The Wild Child

by Jeffrey Masson

  14 This is a reference to a book by Julius Meyer, Authentische Mittheilungen über Caspar Hauser (Ansbach: Verlag von Fr. Seybold, 1872). Julius Meyer was the son of the teacher with whom Kaspar Hauser lived in Ansbach (see Introduction, p. 18). This book contains letters from Lieutenant Hickel that Pies was able to show were forgeries.

  15 Feuerbach wrote a letter on April 8, 1830, to King Ludwig of Bavaria:

  Among the many rumors and charges spread about Kaspar’s origins, some of them silly, some proved to be untrue, some beyond the bounds of any possible judicial investigation, there is one which goes as follows: Our mysterious foundling is the prince of Grand Duke Carl of Baden and Stéphanie, who was exchanged, put in somebody else’s place, and then caused to disappear. He is, therefore, no less a person than the actual genuine grand duke of Baden himself!

  See Pies, Dokumentation, p. 78.

  16 See Hermann Pies, In Memoriam Adolf Bartning: Altes und Neues zur Kaspar-Hauser-Frage aus dem literarischen Nachlass des Verstorbenen (Ansbach: C. Brügel & Sohn, 1930). Also Adolf Bartning, Neues über Kaspar Hauser: Vortrag gehalten am 22. April 1927 von Rechtsanwalt Bartning (Hamburg) in der Hamburgischen Forensisch-Psychologischen Gesellschaft (Ansbach: C. Brügel & Sohn, 1927). These are among the more serious works written about Kaspar Hauser, and Pies himself helped to edit the work when Bartning unexpectedly died in the middle of his important research.

  17 This is a reference to Feuerbach’s Mémoire (Memorandum) to the queen mother of Bavaria (who was the sister of Kaspar Hauser’s father, Karl of Baden), which was given to her in February 1832. In this document Feuerbach comes to the conclusion that Kaspar Hauser was the legitimate heir to the throne of Baden. He states his conclusion in the words Pies puts into quotation marks. See the Introduction, pp. 28ff.

  18 This is a reference to Daumer’s two short booklets on Kaspar Hauser, entitled Mitteilungen über Kaspar Hauser, that were both published in 1832 in Nuremberg by Heinrich Hubenstricher. The book has been reprinted by Peter Tradowksy (Dornach: Rudolf Geering Verlag, 1983). Feuerbach and others thought they were poorly written and would do Kaspar Hauser no good. See pp. 173ff.

  19 The Feuerbach family lived in Lindau, and it was a direct descendant who handed over the manuscript to Pies, as Radbruch, of course knew, since he was the one who suggested it in the first place. It almost sounds as if Pies does not want to admit that he did not already know of the existence of this manuscript, whereas in fact it was Radbruch who first learned about the manuscript and brought it to Pies’s attention.

  20 Daumer wrote three volumes about Kaspar Hauser, the first (a small work in two short booklets) published in 1832, and then two much larger volumes, one in 1859 and the last one in 1872. Daumer was much criticized for his credulity and for believing in Kaspar Hauser’s “magic powers.” It is true, however, that the diary is a much more factual account, hence more valuable both to Feuerbach and to us.

  21 Hitzig, criminal director im Berlin, Caspar Hauser, in Annalen der deutschen und ausländischen Criminal-Rechts-Pflege 7 (1830), pp. 434-58.

  22 Johann Fr. Merker, Caspar Hauser, nicht unwahrscheinlich ein Betrüger (Berlin: August Rücker, 1830).

  23 Einige wichtige Actenstücke den unglücklichen Findling Caspar Hauser betreffend. Zur Berichtigung des Urtheils des Publicums über denselben mitgetheilt von Herrn Staatsrath und Appelfationsgerichts-Präsdienten von Feuerbach in Ansbach für Hitzigs Annalen der deutschen und ausländischen Criminalpflege und daraus besonders abgedruckt (Berlin: 1831).

