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Mar 4, 2020 · Ten days later the law finally caught up with the “Captain of Köpenick,” who turned out to be Wilhelm Voigt, an impoverished shoemaker whose military flimflam act soon turned him into a folk hero. Until his October 1906 escapade, Voigt had been a lifelong resident of Köpenick, though few knew much about him.
- Wilhelm Voight – Early Years
- Moving to Berlin
- The Coup
- How ID Ended
- Aftermath
Wilhelm Voigt was born in Tilsit on 13 February 1849 as the son of a shoemaker. Already at the age of 14, Voigt was arrested for stealing, and after this he became a shoemaker who traveled around Germany. However, in the following years, he was arrested several times for various crimes. Between 1864 and 1891 he was convicted four times for theft an...
Thereupon he moved to Rixdorf near Berlin, where he lived with his older sister Bertha and her husband, the bookbinder Menz, and found work in a shoe factory. On 24 August 1906 Wilhelm Voigt was also banned from living in the greater Berlin area, although he did not adhere to it. Instead he stayed as a “Schlafbursche” in an unannounced accommodatio...
Voigt started making plans for a coup. He purchased used parts of a captain uniform of the first regiment and gave orders to several soldiers he found on the streets. Those did not recognize his costume and together they took off for Köpenickand made a short stop for a couple of beers. On their way, he explained that he is going to have the mayor a...
After the end of his action the captain of Köpenick gave his troops the order to keep the town hall occupied for half an hour. He himself went back to the station under the eyes of a curious crowd. According to newspaper reports, he was served a glass of light in the station restaurant, which he emptied in one go, and disappeared on the next train ...
All over Germany, people laughed about this act of desperation and even the court saw that not having any perspective in life after prison caused this kind of behavior. Every newspaper in the country started writing about the false captain, poems, stories and even theater plays were created and kept the political and cultural scene Germany’s busy f...
Jul 10, 2024 · In the early morning of this day he goes from his shelter at the Silesian station to the station Beusselstreet. He collects his uniform from the baggage storage and runs to the Jungfernheide park to change his clothes. He then goes to Stralau-Rummelsburg and from there by suburban train to Koepenick.
He appeared in small theatres in a play that depicted his exploit and signed more photographs as the Captain of Köpenick. In spite of the ban he toured in Dresden , Vienna and Budapest in variety shows, restaurants and amusement parks.
Oct 29, 2021 · As a fairly young state, they industrialised and expanded quickly. Living standards rose after the messy beginnings of the industrial process, wages rose by a quarter from 1885–1913, and Germans ...
The Captain of Köpenick (born Wilhelm Voigt on February 13, 1849 - January 3, 1922) was a German shoemaker, criminal and impostor who became world-famous in 1906 for a trick he played in Berlin when he pretended to be a Captain in the army.
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Nov 1, 2020 · Released from prison in February 1906, he went to live with his sister in a Berlin suburb. He worked for a well-regarded shoemaker for a short time. But the police ordered him out of Berlin solely because of his criminal record.
