In naam des keizers

Summary

The tragi-comical, real-life story of the man who was perhaps the world's most famous "captain" and whose pranks caused the whole world to laugh.

The elderly shoe-maker Wilhelm Voigt goes to the railway station, where, in a toilet cubicle, he discards his own ragged clothes and dons a second-hand captain's uniform he has bought in a junk shop. This uniform, because of the rank it gives him, commands blind obedience and respect from everyone he encounters. Although he has never been in the army, because of his authoritative tone he is able to commandeer a group of soldiers and march with them to the town hall, where he "arrests" the mayor of Köpenick and "confiscates" the town treasury containing 4,000 Marks.

The story of Wilhelm Voigt has been filmed many times. In Germany in 1906 there were three versions, all titled Der Hauptmann von Köpenick, one directed by Carl Buderus & Carl Sonnemann, with Carl Sonnemann in the title rôle; the second directed by Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers, with Ernst Baumann as the captain; and the third directed by Herr Schaub, with an unnamed stage actor.