KASPAR HAUSER, the mysterious German foundling who many scholars believed to be the true heir to the Baden throne, was an impostor. This is the conclusion of scientists at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Munich and the Forensic Science Service of the British Foreign Office in Birmingham.

Both teams carried out DNA tests on bloodstains found on Hauser's clothes after he was stabbed to death in mysterious circumstances in 1833. They found its genetic make-up did not match with the blood descendants of Karl of Baden (1786-1818).

"The fairytale prince's mystique has been shattered. Now the search into his origins can continue," wrote Der Spiegel, which commissioned the extensive research project.

The Kaspar Hauser story has captivated German scholars and literature: he has been the subject of more than 2,000 books, numerous reports, dramatisations, films, opera and a Suzanne Vega song.

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The "wild boy of Bavaria" was discovered in the marketplace of Nuremberg in 1828. Apparently aged 16, his mind was a blank and behaviour that of a child or an animal. He later claimed to have been kept in a hole or cellar.

It was said he was the true heir to the House of Baden, cast out in court intrigues over the succession and that this was also the reason he was later stabbed.

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But the question remains: who was Kaspar Hauser? One hypothesis now gaining ground, claims Der Spiegel, is that of Karlsruhe neurologist Gunter Hesse.

From contemporary descriptions and an autopsy report, he claims he has recognised the symptoms of an inherited disease particularly widespread in the Austrian Tyrol region.

According to this hypothesis, Hauser was the illegitimate child of a Tyrolean woman and a soldier from the occupying Bavarian cavalry, and was abandoned to fend for himself.