Wilhelm Voigt Stole A Treasury

In 1906, a broke and unemployed German shoemaker named Wilhelm Voigt put on a secondhand Prussian captain's uniform that he had assembled from several clothing dealers. Claiming to act under the Kaiser's orders, he commandeered ten real soldiers returning from guard duty in Berlin and took them by train to Köpenick. Voigt occupied the town hall, arrested Mayor Georg Langerhans and the city treasurer, and escaped with the municipal cash box containing about 3,557 marks. Police caught him ten days later, but he became a folk hero and received a pardon from Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1908.

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