joerookery
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ps1783 by joerookery, on Flickr
Wilhelm Voigt
A very famous incident was the “Captain of Köpenick.” In this 1906 incident, a 54-year-old career criminal (Wilhelm Voigt), went to the city of Köpenick looking for a passport to establish residency. He was caught in a loop where he could not find work in the cobbler trade he had learned in prison. Without a passport, he could not gain residency
Unfortunately, he discovered that the city did not process passport requests. After making a thorough reconnaissance, he went to several secondhand shops and pieced together a secondhand captain’s uniform. He commandeered ten soldiers on the street, led them to the town hall, arrested the mayor, and demanded that the city treasury be turned over to him. Everyone complied immediately because he was a captain, and he stole 4000 marks. This farce eventually became a stage play. As a side note,Voigt became wildly popular. After a two-year prison term, he became a media personality, amassed significant personal wealth but lost it during German hyperinflation. He died in Luxembourg in 1922.
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