. He was given into the care of Friedrich Daumer, a schoolmaster and speculative philosopher, who taught him various subjects and who thereby discovered his talent for drawing. He seemed to do very well in this environment. Daumer also subjected him to homeopathic treatments and magnetic experiments.
On October 17th 1829, Hauser did not come home to the table for lunch and was found in the cellar of Dahmer's house bleeding from a cut wound on the forehead. He asserted that while sitting on the privy in other word on the toilet,
The potty
The Iron thrown some might even say
He was all of a sudden attacked
Which you know could be a clue for him being of royal blood attack the young prince while on his throne all elves style. . .
(Freez awkwardly )
Ok ok bad joke moving on
The young boy was attacked and wounded by a hooded man who also threatened him with the words:
"You still have to die ere you leave the city of Nuremberg."
Hauser said that by the voice, he recognized the man as the one who had brought him to Nuremberg.
The authority's found through the boys blood trail that Hauser at first fled to the first floor where his room was, but then, instead of alerting his caretakers, he returned downstairs and climbed through a trap door into the cellar. Alarmed officials called for a police escort and transferred him to the care of Johann Biberbach, one of the municipal authorities. The alleged attack on Hauser also fueled rumours about his possible descent from Hungary, England or the House of Baden. Hauser's critics who see the boy as a fraud are of the opinion that he inflicted the wound on himself with a razor, which he then took back to his room before going to the cellar. He might have done so to arouse pity and thus escape suspicion for a recent quarrel with Daumer, who had come to believe that the boy had a tendency to lie.
On April 3rd 1830, a pistol shot went off in Hauser's room at the Biberbachs' house. His escort hurriedly entered the room and found him bleeding from a wound to the right side of his head. Hauser quickly revived and stated that he climbed on a chair to get some books, the chair fell and while trying to hold on to something he accidentally tore down the pistol hanging on the wall, causing the shot to go off. There are doubts whether the wound was actually caused by the shot and some authors associate the incident with a argument before hand in which, again, Hauser was accused of lying.
Could he have been trying to set up another attempted assassination and perhaps dropped the gun in the process?
Whatever the case, the municipal authorities In May 1830, transferred houser to the house of Baron von Tucher, who later also complained about Hauser's vanity and lies. Perhaps the sharpest judgment passed on Hauser was the one by Mrs. Biberbach, who said he was"full of vanity and spite" among many many other simulure characterizations for the young boy.
A British nobleman, Lord Stanhope, took an interest in Hauser and gained custody of him late in 1831. He spent a great deal of money attempting find out just where Houser had come from.. In particular, he paid for two visits to Hungary hoping to jog the boy's memory, as Hauser seemed to remember some Hungarian words and had once declared that the Hungarian Countess Matheny was his mother. Tho once there Hauser failed to recognize any buildings or monuments in Hungary. A Hungarian nobleman who had met Hauser later told Stanhope that he and his son had a good laugh when they met the strange boy and his Peculiar behavior. Stanhope later wrote that the complete failure of these inquiries led him to doubt Hauser's credibility.
I would like to note tho that the boys note said he was kept inside his hole life so it would be expected that he would not recognize any monuments or places in hungry. As well the man may have been embarrassed by the hungarian nobleman an his son which made him angry at the boy (just my two cents)
Moving on
In December 1831, he transferred Hauser to Ansbach, to the care of a schoolmaster named Johann Georg Meyer, and in January 1832, Stanhope left Hauser for good. Stanhope continued to pay for Hauser's living expenses but never made good on his promise that he would take him to England. After Hauser's death, Stanhope published a book in which he presented all known evidence against Hauser, taking it as his "duty to openly to confess that he had been deceived." Followers of Hauser suspect Stanhope of ulterior motives and of connections to the House of Baden, but history depicts him as a pious man and a seeker of truth.
Schoolmaster Meyer, a strict and pedantic man, disliked Hauser's many excuses and apparent lies and their relationship was thus rather strained. In late 1832, Hauser was employed as a copyist in the local law office. Still hoping that Stanhope would take him to England, he was very dissatisfied with his situation,
On December 9th 1833, Hauser had a serious argument with Meyer. Lord Stanhope was expected to visit Ansbach at Christmas and Meyer said that he did not know how he would face him.
Five days later, on December 14th 1833, Hauser came home with a deep wound in his left breast. He said that he was lured to the Court Garden and that a stranger stabbed him there while giving him a bag. When policeman Herrlein searched the Court Garden, he found a small violet purse containing a pencilled note written in "Spiegelschrift" or (mirror writing). The message read, in German:
"Hauser will be able to tell you quite precisely how I look and from where I am. To save Hauser the effort, I want to tell you myself from where I come _ _ . I come from from _ _ _ the Bavarian border _ _ On the river _ _ _ _ _ I will even tell you the name: M. L. Ö."
Hauser died of his wound on December 17th 1833.
Inconsistencies in Hauser's account led the Ansbach court of enquiry to suspect that he stabbed himself and invented a tale about being attacked. The note in the purse that was found in the Court Garden contained one spelling error and one grammatical error, both of which were typical for Hauser, who, on his deathbed, kept muttering incoherencies about "writing with pencil". Although he was very eager that the purse be found, he did not ask for its contents. The note itself was folded in a specific triangular form, just the way Hauser used to fold his letters, according to Mrs. Meyer. Forensic doctors agreed that the wound could indeed be self-inflicted. Many authors believe that he wounded himself in a bid to revive public interest in his story and to convince Stanhope to fulfil his promise to take him to England, but that he stabbed himself more deeply than planned.
A 1928 medical study supported the view that Hauser accidentally stabbed himself too deeply, while a 2005 forensic analysis argued that it seems "unlikely that the stab to the chest was inflicted exclusively for the purpose of self-damage, but both a suicidal stab or a homicidal act aka (assassination) cannot be definitely ruled out.
Hauser was buried in the city cemetery in Ansbach, where his headstone reads, in Latin, "Here lies Kaspar Hauser, riddle of his time. His birth was unknown, his death mysterious. 1833." A monument to him was later erected in the Court Garden which reads "Here a mysterious one was killed in a mysterious manner."
After Hauser's death, it was claimed further that he was murdered, again because he was the prince. Tho there have been many many people over the years from those who actually knew him to psychologist that studied his life and other professionals that believe he was a brilliant scam artist.
I don't know but look at this this is a picture of the grand duchess stephanie and her husbands mother and a pic of him what do you think if you put the two woman together can you get this boy idk I think he has the fathers sides nose and brow and the mothers side eyes
But I don't but I would love to know what you think about this PEculiar Occurrence down below
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