KASPAR HAUSER

Known popularly as the ‘Nuremberg Enigma’, Kaspar Hauser stepped into history on 26 May 1828. An incoherent boy of approximately sixteen years of age, he was found staggering about in Unschlitt Square in Nuremberg. Wearing expensive but tatty clothing, he had an envelope addressed to: ‘The Captain of the 4th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment.’
Local cobbler George Weichmann took him to the local army guardroom, and from there a sergeant took him to the home of the captain to whom the letters was addressed – one Captain Wessenig.

WHAT A LIFE

Opening the envelope, he found two letters. From them, a picture of Kaspar’s life emerged. Apparently he had spent his entire life in a small darkened cell, attended to by persons he had never seen. Now, it seemed, he was to be trained as a cavalryman, like his father, whoever he was.
Taken to the local police, he was dismissed as a simpleton and placed in a cell. However, given pen and paper, he wrote his name – Kaspar Hauser – and when they attempted to teach him to read and write, it was discovered he could pick it up remarkably quickly. Indeed, Kaspar proved to be a bit of a genius.

THE CELEBRITY

The local town council decided it was their responsibility to look after him and appointed a guardian, a scientist called Georg Friedrich Daumer. Under his wing, Kaspar became quite a celebrity, with people coming from far and wide to meet him.
He even wrote an autobiography in 1829, but it contained no clues to his identity. However, Kaspar’s life was to be short lived. On 7 October 1829 he claimed to have been attacked by a man with a blackened face who gave him a wound to the brow. This was the first of two attacks.
The second occurred on 14 December 1833, following a couple of years touring Europe in the company of eccentric English aristocrat Lord Stanhope. On this day Kaspar stumbled into the home of a Dr Meyer near Nuremberg with a stab wound in his chest. On 17 December he died, ending a life that was both tragic and deeply mysterious.

WAS HE PARANORMAL?

Several further enigmas exist concerning Kaspar Hauser, other than his seventeen years incarceration in a place unknown by people undisclosed. One such mystery concerns his attackers.
Who were they? Indeed, did they exist, or was Kaspar a sufferer of Munchenhausen Syndrome, which involves self-injury in order to gain attention? Considering his life, such an illness can be forgiven. However, if a Kaspar Hauser suddenly appeared today, science would no doubt take an interest in the youth, for he seemed to have some uncanny powers.
These powers mainly concerned his senses. For instance, if coffee or beer were placed in the same room, he would vomit. The mere smell of wine made him drunk. His hearing was exceptionally acute. But most remarkable was his eyesight.
He could see in the dark. Indeed, he was observed reading from the Bible in a totally darkened room. If nothing else, Kaspar Hauser seemed to have indicated that our accepted limits of the senses are not exact, but merely habit due to the way we are brought up, and the sensory experiences we have.
Living most of his life in a dark room, hearing only noises from afar, Kaspar honed his senses to such an extent that we would today class them as almost paranormal.

(c) Anthony North, June 2007

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