REMARKABLE IMPOSTOR

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 6

REMARKABLE IMPOSTOR

"PRINCE SIEGFRIED'S" INTER RUPTED HONEYMOON.

LOCKSMITH LAUGHS AT LOVE.

Although the poor, old " Captain of Kocpenick" is dead, his spirit still lives, and astounding things can still be done in the Fatherland with a. military uniform. The " Captain" had many imitators, but not ono of them has been so daring and resourceful as a twenty-five-year-old locksmith's apprentice, Otto Merkel, who kept up the deception for two and a-half years. So writes Geo. Renwick, the ' Daily Mail's' Berlin correspondent. In May, 1919, there was received into the highest society of Hamburg a bril-liantly-uniformed young man who gave himself out as Prince Siegfried Egon Von Schliewen, son of Prince Vladimir Von Scldiewen, a noble of Latvia. No uniform was ever so brilliant as his. Wo wore the " Pour le Merito" Order, odd of the highest in Germany, the Iron Cross (first and second class), and numerous Russian war decorations. GORGEOUS HOTEL 'SUITE. Officials, politicians, and even members of the Senate of Hamburg " took him up." He' was the social lion of tho summor season, and in one of the _ first hotels of the city had a gorgeous suite. He was, ho said, commendar of a regiment of Baltic troops (troops which, it will be remembered, were remnants of Germany's eastern armies, and were supposed at the time to bo standing between Europe and Bolshevism). In this capacity ho approached the commissariat of tho 4th German Army Corps at AJtona, near Hamburg, and told a story of his need for funds for the purpose of sending reinforcements to his troops. Ho told such a believable tale that he was furnished with 27,000 marks (£450 at tho then rate of exchange). A Hamburg firm patriotically placed clothes, etc., at his disposal to the value of 12,000 marks. An automobile finn lent him a luxurious Mercedes motor car, and the hotel where he lived did. not trouble to present weekly bills to a prince. SOCIALIST " SECRETARY."

When his social engagements for the day were over ho would slip out of his uniform, and, clad in a second-hand lounge suit, would visit the headquarters of the Independent Socialist Party. Hero lie told the party officials he was private secretary of the Spartacisb leader, Lovien, a Russian who a leading rail in the Red rising at Munich. From the party he managed to secure very considerable funds. One evening, in uniform, of course, he visited the opera when "Undine" was being given, with the beautiful prima donna, Frauloin Regina Harre, in the title role. During one of the intervals _he sent her a magnificent bouquet with his princely visiting card, and thejrequest that the lady might honor him by coming to his box. THE PROPOSAL. The "prince" complimented and flattered the prima donna, and there and then laid his heart at her feet. He met her after the performance, and, with a distinguished company, they went on board a yacht he had hired and cruised about all night. A magnificent supper was served and champagne flowed. The engagement of the "prince" to the prima donna was announced when the banquet was at its height. Preparations were hurried on ; the wedding took place in the most " fashionable " church of the city, and a sumptuous banquet was given at the Hotel Europe. In the midst of all the rejoicing some unbidden guests appeared. They wero police officials, who denounced him on the spot as an impostor. FATHER IN 1 AIRPLANE.

Still the "prince" kept cool, and .suggested that if proof of his identity were wanted the police might ask his father to come to HambuTg by airplane. Meanwhile, however, other police officials had discovered papers in his bagpage proving that the man was Otto Merkel, a locksmith's apprentice, who had been a non-commissioned officer during the war, and had been in prison for begging. So of! went the "prince" to prison. Shortly afterwards Spartacist troubles broke out in Hamburg, and his friends of the Independent Socialist Party remembered him. It was a Socialist member of the Hamburg City Council who came and opened the prison cell and gave him his liberty again. The Independent Socialists, who still regarded him as Levien's private secretary, provided him with funds and a pass with which he went to Berlin.

In the capital he got into a gorgeous uniform again and passed himself off as Lieutenant Yon Petzold, adjutant to General Von Lettow-Vorbeck, the famous guerrilla warrior of German East Africa. It was the old story again ; the gorgeous suite at one of the best hotels, the accommodating bankers, hospitable hostesses, unsuspecting tradesmen. And, of course, thero was another magnificent Mercedes car.

In the car one day, with a £2O bouquet, he drove to Hamburg and presented himself before his wife, the prima donna. "Here I am," ho said joyfully. "All the stupidity of the police is really at an end, and now we can go off on our honey: moon."

It was a happy couple that sat down to lunch, but just when it was over two detectives appealed and carried him off to prison. Hero a little more of his history came out. It was proved that he was called up for military service in 1912, and went to the west front when war broke out; that he had been awarded the Iron Cross (first and second class) for bravery; and that at the end of the war ho joined the Baltic troops. While with a Baltic Tegiment he helped himself to 1,500 marks from the regimental funds, and went off on leave without permission. He was brought to trial. Counsel for the prosecution admitted that Merkel had been "made a, sort of novel-hero by the stupidity of women who were attracted by a uniform," and he did not press Jpr a heavy sentence. The sentence was three years and nine months' imprisonment. Shortly afterwards Bis marriage was declared null and void. THREW KEEPER INTO CELLAR. One day he was taking exercise in the prison yard in charge of a (warder. Coal was being delivered to the prison, and as prisoner and warder passed the door of the cellar Merkel seized nis keeper, threw Mm into the oellar, locked the door, and calmly walked out of prison. The final scene is laid in Wiesbaden, where he was arrested and sentenced to two and a-half years' imprisonment. It is probable that a host of charges will bo brought against the "prince" which will probably keep him in. prison for the rest of his life.