Plot introduction
'The Captain of Köpenick' is a true story that could only have happened in Germany, where the authority of a uniform was obeyed without question. In 1906, an obscure Tilsiter cobbler named Wilhelm Voigt (1849-1922) purchased the second-hand uniform of a Prussian infantry captain. Wearing this, he travelled to the borough of Köpenick and ordered a troop of guardsmen to place themselves under his command. He then declared the town hall to be under military law, ordering the arrest of the mayor and treasurer and confiscating all the funds in the exchequer. (In this version it's 4,000 deutschemarks, a tidy sum.) None of Voigt's orders were questioned, and he got away with the dosh. When he was eventually caught, the German people regarded Voigt's imposture as a jolly hoax that pricked the pomposity of petty bureaucrats. Although Voigt was clearly motivated by unlawful financial gain, he emerged from the affair as a folk hero. This film is based on a stage adaptation of the original incident;
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