  24 Feuerbach, Kaspar Hauser. The book actually appeared in bookstores a few weeks before the end of 1831.

  25 The German word is “enragierten,” which means, literally, “enraged,” but it is probably a typo for “engagierten,” which means somebody who is much involved in the subject matter, which makes more sense here.

  26 This is a reference to a mistake Feuerbach made in reading the manuscript that Daumer sent him. It is discussed in this appendix on pp. 175ff.

  27 Feuerbach died on May 29, 1832, under mysterious circumstances. See my Introduction, pp. 33ff.

  28 This refers to a document, mentioned earlier, that Feuerbach wrote, entitled: Mémoire: Wer möchte wohl Kaspar Hauser sein? (Memorandum: Who might Kaspar Hauser be?) that was sent to Queen Karoline of Bavaria in 1832, but was not published until 1852, edited by his son Ludwig Feuerbach, the philosopher, in Anselm Ritter von Feuerbachs Leben und Wirken, aus seinen angedruckten Briefen und Tagebüchern, Vorträgen und Druckschriften (Leipzig: Verlag von Otto Wigand, 1852, vol. 2), pp. 319ff. The text has been reprinted in Pies, Dokumentation, pp. 237-42.

  29 This refers to the Flaschenpostgeschichte, which I tell about in the Introduction, pp. 36ff. The documents have been assembled by Pies, Dokumentation, pp. 281ff.

  30 Stanhope says this in his Materialien zur Geschichte Kaspar Hausers gesammelt und herausgegeben von dem Grafen Stanhope (Heidelberg: Akademischen Buchhandlung von J. Mohr, 1835). But as Pies has shown in several places (Die Wahrheit, and Fälschungen in particular), Stanhope fabricated many passages. This is just such an example. Stanhope is referring to a passage in Feuerbach’s Kaspar Hauser book in which the Binder proclamation is referred to as “novelistic.” But this is a completely other matter, which I have explained in the Introduction, pp. 6ff. There is absolutely no evidence to bolster Stanhope’s claim that Feuerbach said, of his book on Kaspar Hauser, “I have written a novel,” though one can easily imagine that many people thought it read like a novel, which it does, without, thereby, losing any of its authenticity. See Pies, Die Wahrheit, p. 269, for documents. Stanhope (p. 47 of his Materialien) writes: “He himself (Feuerbach), began, in the last period of his life, to doubt the truth of the story, and, as I have learned from a completely trustworthy witness, he said: ‘Perhaps Feuerbach in his old age has written a novel’” (Pies, Die Wahrheit, p. 265).

  31 This is, in fact, not an exact quotation from Merker (Beiträge [1832], p. 60), which actually reads: “Feuerbach konnte ausgezeichnet schreiben, hier schrieb er hinreissend!”

  32 Feuerbachs Memorandum, mentioned above, was brought to the queen by Lieutenant Hickel, for whom an audience was arranged by Friedrich Ludwig von Schmidt (1764-1857), a confidant of the queen, and somebody whom Feuerbach knew and trusted. Schmidt was also present at the birth of the prince in 1812.

  33 Friedrich Eberhardt was the chief of police in the city of Gotha. A woman there claimed at the end of 1832 that Kaspar Hauser was her long-lost son. Feuerbach wrote Eberhard a series of letters, the matter was investigated, and it turned out that her son had died in 1811. See Mayer and Tradowsky, Kaspar Hauser, p. 195, and Hermann Pies, Die Wahrheit, pp. 265ff.

  34 This is a reference to a letter that Feuerbach wrote to N. N. Eberhardt on December 29, 1832, in which he says of Kaspar Hauser that he is “nur ein Kanonikus oder Domprobst en miniature, an dem man kaum die Tonsur vermisst.” Quoted in Pies, Die Wahrheit, p. 269.

  35 This is a reference to a passage in his Kaspar Hauser book in which Feuerbach obscurely but unmistakably refers to Kaspar Hauser’s royal birth. See my Introduction, p. 29, for a discussion of this passage. There is difficulty in the text of this letter. Possibly it has been mistranscribed. The German reads: “ehe er sein so pompös in seinem Buch ausgesprochene Meinung van den hochgewaltigen Kolossen, die vor goldenen Toren Wache stehen, ’ usw., aufgab.” The last word, aufgab, normally means “gave up.” But Feuerbach did not give this view up. The sense of the passage must be as I have translated it.

