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Mar 4, 2020 · The Captain of Köpenick was the center of drama to the last—and well beyond. As the funeral procession was on its way to reinter Voigt’s remains at his new resting place in the Notre-Dame cemetery, it passed a platoon of French soldiers, and a member of the funeral cortège informed its commanding officer that the famous Captain of Köpenick was going on his last journey.
- 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...
Wilhelm Voigt (13 February 1849 – 3 January 1922) was a German con man and impostor.His most famous exploit was in 1906, when Voigt masqueraded as a military officer of the elite Prussian Guards, rounded up a number of Imperial German Army soldiers under his "command", arrested the Mayor of Köpenick, and "confiscated" 4002 marks from the city treasury.
One day in October 1906, the 57-year-old ex-convict Wilhelm Voigt dressed himself in the uniform of a Prussian captain, assembled from several second-hand stores. So equipped, Voigt intercepted two squads of soldiers who were going off duty, and ordered the soldiers to accompany him to the town hall of the Berlin suburb of Köpenick.
- Benjamin Carter Hett
- 2003
Jun 13, 2022 · According to Winfried Löschburg, members of the city council (Stadtrat), who despite Voigt's takeover had been admitted into the building for a scheduled meeting, attempted to contact the district administrator (Landrat) of Teltow as well as the commandant's headquarters in Berlin, which both initially took the request for information about the “military occupation” of Köpenick's city ...
4 days ago · Quick Reference. A: Carl Zuckmayer Pf: 1931, Berlin Pb: 1930 Tr: 1932 G: Com. in 3 acts; German prose S: Berlin and environs, 1910 C: 43m, 11f, 2 children (f)Wilhelm Voigt is a 46-year-old cobbler in the working-class district of Köpenick in Berlin. Because he has been imprisoned for 15 years for a minor forgery, he is unable to obtain a ...
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The celebration of the “Captain of Köpenick” continued even after the Berlin police finally identified and apprehended the perpetrator ten days later, on October 26. Yet despite Wilhelm Voigt's long criminal record, which included forgery, breaking and entering, and attempted armed robbery, the audacious stunt in Köpenick transformed him overnight into a modern folk hero.
