KASPAR HAUSER Crimes of Living Souls
Hold him up!
What's the matter?
Give little Ernst to me!
You can't put him in that box!
If he won't go in, press the lid down.
He'll suffocate!
Elizabeth, if you don't...
No, no! I won't let you have him!
Why not?
She'll get another child in its place.
A healthy child.
His Highness, the Crown Prince.
Your Royal Highness.
Your Lordship.
Hello, my little Napoleon.
How are the affairs of state?
How is His Majesty's digestion? I mean, his appetite.
He's thirsty?
He takes after his father in that.
Right, Carl?
But as I see, your majesty will have no problem...
satisfying those needs.
Look what your father had made for you.
But I fear he wants to keep it himself.
Give me my son. Right away.
Why so upset, Stephanie?
Don't worry.
I won't drop the future of Baden.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Karlsruhe October 16th, 1812
Over there!
Very well, your highness.
Hennenhofer, I follow your development with great satisfaction.
You should know that.
It is an honor to serve your highness.
I'm so terribly...
So terribly excited.
Countess Hochberg will see you now.
Your Ladyship. Doctor.
So that's our heir apparent.
The hope of the House of Baden.
Come on! Hurry up!
Here, on the satura lambdoidea.
The way you strike a rabbit.
But not too hard, or it'll be the end of him.
What are you waiting for?
He can go now.
Stop.
I'll hang it over Gaspard's cradle.
Please Stephanie, stop calling him Kaspar!
Gaspard! That's my uncle's name. Gaspard.
With a "G."
Neither Gaspard nor Kaspar!
What, then?
Maybe Carl, Friedrich, Ludwig, Wilhelm?
But Charles, Henri, Frederique, Louis. Those are all better, right?
Grande Duke Frederique of Baden?
- Ridiculous! - Yes, yes, yes.
Very pretty. Much better.
Your uncle already calls him "Petit Napoleon."
Very well. Why not Napoleon of Baden?
It's an idea.
...today
Then the Corsican will finally achieve what he wants.
The scoundrel! A Napoleon on our throne!
- You call my father... - Step-father.
- A... - Yes, a scoundrel!
All this scoundrel has to do is go "puff"...
and Baden and its ridiculous Grand Duke... bye-bye...
will vanish from the map.
Just a "puff." No more.
Shall I ride with the countess to Biasca?
The horses stand ready.
I feel it! But the piano... the piano...
Oh, my tea rose...
My lilac!
Let's ride now, Luise!
"By waiting, one finds heaven."
That was his answer.
Of our beloved Crown Prince?
Exactly.
"Ooh," he said, when Hennenhofer presented him
with your written greetings.
Let's ride now, Luisa! Please!
His little Gulliver can't wait for a ride.
After such stimulating reports...
His head all flushed with blue blood.
You'll hardly recognize
the youngest scion of the Zahringers anymore.
The prince! The prince! Help!
Can't you hide your IOUs somewhere else?
At least I can be sure you find them there.
No, I can't sign that.
Then we won't ride to Biasca.
I suffer impertinences from my banker,
I can't pay my servants,
but that doesn't seem to bother you.
But 10,000 guilders!
How much would the baptism cost?
I shall help Baden save precisely this sum.
Baden, perhaps, but not me.
I'm not the Grand Duke yet.
But soon, my dearest, soon.
You're very close.
The throne's within your reach.
Only Carl stands in your way.
I don't recognize you anymore, my son.
Congestion, your majesty.
The result of brain spasms. Everything swells up.
What's wrong with him?
Water in the lungs.
It causes the Crown Prince problems with his respiration.
Then do something!
The healing arts
are unfortunately unable to help against this.
Send for the court chaplain.
Very well, your Majesty.
Since Kaspar's birth,
Stephanie has been in raptures.
Does she know yet?
What's going on here?
What's wrong with him?
An emergency baptism.
What are you doing with my child?
Open up!
Open!
Instantly.
I want to see my son.
Calm down, Stephanie, I beg you.
Why is the door locked?
The doctor's orders.
It would upset you to see the child.
I want to see him!
He looks like a monster!
Four Years Later
Beuggen Palace, South Baden, 1816
Kaspar!
Didn't I forbid you to come here?
I couldn't find Luise. I found her here.
There are other people here. Little ones, too.
Like you. Come on! Come.
Carl.
Carl!
This is Caroline, Countess of Wetzenfelden.
You mean the future Grand Duchess of Baden.
Your successor.
My successor, too, eh, Ludwig?
Come nearer!
