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IMDbPro

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser

Original title: Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle
  • 19741974
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 50m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
18K
YOUR RATING
Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.
Play trailer2:50
1 Video
96 Photos
BiographyDramaHistory
A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.A young man named Kaspar Hauser suddenly appears in Nuremberg in 1828, barely able to talk or walk, and bearing a strange note.
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
18K
YOUR RATING
    • Werner Herzog
    • Werner Herzog(book)
    • Jakob Wassermann(uncredited)
  • Stars
    • Bruno S.
    • Walter Ladengast
    • Brigitte Mira
    • Werner Herzog
    • Werner Herzog(book)
    • Jakob Wassermann(uncredited)
  • Stars
    • Bruno S.
    • Walter Ladengast
    • Brigitte Mira
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 75User reviews
    • 47Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 2:50
    Watch Trailer

    Photos96

    Hans Musäus and Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    Hans Musäus and Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    Hans Musäus and Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    Bruno S. in The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
    The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Bruno S.
    Bruno S.
    • Kaspar Hauser
    Walter Ladengast
    • Professor Daumer
    Brigitte Mira
    Brigitte Mira
    • Kathe, Servant
    Willy Semmelrogge
    • Circus director
    Michael Kroecher
    • Lord Stanhope
    Hans Musäus
    • Unknown Man
    Henry van Lyck
    Henry van Lyck
    • Cavalry Captain
    Gloria Doer
    • Frau Hiltel
    Volker Prechtel
    Volker Prechtel
    • Hiltel the prison guard
    Herbert Achternbusch
    Herbert Achternbusch
    • Bavarian Chicken Hypnotizer
    Wolfgang Bauer
    Wilhelm Bayer
    • Taunting Farmboy
    Franz Brumbach
    Johannes Buzalski
    Johannes Buzalski
    Helmut Döring
    Helmut Döring
    • Little King
    Alfred Edel
    • Professor
    Florian Fricke
    • Florian
    Heribert Fritsch
      • Werner Herzog
      • Werner Herzog(book)
      • Jakob Wassermann(uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Werner Herzog's said at his Rogue Film School, that the following scenes were shot with a Super-8mm camera: a) The opening scene on the river. b) The montage of landscape shots early in the film. c) Right after the man in black teaches Kaspar how to walk. d) The Caucasus pyramid sequence. e) The caravan in the desert with the old man tasting the sand. Herzog talked about how, for some of the landscape shots early in the film, he mounted a telephoto lens on the end of wide angle lens onto his Super 8 camera. This distorted the edges of the images and created a white/halo effect around the frame. On the DVD audio commentary of this film, he mentions how for the Caucasus pyramid sequence he projected the image onto a screen and then re-photographed the image with a 35mm camera at a different frame rate from the projected speed. He also used this technique with the caravan in the desert sequence.
    • Goofs
      In a brief scene we see a stork eating a frog with its legs tagged (ringed), but bird ringing didn't start until the end of the nineteenth century, decades after the life of Kaspar Hauser.
    • Quotes

      Opening caption: Do you not then hear this horrible scream all around you that people usually call silence.

    • Crazy credits
      Opening credits prologue: One Sunday in 1828 a ragged boy was found abandoned in the town of N. He could hardly walk and spoke but one sentence.

      Later, he told of being locked in a dark cellar from birth. He had never seen another human being, a tree, a house before.

      To this day no one knows where he came from - or who set him free.

      Don't you hear that horrible screaming all around you? That screaming men call silence?
    • Connections
      Featured in I Am My Films (1978)
    • Soundtracks
      Canon in D major
      Composed by Johann Pachelbel

    User reviews75

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    The mystery of Kaspar Hauser
    EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF AND GOD AGAINST ALL (Werner Herzog - West Germany 1974).

    Lacking a traditional narrative or dramatic structure and full of obscure images, this film feels more like a hypnotic dreamlike experience. It also features one the more enduring trends in Herzog's work: the featuring of individuals with exceptional physical or psychological conditions.

    The film is based on the true story of Kaspar Hauser, a young man who suddenly appears on the market square in the German town of Nuremberg in 1828. This strange occurrence has become one of the most enduring inspirations in German history, literature and science, with well over a thousand books written on the case. When Kaspar Hauser was found, he could barely grunt, let alone speak and caused a minor sensation among the locals. After living in a cellar for years with only a pet rocking horse, he is abandoned by his protector and provider, the mysterious "Man in Black." Having been isolated from all humans except his mysterious protector, Kaspar is suddenly thrust into civilization, and is expected to adapt himself to 19th-century society. He becomes a public spectacle and everyone in town lines up to catch a glimpse of him. Soon the local officials in town decide he is too much of a (costly) burden and, in an attempt to profit from the public interest, he is turned over to a circus ringmaster, where he is added to the local carnival freak show, as one of "The Four Riddles of the Spheres." The other three include "a midget king", "A little Mozart" (an autistic or catatonic child), and a lute playing "savage". When Hauser comes under the tutelage of a sympathetic professor (Walter Ladengast), he gradually acquires an impressive degree of socialization and learns to express himself with a reasonable degree of clarity, but most of society's conventions, manners and thoughts is more the young man is able to adjust to.

    Herzog adopted a technique of incorporating film material shot by others filmmakers into the film. Early on in the film, just before Kaspar is found on the town square, Herzog used material shot on super 8 of a Bavarian landscape and the town of Dinkelsbühl, that was almost disposed off, but Herzog thought it would be ideal for his film. These grainy shots, accompanied by a requiem of Orlando DiLasso, make for one of the most haunting images I've ever seen on film. Dream sequences are another important aspect in this film. In one of them, Kaspar Hauser has dream images of the Sahara desert, for which Herzog used material he shot in the Western Sahara on earlier occasions. I don't know of any other director who used this technique to such avail up until now. One of the most stunning scenes is when the "Man in black" leaves him with the shot on the mountain and soon after the music with the requiem starts. It's almost like a romantic twist on 2001: A Space Odyssey.

    Herzog has done a fantastic job recounting the legend of Kaspar Hauser to the screen. The casting of Bruno S. in the role of Kaspar Hauser is of particular interest. He was a street artist in Berlin, when Herzog found him and decided he would be ideal to play the role of Kaspar Hauser. Before this, Bruno S. had a troubled past. After being severely beaten by his mother, he became deaf and was placed in an institution for retarded children at the age of three. At nine, when he tried to escape, he was transferred to a correctional institution. With further escape attempts, he amassed a number of criminal offenses and was incarcerated for more than twenty years. The authenticity of Bruno's performance brings such an element of sincerity to the film, that makes it almost impossible not to root for his cause. Bruno S. also starred in Herzog's STROSZEK (1976).

    Camera Obscura --- 10/10
    helpful•65
    4
    • Camera-Obscura
    • Nov 7, 2006

    Details

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    • Release date
      • November 1, 1974 (West Germany)
      • West Germany
      • German
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Croagh Patrick, Westport, Mayo, Ireland
    • Production companies
      • Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
      • Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
      • Filmverlag der Autoren
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 50 minutes
      • Mono

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