Andreas Grassl

The so-called Piano Man (german piano man, actually: Andreas Grassl, born 25 October 1984) was found on 7 April 2005 in a wet suit on the beach of the coastal town of Sheerness in southeast England. The man looked confused, did not speak and was taken then to the psychiatric ward of the hospital in Dartford. The paper and pencil were given him, he drew out a wing. When they took him to a piano, he supposedly began to play for hours on it.

Since the silent piano player could not be identified, the investigator sat with several European orchestras in touch to find out if he was missing there. The case attracted great international attention. In a missing persons hotline in England more than 1000 instructions were received on the supposed identity of the man, but did not bring the investigation forward.

Several times it was said that the man had a striking resemblance to a Czech pianist. A woman claimed on Danish television, if it were her Algerian husband. He was also considered an Italian. Another hypothesis was that it was at the blond man to a Norse, as he once pointed to a map of Oslo in Norway and another time on a sheet of paper the Swedish flag drew. Norwegian students believed then to recognize an exchange student from Ireland in the man.

Because of his behavior, he was rated by physicians as mentally ill, some considered him to be an autistic. Mid-August 2005 broke the piano man his silence and revealed a nurse that he was a German. The 20 -year-old originally from Bavaria and had committed a suicide attempt in the ocean. According to statements made by the hospital staff he had told equally by his family, the farm and his two sisters.

The event led to a media hype. While many reports prior to the identification the speech of this was that the piano man was playing concert piano ripe, he is - contrary to the illustration in the newspapers - have always struck just the same button. In the popular press, a discussion arose as to how far one can go in this and similar cases of played and feigned memory gaps or needs. Similarly, it was said that he himself had stated that he had cared for the mentally ill and now imitated their behaviors. The clinic actually attested him a severe psychosis.

Is processed Literally the case in the 2008 book De Pianoman the Dutch author J. Bernlef.