The Crime Book

70

O

ne of the most notorious

figures of the Roaring

Twenties, trickster Harry

Domela spent a lifetime pretending

to be someone else. In 1918, the

Freikorps – a private paramilitary

group in which 15-year-old Domela

was serving in his native Latvia

• was called to Berlin to help stage
  a putsch. After the putsch failed,
  his unit was demobilized and
  Domela was left alone, adrift, and
  penniless. As a foreigner, he was
  denied a German passport and
  forbidden to work.
  Domela decided to enter high
  society in a bid to improve his
  desperate circumstances. He
  assumed false identities, using

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Central Germany

THEME

Serial imposture

BEFORE

1817 Cobbler’s daughter Mary

Baker exposes upper-class

vanities by passing herself off

as Princess Caraboo from the

fictitious island of Javasu.

1830 German swindler Karl

Wilhelm Naundorff goes to

his grave insisting that he

is the rightful king of France,

Prince Louis-Charles.

AFTER

2004 French-born impostor

Christophe Rocancourt is

jailed for five years following

a long career spent conning

investors out of their money.

He used many aliases, even

claiming to be a Gallic relative

of the Rockefeller family.

DOMELA’S STORY

RINGS WITH THE

HIGH LUNACY OF

GREAT FARCE

HARRY DOMELA, 1926

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71

See also: Frank Abagnale 86–67 ■ The Tichborne Claimant 177

aristocratic names and titles. In

1926, his life changed irrevocably

when one of these acts of deception

went awry. The story highlights

Germany’s obsession with royalty

in that era, and the gullibility of the

country’s wealthy, privileged elite.

Charismatic chancer

When he was 20, Domela moved

to Hamburg, where he made some

money playing cards. He used it

to visit the historic university city

of Heidelberg where, adopting a

confident air, he masqueraded

for some weeks as Prince Lieven,

lieutenant of the Fourth Reichswehr

cavalry regiment, Potsdam. He

became friendly with members of

one of the exclusive, and snobbish,

student societies, which quickly

accepted him. He was entertained

lavishly, wined and dined, and

thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

However, Domela knew his

deception might be uncovered at

any time. Before that could happen,

he moved on to the city of Erfurt.

There, he selected one of the nicest

hotels, checked in as Baron Korff

and demanded one of their top

suites. The hotel manager noticed

that the new guest with the grand

manners bore a striking

resemblance to young Wilhelm of

Hohenzollern, grandson of Kaiser

Wilhelm, the last German emperor.

The two men were around the

same age and of a similar build and

appearance. The hotel manager

CON ARTISTS

Despite a humble background and

an impoverished present, Harry

Domela (far left) managed to convince

Heidelberg’s pro-monarchy elite that he

was the kaiser’s grandson (left).

speculated that the prince might

be travelling incognito, using the

pseudonym Baron Korff. The

rumour started circulating around

Erfurt. Although the monarchy had

been abolished in 1918, many

aristocratic Germans were still

devoted to the deposed royal family,

the Hohenzollerns. Domela insisted

that he was not the prince, but he

was happy to subtly sustain the

illusion, especially as it meant he

did not have to pay his hotel bill.

Domela made a trip to Berlin,

but returned quickly to Erfurt when

all the staff at his hotel addressed

him as Your Majesty – word had

spread. Then one day, during a visit

by the mayor, he was asked to sign

a book; he caved in and wrote

“Wilhelm, Prince of Prussia”. For the

next few weeks, Domela fully

embraced his new royal persona

as the “son” of Crown Prince ❯❯

The Real Harry Domela

Harry Domela was born in 1904

or 1905 into a humble but

respectable family in Kurland,

a duchy ceded to the Russians

in 1795 (now part of Latvia).

His parents were part of the

minority Baltic German

population. Domela’s father died

soon after his birth; he later

became estranged from his

mother and lost his brother in

World War I. At the age of 15, he

joined the German volunteer

corps that fought against the

Latvians. He later lost his

citizenship, and joined

thousands of other destitute

people trying to survive in a

shattered postwar Germany.

Despite having no papers,

Domela managed to eke out a

meagre living, but soon became

an unemployed wanderer. When

a street contemporary drew his

attention to the huge number

of dispossessed aristocrats

around – Germany’s nobility

had recently been stripped of

their titles and status – Domela

developed the skills and

attributes necessary to pose

as one himself.

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