Wilhelm Voigt
| Wilhelm Voigt | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt February 13, 1849 Tilsit, Province of Prussia, Prussia |
| Died | January 3, 1922 (aged 72) Luxembourg |
| Nationality | German |
| Other names | The Captain of Köpenick |
| Occupation | Shoemaker |
Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt (13 February 1849 – 3 January 1922) was a German impostor who, in 1906, masqueraded as a Prussian military officer, rounded up a number of soldiers under his "command", and "confiscated" more than 4,000 marks from a municipal treasury. Although he served two years in prison, he became a folk hero as The Captain of Köpenick (Der 
Hauptmann von Köpenick ) and was pardoned by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Voigt was born in Tilsit, Prussia (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast). In 1863, aged 14, he was sentenced to 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, forgery and burglary. The longest sentence was a 15-year conviction for an unsuccessful burglary of a court cashier's office. He was released on 12 February 1906.
Voigt drifted from place to place until he went to live with his sister in Rixdorf near Berlin. He was briefly employed by a well-reputed shoemaker until the local police expelled him from Berlin as an undesirable, based solely on the fact that he was an ex-convict, on 24 August 1906. Officially he left for Hamburg, although he remained in Berlin as an unregistered resident.
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