  36 Otto Mittelstädt, 1834-99, was a conservative German judge who wrote a vicious book against Kaspar Hauser, Kaspar Hauser und sein badisches Prinzenthum, in 1876, trying to prove that he was no prince. It has been largely discredited, since it subsequently came to light that Mittelstädt was in the pay of the house of Baden.

  37 Linde, Kaspar Hauser; Eine neugeschichtliche Legende, VoL 1: 1828-1833; Vol. 2: 1834-1884 (Wiesbaden: Verlag von Chr. Limbarth, 1887).

  38 Engel wrote a series of poorly researched a
nd poorly written books about Kaspar Hauser, attempting to prove that he was a fraud. They were so bad that after reading them I did not write down the details.

  39 The footnote in question quotes from an article that Mittelstädt wrote in the June issue of a newspaper called Vom Fels zum Meer (From mountains to the sea), in which he does indeed justify torture, at least if the quotation given by Kolb is correct.

  Appendix 3. Translation of Kaspar Hauser’s Autobiography

  1 Antonius von der Linde: Zum Kaspar-Hauser-Schwindel. 1. Die älteste (noch ungedruckte) “Selbstbiographie.” Kaspar Hausers erste Selbstbiographie. (Kaspar Hauser as fraud. The previously unpublished, oldest autobiography. Kaspar Hauser’s first autobiography) Nach dem Original herausgegeben (Wiesbaden, 1888). I have not succeeded in obtaining a copy of this rare book. I have used Pies s reprint for the text.

  2 The sentence could also mean: “I myself did not know how quietly I did it.”

  Appendix 4. Kaspar Hauser’s Dreams

  1 All these passages are given in Pies, Dokumentation, pp. 53ff.

  2 Daumer manuscript, p. 151.

  3 Pies, Dokumentation, p. 53.

  4 Ibid., p. 53.

  5 Ibid., p. 54.

  6 One can’t help wondering if this is not a misprint for “vierjähriges Kind” (“a four-year-old”). At fourteen, of course, Kaspar Hauser was in the dungeon. Dreams, on the other hand, are not bound by any chronology from the real world!

  7 The last sentence could also be translated as: “His father had admonished him to study because some day he (Hauser) would have to take his place and he threatened punishment if he became inattentive.”

  8 Sein Wesen, p. 475.

  Appendix 5. Wolf Children

  1 In 1940 R. M. Zingg, a professor of psychology at the University of Denver, published a paper entitled “Feral Man and Extreme Cases of Isolation” in the American Journal of Psychology 53: 487-515, in which he discussed all known cases of feral children. The article was expanded in his book. Rousseau, in his Discours & sur l’origine de l’inégalité parmi les hommes (Paris: 1754; reprint, Paris: Garnier, 1962), pp. 94-96, discusses several of these cases. The best known was the wolf child of Hesse, who was found in 1344 running wild in the woods. According to the story, a hole had been dug for him by wolves. They had carpeted it with leaves and at night would encircle him with their bodies in order to protect him from the cold. See Malson, Wolf Children and the Problem of Human Nature, p. 39.

  2 Genetic Psychology Monographs 60 (1959), pp. 117-93. The quotation from Ashley Montagu is found on p. 124.

  3 Charles Maclean, The Wolf Children (New York: Hill & Wang, 1978), p. 300.

  4 Reprint, New Delhi: Himalayan Books, 1982), p. 233. Many cases of children raised by wolves were reported by William Henry Sleeman, A Journey Through the Kingdom of Oudh, 2 vols. (London, 1858). He was in Oudh between 1849 and 1850, and reports seven cases in all. (For more on wolf children in India, see Malson, Wolf Children, p. 45). See also E. B. Tylor, “Wild Men and Beast Children,” Anthropological Review 1 (1863), pp. 21-32, the first specialist on cases of isolation, who discusses the cases cited by Sleeman. It would be interesting to know whether Kipling had seen any of this literature. I would imagine he had. Certainly his father would have. Of even greater interest: Did they know about Kaspar Hauser?