So I can see you better...
And you can smell me better.
Have you kicked the Hochberg woman out of his bed?
What an exquisite odor!
The smell of putrefaction.
That's what he says.
But I say it's poison.
Ludwig, thanks for you loving care.
All black and thick, the blood...
...royal blood.
Good Zahringer blood.
Wait outside! He's delirious again.
Fresh Zahringer blood.
Take it! It's becoming increasingly rare!
Be patient! You won't have to wait long.
So?
Must I leave our little town?
Must I back down...
just because of a couple hundred thousand soldiers on our border?
Your Majesty, we have reason to expect an invasion.
Let the Bavarians deploy all their troops on our border, if they like!
I refuse to submit to their threats.
Or is that what my ministers wanted to advise me?
To appease Bavaria in it's bid to regain the Palatinate...
- Grand... - Duke Carl was in contact
with Munich Beerstett!
What Carl did in his mental derangement
doesn't interest me in the least.
But negotiations are in progress.
And herewith terminated!
There's nothing to negotiate, not a square meter!
As long as there's a Zahringer on the throne...
the Palatinate is ours.
If Bavaria won't respect that...
they'll feel my iron fist!
A pack of lies, nothing but lies.
I don't believe a word of it!
Then ask Hennenhofer
If the supposed Crown Prince had a birthmark on his neck.
You certainly remember that.
Ah. So that's why Stephanie wasn't allowed to see the child.
It was a changeling.
Then who was buried in the family tomb?
Hmm?
My servant's son.
So the Crown Prince lives with your servant?
He did for the first 2 years.
Then I found something more suitable.
And where is that?
In that child are the seeds of a whirlwind.
If it blew over Karlsruhe, It would sweep you from your throne.
Quite apart from the scandal.
Thank you. Now I understand.
How much do you want for the boy?
I'll buy him back for... Let's say 40,000.
Twice as much?
Fine.
I'll pay your entire debts.
Why this playing around, Luise?
What do you really want?
You won't marry Caroline.
So that's what it is.
I'm supposed to crawl back into your bed, eh?
Your jealousy blinds you, Luise...
makes you blind to yourself.
Just look at you!
All flabby and sagging!
You must be familiar with your own physical condition...
particularly little Gulliver.
Come on, my little shriveled shrimp! Come, come.
He wouldn't stand on duty for you even in the dark.
A body like a toad!
Is Caroline satisfied with this pitiful state?
Leave Caroline out of it!
Why?
You can have it away with her as often as you like.
But you won't marry her...
Neither Caroline...
...nor anyone else.
I'm not to have an heir?
Is that what you want?
Then my sons will be in line.
The Hochbergs are the future of Baden,
and you, my dear, are its past.
The Zahringer branch is nearly sawn off.
Thanks for all your support.
Your sons are on the throne!
Why couldn't my father restrain his dick?
He liked to ride to Biasca, too... like you.
You knew how to torment him.
But you won't do it to me.
Then the Crown Prince will be waiting at the door.
Do as you please!
Bring him here, please!
But dear Ludwig,
I can see it in the Republican Gazettes: "The monarchy, rotten to the core."
"The Grand Duke a child killer."
I would have noticed the birthmark.
I held him with his back to me, like this.
Yes, but it was the wrong child, unfortunately.
Then I'll find the right one.
I give you my word I won't rest till I find him.
I'll do him in and lay him at your door.
Why must we go away? I don't want to go.
Luise!
Luise! Come!
He asks too many questions.
High time you get him out of Baden.
Here are his papers and 80 guilders.
Only 80?
Enough to get to Hungary.
What about my money? And the costs?
I'll take care of that when you're in Hungary.
No! Here and now!
Give me your earrings!
For your impertinence, you'll...
You miserable little creature!
I'll teach you!
Munich State Department 1818
What services has she rendered Bavaria?
Judging by this money...
I don't speak German.
He does look a bit like Carl...
...the mouth, the eyes.
Don't you think?
I hardly knew him.
We met briefly at the Congress of Vienna.
Those rogues in Karlsruhe will be surprised.
Produce the boy at the right moment,
and he's worth more than a whole army on the border of Baden.
Provided the nanny's not playing a trick on us.
No outsider must know what she told us.
It's still an incredible story. All based on assumptions.
Why always so skeptical?
Even the faintest possibility...
...that he's the Crown Prince of Baden
makes it a good investment for Bavaria.
In that light...
He's a real pot of gold...
our little Kaspar.
And something as valuable as that
has to be kept safely locked up.
