Mysterious Events in History Appearance of Kaspar Hauser Part 2

About the mysterious event in history involving the appearance of Kaspar Hauser whose origins and identity were a mystery.

The Event: THE APPEARANCE OF KASPAR HAUSER

Kaspar was finally put in the care of an Englishman, Lord Stanhope, who was interested in finding the boy's relatives. Stanhope theorized that the young man was related in some way to the ducal family of Baden. Also concerned was German criminologist Anselm von Feuerbach, who believed Kaspar was of royal blood.

Shortly after Kaspar was adopted by Stanhope, he was attacked in a cellar by a man disguised in blackface. Then on December 14, 1833, Kaspar went for a walk in the park at the invitation of a man who told him the gardener wanted him to see a new artesian well. Accepting the invitation was a fatal mistake. Kaspar was found in the park, stabbed dangerously near the heart but not yet dead. There were no footprints found in the snow but his, and there was no sign of a weapon. The boy lived for only 3 days. An autospy showed that he had a large liver, which--along with his deformed legs--substantiated his story that he had spent a great part of his life in a cell. His wound, however, had not been self-in-flicted--before he died, Kaspar said, "I didn't do it myself." Then, he added cryptically, "Many cats are the sure death of a mouse."

After his death, there was great interest in the identity of the boy. Books were written about him, but who he was has never been established with certainty.

Possible Solutions: Many believe that Kaspar Hauser was the legitimate son of Duke Karl Frederick of Baden, and that the boy was smuggled out of the castle by the morganatic wife of the duke's grandfather so that he could not succeed to the throne. A dead peasant baby, so the story goes, was put in his place. Kaspar Hauser did resemble the Baden family. The grand duke, however, later threw open all the family archives to refute the story and no evidence was found to support it.

Some people thought that Kaspar was Hungarian, mainly because he seemed to understand words spoken in that language. No evidence ever appeared to support such a theory. Rumor had it, too, that he was the illegitimate child of the daughter of an innkeeper and a priest.

One rather farfetched theory says that Kaspar Hauser was the victim of an experiment by extraterrestrial beings who brainwashed him and transformed his personality, giving him false memories. The beings then placed him on earth in order to study human behavior. Proponents of this theory like to quote Feuerbach, who said, "Kaspar Hauser was not of this world. He was brought to us, but he came from another planet, perhaps from an-other universe entirely."

Kaspar Hauser is buried in Ansbach cemetery. His tombstone reads: "Hic jacet CASPARUS HAUSER, Aenigma Sui Temporis, Ignota Nativitas, Occulta Mors, MDCCCXXXIII." (Here lies Kaspar Hauser, an enigma of his time, of unknown birth, of peculiar death, 1833.)

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