  5 John Lockwood Kipling, Beast and Man in India: A Popular Sketch of Indian Animals in their Relations with the People (London: Macmillan & Co., 1904; reprint, New Delhi: Inter-India Publications, 1984), p. 281.

  6 Randall Jarrell, “On Beginning to Read Kipling,” in Rudyard Kipling, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House, 1987), p. 21. The essay was originally published in 1961.

  7 Charles Carrington, Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work (London: Macmillan, 1957), p. 44.

  8 Jim Brandenburg, White Wolf (Minoqua, Wisc.: Northword, 1988).

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Albersdorf, Gräfin Caroline von. Kaspar Hauser oder Andeutungen zur Enthüllung mancher Geheimnisse über Hausers Herkunft, die Ursache seiner Gefangenhaltung und Ermordung (Kaspar Hauser or allusions to the revelation of a number of secrets about Kaspar Hauser’s origins, the reason for his imprisonment and murder). Regensburg, 1837.

  Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Vol. 6. Leipzig: Dunder & Humbolt, 1877, pp. 731-45: S.V. J. P.A. Feuerbach.

  Baier, Hermann. “Die Wiener Reise des Staatsminister Freihern von Reitzenstein und der Fall Kaspar Hauser.” Badischer Beobachter 89, March 31, 1932.

  Bapst, Edmond (ambassadeur de France). À la conquête du trône de Bade: La comtesse de Hochberg, la grande-duchesse Stéphanie, Gaspard Hauser. Paris: A. Lahure, 1930.

  _____. Une mère et son fils: La Grande-Duchesse Stéphanie et Gaspard Hauser. Paris: A. Lahure, 1933.

  Bartning, Adolf. Neues über Kaspar Hauser: Vortrag gehalten am 22. April 1927 von Rechtsanwalt Bartning (Hamburg) in der Hamburgischen Forensisch-Psychologischen Gesellschaft. Ansbach: C. Brügel & Sohn, 1927.

  Bayern, Prinz Adalbert von. “Königin Caroline von Bayern und Kaspar Hauser.” Der Zwiebelturm: Monatsschrift für das bayerische Volk und seine Freunde 5 (1951), pp. 102-28.

  de Bernardy, Françoise. Stéphanie de Beauharnais) (1789-1860): Fille adoptive de Napoléon Grande-duchesse de Bade. Paris: Librairie Académique Perrin, 1977.

  Bock, Friedrich. “Ein neuer Brief des Präsidenten Anjelm v. Feuerbach.” Fränkische Monatshefte 7, no. 5 (1928), pp. 193-97.

  Braun, J. “Kaspar-Hauser-Litteratur.” Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel und die verwandten Geschäftszweige. Leipzig 280, 1901, pp. 10718-20, 10750-52.

  Brunner, E. “Kaspar Hauser? Graphologische, mikroskopische und mikrophotographische Handschriften-Untersuchung und Gutachten.” Zeitschrift für Menschenkunde: Blätter für Charakterologie und angewandte Psychologie 5, no. 6 (1930), pp. 343-408.

  Conradt, Marcus. Fünfeinhalb Jahre unter Menschen: Armer Kaspar Hauser. Stuttgart: Klett, 1983.

  Daumer, Georg Friedrich. Mitteilungen über Kaspar Hauser (Information about Kaspar Hauser). Nuremberg: Heinrich Haubenstricher, 1832. (Reprint, with introduction by Peter Tradowsky, Dornach: Rudolf Geering, 1983.

  _____. Enthüllungen über Kaspar Hauser (Revelations about Kaspar Hauser). (The long subtitle reads: Mit Hinzufügung neuer Belege und Documente und Mittheilung noch ganz unbekannter Thatsachen, namentlich zu dem Zwecke, die Heimath und Herkunft des Findlings zu bestimmen und die vom Grafen Stanhope gespielte Rolle zu beleuchten. Eine wider Eschricht und Stanhope gerichtete historische, psychologische und physiologische Beweisführung.) Frankfurt am Main: Verlag von Weidinger Sohn, 1859.

