Hauptmann von Köpenick affair
E637960
The Hauptmann von Köpenick affair was a 1906 incident in which an impostor dressed as a Prussian army officer seized control of the town hall in Köpenick and stole the city treasury, famously exposing the blind obedience to military authority in the German Empire.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hauptmann von Köpenick affair canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7059741 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hauptmann von Köpenick affair Context triple: [Köpenick, hasHistoricalEvent, Hauptmann von Köpenick affair]
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A.
Calas affair
The Calas affair was an 18th-century French legal case involving the wrongful execution of Protestant merchant Jean Calas, which became a symbol of religious intolerance and judicial injustice and inspired Voltaire’s campaign for civil rights and legal reform.
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B.
Nechayev affair
The Nechayev affair was a notorious 1869 Russian revolutionary conspiracy and murder scandal involving Sergei Nechayev, which exposed the extremism of radical nihilist politics and inspired later literary and political critiques.
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C.
Krupp Trial
The Krupp Trial was a post–World War II Nuremberg military tribunal in which leading executives of the German arms manufacturer Krupp were prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to their use of forced labor and support of Nazi aggression.
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D.
Wilhelmstrasse Trial
The Wilhelmstrasse Trial was one of the subsequent Nuremberg war crimes trials, prosecuting high-ranking officials of Nazi Germany’s ministries and government agencies for their roles in planning and executing aggressive war and atrocities.
-
E.
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was a 1933 arson attack on the German parliament building that the Nazis exploited to suspend civil liberties and consolidate dictatorial power.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hauptmann von Köpenick affair Target entity description: The Hauptmann von Köpenick affair was a 1906 incident in which an impostor dressed as a Prussian army officer seized control of the town hall in Köpenick and stole the city treasury, famously exposing the blind obedience to military authority in the German Empire.
-
A.
Calas affair
The Calas affair was an 18th-century French legal case involving the wrongful execution of Protestant merchant Jean Calas, which became a symbol of religious intolerance and judicial injustice and inspired Voltaire’s campaign for civil rights and legal reform.
-
B.
Nechayev affair
The Nechayev affair was a notorious 1869 Russian revolutionary conspiracy and murder scandal involving Sergei Nechayev, which exposed the extremism of radical nihilist politics and inspired later literary and political critiques.
-
C.
Krupp Trial
The Krupp Trial was a post–World War II Nuremberg military tribunal in which leading executives of the German arms manufacturer Krupp were prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to their use of forced labor and support of Nazi aggression.
-
D.
Wilhelmstrasse Trial
The Wilhelmstrasse Trial was one of the subsequent Nuremberg war crimes trials, prosecuting high-ranking officials of Nazi Germany’s ministries and government agencies for their roles in planning and executing aggressive war and atrocities.
-
E.
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was a 1933 arson attack on the German parliament building that the Nazis exploited to suspend civil liberties and consolidate dictatorial power.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
confidence trick
ⓘ
criminal incident ⓘ historical event ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Affäre Hauptmann von Köpenick
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Captain of Köpenick affair NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| amountStolen | about 4000 marks ⓘ |
| chronology | occurred before World War I ⓘ |
| country | German Empire ⓘ |
| date | 1906-10-16 ⓘ |
| describedAs | Hauptmann von Köpenick NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| exposed |
authoritarian nature of Prussian militarism
ⓘ
blind obedience to military authority in the German Empire ⓘ |
| genreOfReception | satire ⓘ |
| hasAftermath |
international publicity
ⓘ
public embarrassment for Prussian authorities ⓘ widespread press coverage in Germany ⓘ |
| hasCulturalImpact |
became a popular satirical symbol in German culture
ⓘ
term "Hauptmann von Köpenick" used as synonym for audacious impostor NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasLegacy |
frequently referenced in discussions of German militarism
ⓘ
tourist interest in Köpenick related to the event ⓘ |
| hasMainProtagonist | Wilhelm Voigt NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
abuse of authority
ⓘ
critique of militarism ⓘ power of uniforms and rank ⓘ |
| inspiredWork |
Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (1931 film)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (1956 film) NERFINISHED ⓘ Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (play) NERFINISHED ⓘ various stage and film adaptations ⓘ |
| involvedImpersonationOf |
Hauptmann (captain) of the Prussian army
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Prussian army officer ⓘ |
| laterDevelopment | pardon of Wilhelm Voigt by Kaiser Wilhelm II ⓘ |
| legalConsequenceForPerpetrator |
arrest of Wilhelm Voigt
ⓘ
imprisonment of Wilhelm Voigt ⓘ |
| location |
Berlin
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Köpenick NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mediaCoverage | extensively reported in newspapers of the time ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being carried out without real military authority
ⓘ
demonstrating unquestioning obedience of soldiers to uniform ⓘ its satirical and political interpretations ⓘ |
| partOf |
history of Berlin
ⓘ
history of the German Empire ⓘ |
| perpetrator | Wilhelm Voigt NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| resultedIn |
seizure of Köpenick town hall
ⓘ
theft of city treasury of Köpenick ⓘ |
| target | Köpenick town hall NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| year | 1906 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Hauptmann von Köpenick affair Description of subject: The Hauptmann von Köpenick affair was a 1906 incident in which an impostor dressed as a Prussian army officer seized control of the town hall in Köpenick and stole the city treasury, famously exposing the blind obedience to military authority in the German Empire.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.