Is Luise here?
Yes, this is her stall. You'll see her soon.
Does Luise sleep here?
I'll bring her.
Luise. Luise. Luise.
He's screaming like a stuck pig.
I can't hear a thing here.
No one will hear any more of him.
Run, horse, run...
Squad one... fire!
Squad Two... fire!
Order arms!
So that's a rifled barrel.
Yes, Your Majesty.
And it's loaded from the rear.
Reloading takes a quarter of the time, Your Majesty.
Anything new?
They had to remove the tips of five of his fingers
to halt the gangrene.
- He's over the worst? - I would think so.
Is it the Palatinate that troubles Your Majesty?
We can quadruple our fire power with these rifles
without moving a single soldier.
No one will suspect an attack, and we can just march in.
Ludwig, we're coming.
And I can regain my Palatinate.
It will cause a European crisis.
The Palatinate was ours, Wedel!
And it will be again.
But when?
When?
Just because of some ridiculous treaties,
do I have to wait till the last Zahringer drops dead?
From what I hear from Karlsruhe, that moment is at hand.
You've been saying that for years.
But even if he's on his last legs,
Ludwig's hatred of me will keep him alive.
Where are you hiding the boy?
Afraid I might take my secret to the grave?
I fear for your son Leopold.
Hmm. And your future position as Grand Duchess.
Why won't you divulge your secret? You've got what you want now.
The boy's of no use any more. He can be a danger to us all.
We must get rid of him.
But Leopold must never find out.
Don't worry! I won't trouble his delicate soul with that.
Where is the boy?
I don't know.
Vanished into thin air on the way to Hungary...
our Crown Prince and his nanny.
And all these years Ludwig believed...
...that I still had him.
Give my regards to His Majesty on his 60th birthday!
It was his 42nd.
Isn't it a lovely object?
His Majesty will be delighted.
Excellent!
The hammer, please.
Here, take it.
Take it.
Break a piece out of the vase.
Why should I do that?
Why indeed should anyone want to break
a piece from such a lovely object as Baden?
Yet that is precisely the aim of His Majesty and you.
We simply want back what belongs to us.
That's why one waits so avidly for my death.
But it won't work out like that.
The House of Baden will not die out.
I have appointed the Hochberg line as my successors.
Nothing to say, Baron Wedel?
One can't turn a swine into a stallion by decree
as much as one can't make the Hochbergs successors to the throne.
It is a deliberate breach of the law of the princes.
But my half-brother Leopold will still succeed to the throne.
And the Palatinate will remain ours.
The baron should not go home empty-handed.
It may be smaller than the Palatinate...
...but it has the same sharp edges.
And those who lay hands on it will cut themselves.
It is Baden that will injure itself, not we,
as Your Highness just demonstrated.
No outside help is needed to smash everything to pieces here, Your Highness.
Soon you get fine horse from your father Horse.
Horse I wanna be...
Horse!
Horse.
I wanna be... just such... a rider...
A rider...
...like my father.
Go on, go on!
Horse, horse, horse I wanna be...
a rider like my father. Say it: "I wanna be a rider like my father...
used to be."
I want to be a rider...
I want to be... a rider.
Like my father used to be.
I'll be back soon.
I send you a boy who wishes to serve his king.
He was laid at my door on 7 Oct. 1812.
Nuremberg Whit-Monday 1828
I'm a poor laborer with 10 children.
I raised him a Christian.
He's never been out of the house.
He doesn't know the name of my house nor the place.
If you don't want him, you must do him in
or hang him in the chimney.
Smell him, Your Worship. No alcohol, nothing!
Yet his legs won't support him.
I told you, he's demented.
Found in his trousers pocket... one painted piece of china.
In his jacket pocket... one devotional picture...
"The Art of Making Up for Lost Time."
Watch this!
Horse! Horse! Horse! Horse!
Listen carefully!
Name?
Of what rank and trade?
Age?
Can he read, write, count?
I wanna be...
a rider...
Like my father used to be.
My...
f-f-father...
Hauser, Kaspar...
Houser, Kaspar...
Kas... par...
Herewith brought to public notice in Nuremberg
a case so unusual that it captures the attention
not only of police, justice, and military,
but of all people of compassion.
I wanna be a rider...
a rider...
...like my father...
...used to be.
So.
Eye.
Ear.
Mouth.
Bravo, Kaspar.
Golden plover...
wagtail...
lesser white throat, sparrow.
What is this, Kaspar?
Boy not here!
No. Boy not here.
