Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers Regarding Kaspar Hauser, Accession #5500-l , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Processing Information

This material was transfered to the Manuscripts Department from the Bibliography Section, Collection Development Department, University of Virginia Library, on May 10, 1982.

Scope and Content Information

This collection of research material contains 208 items (1 Hollinger box), 1830(1875-1938)1948, consisting chiefly of newspaper clippings pertaining to the Kaspar Hauser case, but also including primary source transcriptions, correspondence, research notes and police reports. Most of this material was collected by Julius Meyer, a Hauser scholar at the turn of the century, and was later added to by Dr. Thomas Stettner and others.

Kaspar Hauser, who died mysteriously in 1833, created a sensation throughout Europe when he was first discovered wandering helplessly on the outskirts of Nurnburg in 1828. He had been reared abnormally, isolated from society, and was generally viewed as a fascinating curiosity by those captivated by the Romanticism of the period. Hauser's obsure childhood prompted repeated speculation that he was the crown prince of Baden and had been kidnapped in infancy in 1812. Although both Hauser's origins and the events surrounding his death have produced wide speculation, the facts of the "Hauser case" remain unclear. Most of the material is in German.

Arrangement

Newsclippings are ordered chronologically. Those listed by Hans Peitler in his "Kaspar Hauser Bibliography" (also included in the collection, TMs, 94 pp.) are identified by their bibliograpical number and appear first. The miscellaneous research notes of the collection are foldered last.