853 - (Fischer).

(Fischer). A Ghostly Corpse, or Appearances Can Be Deceptive. A True Story. Annaberg, (Friedrich) Hasper 1826. 8°. 8 pp. Unbound printed sheets. An extremely rare horror story from the early 19th century. No copy is known to exist in any public collection worldwide (according to KVK). - The story recounts an incident from the 18th century. A group of young officers tell each other ghost stories: “…Lieutenant Count—(I’ll call him Hohenheim), one of the most amiable and perfect young men I have ever known. He rarely went along with our stories, listened to them only with displeasure or derision, never told such tales himself, and even declared the fear of ghosts—ghosts themselves—to be absurd. ... One night between midnight and one o’clock, Hohenheim was awakened by a distant, muffled sound that seemed to come from the far end of the corridor in the barracks. The sound drew nearer, and soon he could make out slow, solemn, and heavy footsteps—as if from many people—approaching his door. Soon he could no longer doubt that it was meant for him; for the footsteps of those in front had already passed the last occupied rooms, and at that very moment his door flew off its hinges with a loud crash. He sat up in bed, fully awake and composed. Twelve tall figures in black robes and masks, carrying torches in their hands, entered in pairs, passed silently by his bed, and made their way around his room; they were followed by a sealed coffin on a bier, carried by eight figures dressed in the same manner; followed by the mourners with long, pale faces. The bier was set down before his bed, and the coffin lid was removed;—with horror, Hohenheim saw the pale, strikingly similar figure of his deceased friend, dressed in the burial shroud in which he had been buried, lying in the coffin with his eyes open... Hohenheim had watched the beginning of the procession with visible calm, as if it were a play staged for his amusement; when he recognized the image of his friend, who had died shortly before, he stared at it for a moment—then he started up. “A hellish trick!” he cried, reaching for his pistol. As he cocked it, the figure in the coffin slowly sat up and stared at him...” (pp. 4–6). - F. Hasper (1781–1838), a printer in Annaberg, was the father of Friedrich Wilhelm Hasper (1796–1871), who took over the Braun printing house in Karlsruhe in 1822. This “Ghost” pamphlet was the subject of a smuggling case in 1826 on the Bohemian-Saxon border in the Ore Mountains. Military conductor Karl Friedrich Sättler was arrested for attempting to smuggle stacks of these so-called “Ghost” pamphlets—or penny books—bearing exactly this title into Austria (Bohemia). Sättler earned his living, among other things, by selling these stories and books at Saxon fairs (such as the one in Annaberg). Curiously, the merchant himself was illiterate and had his son manage his business. (Source: P. Pisa, *Cást druhá 1810–1848*, *For the Uneducated Reader: Literary Censorship During the Restoration and the Rise of the National Movement*, online).