The boy is Kaspar.
Good. Good.
That's enough for today, Kaspar.
No!
Learn more!
Five more words... please.
Please, Professor.
It's sheer madness.
Stop this foolery!
Do you want to torment him to death?
Calm down, father!
Clear the premises.
This is Herr von Feuerbach, President of the Court,
and his daughter, Eleonore,
honoring Kaspar with a visit.
They've come specially from Ansbach...
...to see Kaspar and where he lives. - President of Court, mmm...
Dirt.
Nasty. Not good.
He hates dirt.
Kaspar will soon have a better room.
Kaspar learn quickly.
Then home to man.
He means the man who locked him up.
Why go back to that wicked man?
Man not wicked.
Not wicked to Kaspar.
Why man not come to get Kaspar?
This is even better.
In view of the absence of all traces,
we must ask if Kaspar Hauser is not from another planet.
Any other comments from London or Paris?
A ballet-dancing kangaroo
could not have attracted more attention.
But they don't react to Karlsruhe. Not at all!
Lmagine. We have kept a yokel for 12 years.
There'd be only one thing to do.
"If you don't want him,
"you must do him in or hang him in the chimney."
You worded it marvelously, especially all the errors.
Thank you, Your Majesty.
It took a long time, 62 mistakes in all, not counting the grammar.
Trust my intuition.
He is the prince.
"There is speculation
"that he was not born on the borders of Bavaria,
as claimed in the letter..."
:"but in the house of a German prince."
Do you really believe that?
The nanny and Crown Prince were last seen in Munich.
We didn't take it seriously.
What do you mean, "We"? You!
You're the damned idiot!
Yes, Your Majesty. Twelve years later a foundling turns up
with Wedel's piece of china. And now the various rumors.
It all seems to fit.
The Bavarians think they've got me by the balls.
Wedel knew what he was talking about when he said, "Baden will hurt itself."
The bottle.
Maybe he's the wrong one.
Maybe it's all a trick of the Bavarians.
The birthmark!
With that mark,
Ludwig can ruin me...
...if he's got the right person.
And the House of Baden will truly be smashed to pieces.
Things would change for you, too.
Goodbye to your hopes of being Grand Duchess.
The hostage the countess threatened me with so long...
...now threatens her own brood.
Good morning.
A bad dream again?
A nasty dream.
And now the head is heavy.
Come. Soon the head will fly again. Come.
So. One... and... two...
Do another eight.
One, two, three, four...
five, six, seven, eight.
Consistency: Soft. Very soft.
But not watery.
Smells: Putrid.
As after taking lycopodium...
No.
Nux vomica.
Good.
Nux vomica.
This coat of arms was on the door?
Yes, on the door of the big black coach, as in my dreams.
Two white horses and a woman in black.
She wears a hat
with a big white feather...
...that goes all round it.
Then another woman comes...
...takes something in her hand...
...and won't let go.
Then the black one takes a stick...
...and hits the other woman
till she screams terribly.
They're only visions, Kaspar.
But they seem real.
Buzz, buzz in my head.
Makes it heavy...
Makes it hard and gloomy.
Do you feel the pressure again?
- Shall we try some arnica? - No!
Not arnica, please...
...or the face will glow.
Then the new substance Hahnemann sent?
Shall we try that?
Let's do that, right?
Good.
Good, then.
And now...
...three paces away.
One, two, three...
Now!
Stop!
Sixteen heartbeats, Kaspar...
...at three paces distance.
It feels...
...as if Kaspar had suffered a blow...
...here.
Perhaps we had better stop?
Two paces.
You want to go on?
Very well.
It's all in the cause of truth.
One, two, three...
And...
...now!
Kaspar.
Now!
Kaspar, start counting!
Otherwise it's all wasted.
Now!
Kaspar, stop!
Twenty-two beats.
We never had as many as that!
Twenty-two beats, Kaspar.
Bleeding from the right nostril.
And water in the trousers...
if Professor want to make a note.
A decillion dilution.
Just a few atoms.
And what a wonderful reaction!
The pressure has gone.
Let me do that!
Better if Professor would enter the figures in my book.
I shall write a report today for the Academy.
Before he comes into the world...
where is man?
He's in his mother.
But why was Kaspar in a cage
and not in the mother?
Before the cage, you were in a mother, too.
- Then Kaspar has a mother, too? - Yes...
Like everyone else.
Oh, Yes!
Yes, yes, yes!
Kaspar has a mother.
The mother put Kaspar in cage because Kaspar's a bad boy.
