The Enigma of Unschlittplatz - Kaspar Hauser
On Whit Monday, 26 May 1828, a teenage boy appeared on this medieval square from nowhere, carrying mysterious letters and claiming to have spent his entire life locked in a dark cell. He survived two attacks before dying from a stab wound at twenty one, and his true identity has never been established.
Sobre este lugar
Unschlittplatz is one of Nuremberg's oldest squares, a quiet stretch of pavement beside the Pegnitz River where the medieval Henkersteg and the Henkerhaus stand just a short distance to the north. A plaque set into the ground here marks the exact location of an event that launched one of the most famous unsolved mysteries in European history. On 26 May 1828, two shoemakers found a teenage boy on this square who was barely able to walk, barely able to speak, and carrying two letters: one for a cavalry captain named von Wessenig, and one identifying the boy as Kaspar, born 30 April 1812, with a wish to become a soldier. He claimed to have spent his entire life in a dark cell on bread and water. A schoolteacher named Daumer took him in, and the city was captivated. Two attacks on his life followed in quick succession, both in Nuremberg. The third, on 14 December 1833 in Ansbach, proved fatal: he came home from the Hofgarten with a stab wound and died three days later at the age of twenty one. A violet purse found at the scene held a note in mirror writing. His gravestone calls him the enigma of his time, unknown in birth, mysterious in death. DNA analyses in 1996 and 2024 ruled out the theory of a stolen crown prince of Baden, but who he was and who killed him has never been established.
Datos clave
- 1828 year — Kaspar Hauser appeared on this square on Whit Monday, 26 May 1828, a teenage boy with no memory of the outside world and no account of his own origins.
- 21 years old — Kaspar Hauser's age when he died from a stab wound in Ansbach on 17 December 1833. He survived two earlier attacks in Nuremberg before the third proved fatal.
- 2 DNA studies — Independent analyses conducted in 1996 and 2024 both ruled out the theory that Kaspar Hauser was the stolen heir of the House of Baden, leaving his identity unresolved.