Harry Domela - Der Falsche Prinz

 Fifteen-year-old Domela was in a private paramilitary group that got moved to Berlin to help stage a putsch. After it failed his unit was de-mobilised and Harry was left alone in Berlin adrift and penniless. As a foreigner, he was denied a passport and not able to get gainful employment. 

 To combat this he invented different personalities and aristocratic names to weave himself into high society, and his life changed dramatically when he moved to Hamburg and won some money playing cards. He used these gains to visit the historic university city of Heidelberg and boldly masqueraded as Prince Lieven of the 4th Reichswer.

 He became very friendly with members of this exclusive high society and he was entertained, wined and dined by the finest Hamburg had to offer. He would adopt a style where he would move to a new city before it was noticed that he wasn't who he said he was and continued the scam in every place he went. A hotel manager convinced himself that he was in fact Wilhelm of Hohenzollern, Grandson of the Kaiser Wilhelm pretending to be someone else. A lot of Germans were still dutifully loyal to their royal family despite their abolishment in 1918.  Domela made a trip to Berlin, then returned to the hotel where all the staff and guests began to call him "your majesty." He was invited everywhere. He accepted gifts but never asked for money knowing deep down that he could not keep up the act forever.

 In 1917 the newspapers wrote that the real Prince Lieven was planning a trip to Heidelberg, and panicking the ruse would be found out he tried to flee to France to join the foreign legion but was caught and arrested by the police. He was imprisoned for seven months in Cologne and awaiting trial for fraud. He wrote a book whilst in prison. At his trial the jury acquitted him. 

 He found legitimate success in his book, and two plays were made about his life, eventually, he sold the film rights to his story. Finding he had an interest in films he opened up a cinema in Berlin which was a financial failure and when the Nazi's surfaced he swiftly moved to the Netherlands changing his name to Victor Szaijka. He became a communist and made a friend called Jeff Last who introduced him to Andre Gide. Him and Last became very close and often stayed up into the early hours discussing Neitzsche and Holderlin. As a homosexual, he realised he could not return to his fascist homeland.  

He and Last were accepted into the Spanish Republican Regiment and in 1939 he got in trouble en route to France for left-wing agitation. He was briefly detained in a prison camp before his friend Last used his influences to get him out, he went to Belgium where he lived off of the kindness of some friends before returning to the South of France where he was interned and spent eighteen months in prison. He managed to get a Mexican passport, however, and in 1942 left Europe completely. 

 En route to South America, he was detained by the British and had to spend ANOTHER two and a half years in jail. When he was released he made for Cuba where he got into a car accident leaving him with severe injuries. In his despair, he attempted to take his own life, but failed. 

 He relocated to Venezuala after World War Two where he worked at the Coca Cola factory. He faded into obscurity but finally found some level of happiness when he became an art teacher. 

 In 1996 he was suspected of being a rat-line Nazi and questioned by the Venezuelan authorities, thankfully his old friend Jeff Last was able to provide an affidavit on his accuser. This restored his reputation, but he sadly lost his job. 

 He spent the rest of his days in hiding and died penniless on the 4th of October 1979.