Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt (February 13, 1849 - January 3, 1922) was a German impostor who masqueraded a Prussian military officer in 1906 and became famous as the Captain of Köpenick (Hauptmann von Köpenick).

Voigt was born in Tilsit, Germany (now Sovetsk, Russia). In 1863, aged 14, he was sentenced for 14 days in prison for theft, which led to his expulsion from school. He learned shoemaking from his father.

Between 1864 and 1891, Voigt was sentenced to prison for a total of 25 years for thefts and forgery. The longest sentence was a conviction for 15 years for theft. He was released on February 12 1906.

Voigt traveled from place to place until he settled in Rixdorf in Berlin and went to live with his sister. He worked briefly as a court shoemaker until, on August 24, 1906, police expelled him from Berlin as undesirable. Officially he left for Hamburg, although he remained in Berlin as an unregistered resident.

On October 16 1906 Voigt was ready for his next caper. He had purchased parts of used captain's uniforms from two different shops and tested their effect on soldiers. He had resigned from the shoe factory ten days previously. He took the uniform out of baggage storage, put it on and took a train to Köpenick, east of Berlin.

In Köpenick he went to the local army barracks, stopped four grenadiers and a sergeant on their way back to barracks and told them to come with him. Indoctrinated to obey officers without question, they followed. He dismissed the commanding sergeant to report to his superiors and later commandeered 6 more grenadiers from a shooting range. Then he took the soldiers to the Köpenick city hall and told them to cover all exits.

He had the town secretary Rosenkranz and mayor Georg Langerhans arrested for suspicions of crooked bookkeeping and confiscated 4000 marks and 70 pfennigs - with a receipt, of course. Then he commandeered two carriages and told the grenadiers to take the mayor and the treasurer Wiltberg to Berlin to General Moltke for interrogation. He told the remaining guards stand in their places for half an hour and then left for the train station. In the train he changed to civilian clothes and slipped out.

In the following days the German press speculated on what had really happened. At the same time the army ran its own investigation. The public seemed to be positively amused by the daring of the culprit.

Voigt was arrested on October 26 and on December 1 sentenced to four years in prison for forgery, impersonating an officer and wrongful imprisonment. However, much of the public opinion was on his side. German Kaiser Wilhelm II pardoned him on August 16, 1908. There are some claims that even the kaiser had been amused by the incident.

Voigt decided to capitalize on his fame. His wax figure appeared in the wax museum in Unter den Linden four days after his release. He appeared in the museum to sign his pictures but public officials banned the appearances on the same day. 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. In 1909, he published a book about his caper. Although his American tour almost failed because the immigration authorities refused to grant him a visa, he arrived in 1910 via Canada. He also ended up in Madame Tussaud's museum in London.

In 1910, he bought a house in Luxemburg and retired, but post-World War I inflation ruined his wealth. Voigt died in Luxemburg.

A movie, titled Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, was produced about the affair. There was also a play written about the affair in the 1930s, and an English language adaptation was written some years later by John Mortimer.

External link

• http://www.koepenickia.de/english/0_home/home_en.htm