On October 16, 1906, German shoemaker Wilhelm Voight, just released from prison for forgery, purchased parts of used captain's uniforms. In this masquerade of a Prussian military officer he arrested the mayor and the treasurer of Köpenick for suspicion of crooked bookkeeping and confiscated the municipal funds. In Germany Voigt is not seen as a criminal, but rather as a folk hero and a victim of official prejudice, who was caught in the kafkaesque situation of not getting work without a residence permit, while not being able to have a residence permit without work.
On March 13, 1781, Prussian architect, city planner, and painter Karl Friedrich Schinkel was born, who was one of the most prominent architects of Germany of the neoclassical and neogothic epoch. He shaped the city scapes of Berlin and Potsdam with his neoclassical buildings and palaces.