Harry Domela

Harry Domela

Harry Domela

a trickster who became one of the most infamous personalities of the Roaring Twenties, lived his whole life as a persona ficta.

Freikorps

In 1918, a putsch was being planned in Berlin when the _____, a private paramilitary organization that 15-year-old Domela was serving in in his home Latvia, received a call.

Hamburg

Domela relocated to ____when he was 20 years old and started playing cards for a living.

Prince Lieven

He used it to go to Heidelberg, a renowned academic town, where he spent a few weeks disguising himself as _______, a lieutenant in the Fourth Reichswehr cavalry unit, Potsdam, and projecting a sense of assurance.

Fourth Reichswehr

He used it to go to Heidelberg, a renowned academic town, where he spent a few weeks disguising himself as Prince Lieven, a lieutenant in the ______ cavalry unit, Potsdam, and projecting a sense of assurance.

Baron Korff

he then proceeded to the city of Erfurt before that could happen; he made his choice of one of the best hotels, checked in under the name _____, and made a request for one of the top suites.

Wilhelm of Hohenzollern

The hotel manager saw a remarkable likeness between the new customer with the formal manners and young _________, the grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm, the last German monarch.

Hohenzollerns

Many aristocratic Germans were remained loyal to the _____, the ousted royal dynasty, despite the fact that the monarchy had been dissolved in 1918.

Your Majesty

When every employee at his hotel greeted him as _____—a sign that news had spread—Domela made a trip to Berlin but swiftly flew back to Erfurt.

Wilhelm, Prince of Prussia

He finally gave in when the mayor asked him to sign a book during a visit, writing "______."

Kurland

Harry Domela was born in _______, a duchy that had been given up to the Russians in 1795, in 1904 or 1905 to a modest but honorable family (now part of Latvia).

15

He enlisted in the German volunteer army to fight the Latvians at the age of ___.

Foreign Legion

Domela made the decision to go to France and enlist in the _____ because of fear that word would get out about the reports and expose him.

A Sham Prince "The Life and Adventures of Harry Domela"

Harry Domela authored a book titled ______________ written by himself in Prison at Cologne.

The False Prince

He also sold the film rights and appeared in ______ (1927) when it was made.

Victor Szakja

He left Germany for the Netherlands in 1933 while posing as _______.

Jef Last

He met ______, a left-leaning Dutch author, during one of these events. last introduced Domela to André Gide, a French novelist.

Vichy France

He was temporarily held by the ______ dictatorship in a prison camp until his friend André Gide used his connections to secure his release.

Last and Gide

Domela then traveled to Belgium where, as an undocumented foreigner, he was dependent on friends like ______ for financial assistance.

Princess Anastasia Romanov

______ of Russia is one royal whose likeness has shown often in impersonations. Bolshevik militants murdered her and her family in 1918.

Mary Baker

In 1817, ____, a cobbler's daughter, exposes upper-class vanity by posing as Princess Caraboo from the made-up island of Javasu.

Karl Wilhelm Naundorff

In 1830, ______, a Swindler from Germany insists in his last moments that Prince Louis-Charles, the legitimate monarch of France, is not who he claims to be.

Christophe Rocancourt

In 2004, ______, a French imposter who has spent his whole career defrauding investors of their money, has been sentenced to five years in prison.