The Beringer Hoax

But historians Melvin E. Jahn and Daniel J. Woolf, who in 1963 produced the first English translation of Beringer's book, showed the truth behind the tale lies not in farcical student antics but in a slanderous plot by Beringer's jealous colleagues. Far from dying as a result of his shame, Beringer initiated legal proceedings. The stones were proved to be fake and the perpetrators revealed: J. Ignatz Roderick, professor of geography, algebra, and analysis at the university, and Georg von Eckhart, privy councillor and librarian to the bishop's court and university. Eckhart and Roderick were disgraced, but Beringer kept his job, lived another 14 years, and published several more books.

Roderick and Eckhart had hired 17-year-old Christian Zanger to assist them. Roderick carved the stones, which Zanger polished. In court, Zanger said Roderick devised the scheme "because Beringer was so arrogant and despised them all." Zanger and two other boys, Niklaus and Valentin Hehn, who were not in on the hoax, were then hired by Beringer to excavate and collect the stones. Some were planted, to be found by Zanger or the Hehns, others Zanger sold directly to Beringer.