Kaspar Hauser

Not to be confused with Werner Herzog's metaphysical tour de force, EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF AND GOD AGAINST ALL, aka THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER, this 1993 German film proposes a solution to one of history's most baffling puzzles. In 1828, a mute foundling turned up in the streets of Hamburg and soon became famous throughout Europe as Kaspar Hauser, a living specimen of Rousseau's idealized "noble savage." Five years later, the young man died as mysteriously as he lived, fatally stabbed by an unidentified assailant. Director/writer Peter Sehr's screenplay elaborates one of the more prominent theories of Hauser's past: The heir to the throne of Baden, he was abducted ...