Editing Kaspar Hauser (section)

==== Hauser's account of life in a dungeon ====
[[File:Kaspar hauser denkmal.jpg|upright|left|thumb|Statue of Hauser, Ansbach, Germany]]
At first, most assumed that Hauser was a developmentally disabled person from the forests. During the course of many conversations with Binder, Hauser told a different version of his past life, which he later wrote down in more detail.<ref>Ivo Striedinger 1927, pp.&nbsp;200–201; for the primary sources, see e. g. Jochen Hörisch 1979 [http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/1448/12]</ref> 

According to Hauser's account, he had spent his youth living in [[solitary confinement]] in a dark cell. He claimed that he found rye bread and water next to his bed each morning. At times, the water would taste bitter and drinking it would cause him to sleep more deeply than usual. On such occasions, upon awakening, Hauser noticed that someone had changed his straw and cut his hair and nails. Hauser claimed that the person he met was a masked man who visited him shortly before his release. The visitor taught him to write his own name, stand and walk. The visitor then brought Hauser to Nuremberg, where he taught him to say the phrase, "I want to be a cavalryman, as my father was" (in [[Bavarian language|Old Bavarian dialect]]). Hauser claimed not to understand its meaning at the time.