How did a daring robbery turn shoemaker Wilhelm Vogt into a celebrity and national legend of Germany? 120 years ago, a myth was born - this is the story of the "Captain of Köpenick".
Köpenick has been a district of Berlin for more than a hundred years. But everything about it still indicates that it is a special world with its own color and its own heroes. The name „Hauptmann von Köpenick" („Captain of Köpenick“) is found on street signs, souvenirs and tourist brochures. There are schools and bars named after him, and in front of the town hall, a bronze figure of the "captain" - a short, mustachioed man in military uniform, erected by sculptor Spartak Babayan in 1996 - greets tourists. In the summer, reenactments are organized in historical uniforms, and the local theater stages scenes from the famous story, which turns 120 this year.
"The captain still exists today as a symbol of Köpenick and as a legend," says German actor Max Hopp, who grew up in the neighborhood. "I heard this story as a child, it wasn't part of the curriculum - everyone just knows it."
But who was this man? And why has it become a symbol of the neighborhood?
A famous robbery
On October 16, 1906, shoemaker Friedrich Wilhelm Vogt bought an old Prussian captain's uniform from an antique dealer in Berlin. He then put it on and went out into the street, where he stopped several soldiers who were returning to the barracks and ordered them to go with him. They obeyed the man in the officer's uniform without hesitation.
With the improvised squad, Vogt headed for Köpenick. At the town hall, he ordered the mayor and treasurer to be arrested, posted a guard in front, and demanded that they hand over the city treasury to him. Then Vogt ordered the soldiers to take the sacks with about 4,000 marks to the station and calmly left with the money.
How much does "weigh" a Prussian uniform
"The Captain" encountered no resistance: no one asked for his documents or questioned his authority. Because of the military uniform, everyone obeyed Vogt without a second thought.
This story is told in detail in the museum of the town hall in Köpenick, dedicated to the famous robbery. At the beginning of the 20th century, Berlin was the capital of an empire in which the military was revered, and career, social status and respect were predetermined by the army uniform.
It is no coincidence that in the play by the German writer Karl Zuckmeier, which later turned this story into a national myth, one of the characters exclaims that "a man begins from lieutenant up". Another character in the play says that “a person is perceived by how he looks”.
Who is “The Captain of Köpenick”
However, there is nothing heroic in the biography of the shoemaker Wilhelm Vogt, i.e. the “Captain of Köpenick”. Visitors to the town hall museum learn that he was a man with numerous convictions - mainly for theft. He first went to prison as a teenager, then received 12 years in prison for forging postal documents, and later served 15 years for armed robbery.
Vogt was released from prison in 1906, when he was almost 60 years old, and even found a job, but because he was considered "unreliable", he was ordered to leave the city. The robbery of the town hall in Köpenick was his next failure - two days later he was caught with all the money.
The story of the daring crime quickly spread: all the newspapers wrote about it, and the anecdote about the disguised swindler and the deceived officials was passed on from mouth to mouth. People laughed at the executioners, at the mayor of Köpenick, and most of all at themselves - realizing the Germans' inherent tendency towards order, obedience and respect for the uniform.
"This is what discipline means"
But Vogt did not serve his entire sentence - he was pardoned by Kaiser Wilhelm II, who, as historians claim, laughed a lot at this story and even said the following: "This is what discipline means. No other nation in the world can compare with us!".
Thus Wilhelm Vogt became a celebrity and until the end of his life gathered audiences to whom he told the story of his ingenious deception. On his tombstone is written: "The Captain of Köpenick".
The playwright tells the story as a parable about the "little man".
In 1930, Karl Zuckmeier created his play "The Captain from Köpenick - a German Fairy Tale", but he modified the story, turning it into a parable about the "little man" and his struggle with the state machine. According to the plot of the play, Vogt is released from prison and intends to start an honest life, but he falls into the vicious circle of bureaucracy: as a former prisoner, he is not issued a passport until he finds a job, and without a passport he is not accepted for work. Therefore, the hero of the play exclaims: "I only want a piece of paper, but it is clearly more valuable than the person himself". Thus, from the anecdote about the swindler, the story of the man who remains invisible to the system arises.
The hero of the play by playwright Zuckmeier loses his sense of belonging to the country and asks bitterly: "Where is my homeland? In the police station? Or in this document?" In the end, he surrenders himself to the authorities and returns all the stolen money with a single request - to be issued a passport. In court, he asks to be dressed in the same uniform thanks to which he carried out the fraud. And in the last scene of the play, he looks into the mirror for a long time and says only one word: "Incredible!" - this is his insight into the terrible power that people are sometimes inclined to attribute to a uniform.