The enigma of Kaspar Hauser

a compilation of spooky and mysterious artworks

Nov 05, 2023

Hello, good people!

Spooky season just ended, but I’ll extend it a bit if I may, because this time I bring to you a compilation of mysterious, spooky, autumnal stuff.

First of all, we have an enigma since the 1800s, followed by spooky bubbles, spooky music for spooky occasions, toasted chestnuts and Catalan sweets and a witchy short from the 60s. If that sounds interesting to you, let’s begin.

✧A mystery: Kaspar Hauser✧

I was looking for some old engravings and I came across this floral drawing.

I found it to be very delicate and beautiful and as always, I tried to see if I could find more. The work was credited to Kaspar Hauser so I googled it, and I didn't expect to find such a story.

Apparently it’s a well known case (but I didn’t know anything about it), what perhaps is not so known is that Hauser, as you can see, was also a talented artist.

In case that you don’t know who this man was, let me tell you the story of Kaspar Hauser (TW: mental illness / death).

Kaspar Hauser (unknown - 1833)

In the cemetery of Ansbach, a small Bavarian town, there is a gravestone that reads:

Hic jacet Casparus Hauser. Aenigma sui temporis/ignota nativitas/occulta mors

Here lies Kaspar Hauser. Enigma of his time/birth unknown/mysterious death

Hauser's first appearance dates back to 26 May 1828 in Nuremberg, when the shoemaker Beck found him coming out of a tavern carrying two letters with him.

One supposedly written by his mother, in which she said that he was born on 30 April 1812, that his name was Kaspar and that his late father was a soldier in the 6th Cavalry Regiment.

The other letter was anonymous and addressed to Captain von Wessenig. It read that Kaspar had been entrusted to the sender as a baby to be educated in the Christian faith and that as he wanted to become a soldier, he was being sent to Captain von Wessenig.

Both letters were in the same handwriting using the same ink and the same type of paper, leading some to suspect that the boy had written them both.

Hauser's appearance in Nuremberg remains a mystery and ever since his arrival, rumours about his origins never ceased.

At first thought to be a “feral child”, he later claimed to have been raised in a dark cell, sleeping on a bed of straw, and that a man - whom he never saw - left him bread and water and taught him to talk and walk. It was also rumoured that he was of royal descent and many considered him to be a hoaxer. Modern historians have almost universally agreed that he was mentally ill and probably, indeed, a hoaxer.

Hauser always acted kind and gentle and seemed greatly upset even if an insect was accidentally killed. He approached the world as if he’d never seen it before.

Throughout his life, he was watched over by several guardians, and during that time, his story became more bizarre. In 1829 he claimed to have been cut with a razor by a hooded man. And in April of the following year he claimed to have accidentally shot himself.

Kaspar HAUSER - 1829 - Drawing of the razor

In 1831 the case attracted the attention of Lord Philip Henry Stanhope, who sought his custody. He spent enormous sums of money trying to solve the riddle of Hauser's origin, all to no avail. After Hauser's death, Stanhope published the results of his investigation "I openly confess that I have been deceived".

On 14 December 1833, Kaspar came home with a wound. He said that a man had attacked him in the gardens of the Residenz Ansbach and delivered him a coded message. The police found a purse with a message that could only be read in front of a mirror:

A photograph of the note, in mirror writing

Hauser will be able to tell you quite precisely how I look and from where I am.
To save Hauser the effort, I want to tell you myself from where I come _ _ .
I come from from _ _ _ the Bavarian border _ _ On the river _ _ _ _ _ I even want to tell you the name: M. L. Ö.

The doctors who examined Hauser’s body agreed that the wound may have been self-inflicted; those familiar with Hauser’s style of writing suggested he had written the coded message himself. The document contained certain misspellings that Hauser himself was known to make, and the letter had been folded in a triangular manner that Hauser had been known to use.

Three days after the incident, Hauser died.

Did you already know about Hauser’s story? And what about his art?

✧A halloween ad: Dubble Bubble✧

✧A picture: La Castanyera✧

Josep Maria SAGARRA - 1916 - Castanyera Plaça Sant Agustí

La Castanyada is a traditional festivity celebrated the 1st of November around the Iberian Peninsula.

In Catalonia, the celebrations involve mainly eating roasted chestnuts, panellets (a special sweet covered in different ingredients, my favourite are pine nuts) and sweet potatoes.

undefined — Picture of a pine nut panellet from Wikipedia

You can find street vendors selling hot toasted chestnuts wrapped in newspaper and while I don’t like chestnuts much, the smell of them toasting brings me fond memories of when in schools we used to be visited by La Castanyera, the lady that toasts chestnuts.

We would also make panellets at school, which we’d later take home for our family to eat (I wouldn’t be mad if they only pretended to eat them, though, a 4 year old making panellets is probably just dough and no pine nuts because I’d personally eat them all while in the making!)

And while writing this, I wondered why not share this recipe with you all? So here it is, if you want to try it.

✧An album: Spooky Music For Spooky Occasions✧

1950s - Spooky Music For Spooky Occasions

✧A short: Wanda The Witch✧

1969 - Stills from Wanda The Witch (how many W’s can you find?)

Well, after testing the waters here and there on how would you feel about me sharing stuff that it’s not art/mid-century related and getting a positive feedback, I feel more confident to do so :^)

Some of you suggested that you’d prefer that I include it all in one email rather than separate emails and that’s what I’m going to do.

Everything will be in one email. Nevertheless, I’ve also opened a new section here at The Attic that I’ll treat as a blog (that means entries won’t be emailed, unless you specifically choose so), where I’m going to post longer versions of the things I share on the regular newsletter, I’ll provide the link (kind of like a read more) so that you can dive deeper if you want to (or not!). I’m not sure if this makes or will make sense, so I’m going to try it out for a while and future Viu will decide.

This new section is called The Sticky Note. I was going to name it Random Paper on My Desk Where I Write Things I Find Interesting (also known as RPOMDWIWTIFI), but somehow The Sticky Note is shorter and seems more polished. I am terrible at coming up with names…

Do any of these ones (that I actually wrote on a random paper I later found on my desk) sound better to you?

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

✦ Random Recs   
✦ Brainstorm & Chill 
✦ Scattered Thoughts of a Creative Mind  
✦ Random Notebook Full Of Notes   
✦ The Messy Desk   
✦ Diving Deep

Do I stick with The Sticky Note? (…hehe sorry) Anyway, here’s the link to it, you will find the recipe of Panellets as the first post, because I’m not sure if the image I’ve attached here will be too small to read. You’ll also be able to see a link to the section on my substack as a new page.