Ah, but Kaspar's not a bad boy.
Only bad boys are locked up.
Professor Daumer says so.
He didn't mean Kaspar.
Why was Kaspar always in a cage?
I don't know.
But I shall find out.
These criminals will not escape. I promise, Kaspar.
Will the president find mother, too?
Yes. But Kaspar must help me
by writing down everything,
everything about the man and the cage, and what Kaspar remembers.
Kaspar will be a good assistant and write everything down.
Receive the kind affection of your obedient servant!
Where did you get that from?
The mayor said it to Frau von Stichaner on her birthday.
"The government is requested to order the City of Nuremberg
"to hand all documents pertaining to Kaspar Hauser
"to the Appeal Court in Ansbach.
"Local police are instructed
"to renew their search for the jail and jailers
"and for any other evidence, and to inform the judiciary.
Signed: Von Feuerbach, Ansbach, July 1828."
Are you planting the seeds in a certain order?
Indeed I am.
In what order?
The professor will see later...
maybe.
Why maybe?
Because it is quite impossible...
...for a big yellow flower to come from something so small.
A red-breasted flycatcher.
Now a song thrush.
Yes, a song thrush.
Herr Professor?
Yeah?
It is very strange.
When Kaspar was in the cage...
he did not think or wish anything.
Now he has so many thoughts and wishes.
Professor?
Yes?
If possible, Kaspar would like to remain in this world.
Is the professor at home?
No, he's gone out.
That is my name...
Kaspar.
Kaspar Hauser.
That's me.
Me.
And nothing you see here, gentlemen...
...was made by human hand. No, no.
It grew on its own...
...like these seeds.
Very interesting.
Are you quite sure?
There can be no doubt.
I have followed it with my own eyes, over a long, long time,
and noted it all down here
for science and posterity.
Please.
May I take a look?
Everything about Kaspar Hauser is in there...
...including the time he was in the cage and how hard it was.
Where are the gentlemen from?
A long way away.
From Spain?
Could the gentleman look at his friend's back?
I feel a cold blast from his touch.
From a courtyard, I ran with a goat up a staircase
to an open gallery with columns.
Inside the palace, there were twelve or thirteen rooms en suite.
One can see through them all, because the doors are open.
How do the dreams of a country bumpkin concern me?
Rumor has it he's of noble birth...
like the frog who married the princess.
Tales like that always capture people's fancy.
It's all the talk at court, too.
Idle gossip! Speculation.
If he recalls more in his dreams,
they'll soon find the offenders.
Don't say any more. It doesn't interest me.
Please forgive me.
Kathe! Would you open the door?
I think someone rang!
Is it Mr. Sweep?
He wore gloves.
On both hands?
Yes. On both.
On both hands.
He was lucky.
If I had seen one of his hands,
I might have recognized it again.
For no two human hands are alike.
Whose hand is this, dear Kaspar?
Oh, yes.
You're the President of the Court in Ansbach.
I knew the man would come to get me.
He should have killed me before I knew what life is.
Please, Kaspar. Quiet.
Even if I escape with my life now...
...the man has to kill me.
It's all my fault.
Why haven't I found them
and driven them from their holes?
The rats!
Feuerbach is now zealously looking for a gentleman
who exactly fits the description of Major Hennenhofer.
Spare me the suspense, Wedel. Who is this major?
The head of the Diplomatic Corps in the Foreign Ministry.
In Karlsruhe?
Bravo, Wedel. Bravo.
One just has to hold the carrot close enough to the donkey's nose.
But it was all so clumsy.
Thank God, or we'd have lost our Crown Prince.
He is the prince.
You were right. Worth his weight in gold.
Not gold. The Palatinate.
Also because of the Pfalz.
That's why we must guard him closely.
Orders have been issued.
Two policemen will guard him day and night.
And to show our outrage at the attempt on his life,
Your Majesty has offered 500 guilders for the capture of the offender.
First you kill the wrong child, then let the right one get away.
And now we have found him, you bungle this, too.
Yes. You're too cowardly to do it.
You always have a limp dick at the vital moment.
Tell me, Hennenhofer.
Was it a limp dick or unfortunate stupidity?
It was certainly unfortunate to deposit my knowledge
of your secrets in a safe place.
Unfortunate for you, that is.
As long as I thrive, your secret's safe.
And I thrive to see your life ebbing from your body.
Your Highness is still full of filth...
full of slime and bile that must come out.
I almost forgot, Hennenhofer.
As from today, you're stripped of all your offices
and your pension. You got that?