There are enough mysterious people in history. Some of them are still the subject of research, others, which once attracted the attention of society, were almost forgotten, but remained unsolved. The name of one of these mysterious personalities is Hauser Kaspar. An unknown young man with the mind of a baby, who appeared in Nuremberg from nowhere and was murdered for some unknown reason a few years later.
Foundling
On one May day in 1828, two slightly tipsy shoemakers picked up a 14-16-year-old teenager with difficulty moving on Nuremberg Square. He could not speak, but in his hand he held a letter addressed to the commander of the cavalry squadron, Captain von Wesnich. Taking pity on the unfortunate man, the shoemakers took him to the captain's house.
Thus begins the story of one of the most mysterious figures of the 19th century. The boy almost did not know how to walk and talk, and only repeated the phrase that he wanted to become a cavalryman, like his father. He could also write his name on paper in clumsy handwriting.
Von Vesnykh, considering the teenager a rogue, took him to the police station, and the young man spent the next two months in prison.
Idiotor a cunning deceiver?
Kaspar was lucky, the prison officer Andreas Giltel took care of him, who not only did not offend and felt sorry for the strange teenager, but also taught him to speak more or less clearly. The boy was examined by doctors, including forensic doctor Proy, who is engaged in scientific research. It was in prison that the legend of Kaspar Hauser appeared.
The conclusions that were made on the basis of the observations of Giltel, the teacher of the Daumer gymnasium, the magistrate officials and Dr. Proy, were surprising.
Kaspar Hauser was not a cheater. Having learned to speak more or less intelligibly, he was able to tell that he spent most of his life either in a cage, or in a small cell where he could only sit. There he was kept by an unknown person. Then he taught Kaspar to move, pronounce a few phrases and write his name. After that, he took the young man to the outskirts of Nuremberg, gave him a letter and left.
The listeners of his incoherent muttering had no doubts about the sincerity, and the story was confirmed both by the incorrect structure of the bones of the legs and the level of mental development of the young man - he had the mind of a three-year-old child. But Kaspar Hauser was not considered insane or weak-minded either.
Noble heir?
Who needed to keep a child in a cage and why? The inhabitants found the answer to this question immediately - this child must be of very noble origin. Such an assumption fueled interest in an unusual foundling who was released from prison, and for some time he lived in one house in the city, then inother.
The crowned family, to which Kaspar Hauser could belong, was discovered quickly. In Nuremberg, they began to say that, perhaps, the foundling was the son of the adopted daughter of Napoleon Stephanie de Beauharnais and Charles, Duke of Baden. This child died in infancy under strange circumstances, and Kaspar was quite the right age. However, the duke's family did not respond to these rumors, although there is unreliable information that Stefania still secretly saw the young man and recognized him as similar to her father.
Although in this case it is completely unclear why Kaspar was brought to Nuremberg, and what Captain von Wesnich has to do with him. But the brave cavalryman was somehow quickly forgotten.
The legend of Kaspar Hauser gradually acquired more and more new details, but which of them were real, and which gave rise to the imagination of the townsfolk, is now impossible to figure out. And the riddle of Kaspar Hauser was never solved.
Strange end to a strange story
A year after the appearance in the city of Kaspar, the first attempt was made on the young man - an unknown person hit him on the head with a heavy object. Hauser survived, but the idle townspeople immediately connected this case with the alleged belonging to the ducal family.
The noble Englishman Lord Stanhope took patronage over the young man, who at first tried to reveal Hauser's abilities for extrasensory perception, and when this failed, he settled him in Ansbach under the supervision of his man.
Stanhope did not believe in the noble origin of Kasper Hauser and in hisprolonged confinement. And many educated people of that time, including doctors, also expressed doubts. For example, the famous psychiatrist Leongart believed that under such conditions, the child, if he survived, the changes in his psyche would be irreversible - he would turn into an idiot.
Two years after moving to Ansbach, Kasper Hauser was killed. An unknown person stabbed him with a knife, after which the young man did not survive. For a while, society again started talking about the mysterious young man, but then new reasons for gossip appeared.
However, the history of Kaspar Hauser is not forgotten, and in Ansbach even a monument was erected to him.
The name of Kaspar Hauser in 20th century psychiatry
In 1966, a special mental state was named after this strange young man, which develops in people who, in childhood, find themselves in complete or partial isolation from the human community.
Kaspar Hauser syndrome manifests itself in mental retardation, difficulties in social adaptation and hypersensitivity. In domestic psychology and psychiatry, this phenomenon is also known as the phenomenon of "Mowgli's children". If the kids were deprived of communication with adults in early childhood, then the changes in their psyche are irreversible, and they can never become full-fledged members of society.
