Wilhelm Voigt - The Captain of Köpenick

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


In Germany Voigt is not seen as a criminal, but rather as a folk hero and a victim of official prejudice, who was caught in the kafkaesque situation of not getting work without a residence permit, while not being able to have a residence permit without work. His story is taught to this day in German schools as an example of courageous resistance to unjust government.

In modern Germany the laws frown upon treating a former convict any differently from the rest of the population after the convict has finished his or her prison sentence; in cases of rather clever and fairly minor crimes not involving violence, this feeling is shared by most of the general population.