The Captain from Köpenick (1945 film)

The Captain from Köpenick, also known as I Was a Criminal and Passport to Heaven, is a 1945 American comedy film directed by Richard Oswald and based upon the play The Captain of Köpenick by Carl Zuckmayer and Albright Joseph. The play was based on the true story of Wilhelm Voigt, a German ex-convict who masqueraded as a Prussian military officer in 1906 and became famous as the Captain of Köpenick.

The Captain from Köpenick was Oswald's second film version of the story; the first was a 1931 German film also called The Captain from Köpenick. In the intervening years Oswald had fled Nazi Germany for France, then the United States; this was his first American film. It was completed in 1941, but due to difficulty finding a distributor, it was not released until 1945.

Shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt is released from prison after many years of hard labor. His freedom is new to him and, as he tries to navigate this strange new world, he promptly finds himself in the midst of a Prussian catch-22: To get a residence permit (passport), he must have a job, but he can only get a job if he has a residence permit. No one in the Prussian-German bureaucracy feels compelled to help him: everything must go by the book. Out of desperation, Voigt breaks into a police station to forge the much-needed permit and escape the vicious circle.

Unfortunately, Voigt is caught and again has to spend many more years behind bars. The prison's warden subjects the prisoners to the whims of his militarism. The warden loves everything military and has the prisoners re-enact famous battles. When Voigt is released, he still doesn't have his permit, but now he has a deep knowledge of military uniforms, military ranks and military speak that he can use to his advantage. In Berlin he buys and wears a used captain's uniform, then marches towards a platoon of soldiers standing guard and commands them to immediately follow him to Köpenick, a suburb of Berlin. He is so convincing that they actually do! When they arrive, he has the soldiers stage a coup-like takeover of the Town Hall so he can commandeer his much sought-after permit, but is informed by the staff the permits are now only issued in Berlin. After he pockets all of the cash in the municipal treasury, he orders his soldiers to take the train back to their original posts in Berlin and then absconds with the cash.