One Summer in Berlin - Street Art, Hidden Corners, et al.

Der Hauptmann von Köpenick

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Statue of Friedrich Wilhelm Voigt, impoverished impostor and folk hero, who in 1906 bought a Prussian captain's uniform, commandeered ten grenadiers and sergeants to come with him, marched into the Köpenick City Hall and confiscated the treasurer's cash box; the British press would write about the incident: "For years the Kaiser has been instilling into his people reverence for the omnipotence of militarism, of which the holiest symbol is the German uniform. Offenses against this fetish have incurred condign punishment. Officers who have not considered themselves saluted in due form have drawn their swords with impunity on offending privates. (...) The most absurd part of this absurd fraud (at least, to English eyes) is one which, oddly enough, has received comparatively little comment. I mean the point at which the Mayor asked for a warrant, and the Captain pointed to the bayonets of his soldiery and said, 'These are my authority.' One would have thought anyone would have known that no soldier would talk like that."