The most famous mystery science might never solve

Kasper Hauser was a boy who spent his life trapped in a cramp dungeon, subsisting on bread and water and sleeping on a bed made of straw. At age 16, a mystery person handed Hauser two letters and dropped him off in Nuremberg, Germany. Well…maybe. For 200 years, historians, scientists, and armchair detectives have tried to solve the baffling mystery of Kasper Hauser.

In the April 1887 issue of Popular Science, M. G. Valbert wrote “The History of a Delusion,” a comprehensive overview of everything that humanity knew—and didn’t know—about Hauser more than 50 years after his death. Valbert described Hauser as “the object of a lively curiosity,” and the people loved him so much that he was formally adopted by the city of Nuremberg, with citizens volunteering to pay for his expenses and education.

But who was Hauser really? Was he a survivor of the “forbidden experiment“? Undercover royalty? Or a child genius who craved attention? The simple answer is that for 200 years, no one knew. But could advancements in genetic testing science finally solve this fascinating mystery? In our latest video, Popular Science digs into the enduring mystery and recent scientific breakthroughs in the case of Kasper Hauser.

It’s a story of childhood behavioral development, bloody underwear, and a 1974 movie by German filmmaker Werner Herzog. Trust us, it’ll all make sense once you click play.