  _____. Kaspar Hauser: Sein Wesen, seine Unschuld, seine Erduldungen und sein Ursprung in neuer, gründlicher Erörterung und Nachweisung. Mit einer Anzahl bisher noch unveröffentlichten Aufsätze, Nachrichten und Erklärungen gewichtvoller Beobachter, Zeugen und Sachkenner, namentlich auch zur Ergänzung des theils an sich mangelhaften, theils noch ungenügend und mit Weglassung relevanter Bestandtheile mitgetheilten Actenmaterials (Kaspar Hauser: his nature, his innocence, his suffering, and his origins). Regensburg: A. Coppenrath, 1873.

  Eulenberg, Herbert. Die Familie Feuerbach in Bildnissen. Stuttgart, J. Engelhorns Nachf., 1924.

  Ende, Clara von. “Introduction à une bibliographie raisonnée de Gaspard Hauser suivie d’un aperçu chronologique de la question.” Revue germanique 5, no. 2 (March-April, 1909), pp. 202-17.

  Eschricht, Daniel Friedrich. Unverstand und schlechte Erziehung: Vier populäre Vorlesungen. Berlin: Verlag der königlichen geheimen Oberhofbuchdruckerei, 1857.

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  Feuerbach, Paul Johann Anselm Ritter von. Einige wichtige Actenstücke den unglücklichen Findling Caspar Hauser betreffend. Zur Berichtigung des Urtheils des Publicums über denselben mitgetheilt von Herrn Staatsrath und Appellations-gerichts
-Präsidenten

  von Feuerbach in Ansbach für Hitzigs Annalen der deutschen und ausländischen Criminalpflege und daraus besonders abgedruckt. Berlin, 1831.

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  _____. Kaspar Hauser. An account of an individual kept in a dungeon, separated from all communication with the world, from early childhood to about the age of seventeen, translated by Henning Gottfried Linberg. Boston: Allen & Ticknor, 1833; London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1833.

  _____. Leben und Wirken: Aus seinen ungedruckten Briefen und Tagebüchern, Vorträgen und Denkschriften, veröffentlicht von seinem Sohne Ludwig Feuerbach. 2 vols. Leipzig: Verlag von Otto Wigand, 1852.

  _____. Anselm Ritter von Feuerbachs biographischer Nachlass. 2 vols. Leipzig: Verlagsbuchhandlung von J.J. Weber, 1853. Reprint, Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1973.

  _____. Merkwürdige Verbrechen. Edited by Cay Brockdorff. Berlin: Buchverlag der Morgen, 1973.

  _____. Kaspar Hauser: Beispiel eines Verbrechens am Seelenleben des Menschen. Edited by Helmut Bender. Waldkirch: Waldkircher Verlagsgesellschaft, 1981.

  _____. Erkentnisse über Kaspar Hauser. Mit Nachwort und Auswahl-Bibliographie von Armin Forker. Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1983.

  _____. Merkwürdige Verbrechen. Frankfurt am Main: Eichborn Verlag, 1993.

  Flake, Otto. Kaspar Hauser. Mannheim: Kessler Verlag, 1950. Reprint, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, 1990.

  Fuhrmann, Johann Simon Heinrich. Trauerrede bei der am 20. Dezember 1833 erfolgten Beerdigung des am 14. desselben Monats meuchlings ermordeten Kaspar Hauser, gehalten und nur auf vielseitiges Verlangen herausgegeben von H. Fuhrmann, könig. III Pfarrer bei St. Sumbert in Ansbach. Bamberg: J.E. Dresch, 1833.

  _____. Kaspar Hauser. Beobachtet und dargestellt in der letzten Zeit seines Lebens von seinem Religionslehrer und Beichtvater. Ansbach: J.W. Dollfuss, 1834.