WEBVTT - The Self-Reported Life of the Sham Prince 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:04.680 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:14.720 and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. As a 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:19.360 hint of sun peaked through the two Gothic spires of 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:24.880 the Cologne Cathedral, the sound of a man's footsteps broke 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:29.800 the quiet of the sleeping early morning city streets. Though 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:34.479 the cathedral remained in the man's sights, his destination was 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:39.080 not the salvation of the church. Rather, he was headed 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:43.879 toward a home for the damned, the nearby Cologne Prison. 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.720 Being a prison guard wasn't the most glamorous job in 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.280 the world. In fact, it probably would be more accurate 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.960 to call it bleak. But in the years following the 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.120 Great War, a job was a job, and there was 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:03.360 little room for them. This man to complain. By June 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:08.000 of nineteen twenty seven, the fresh wounds left behind by 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:13.240 World War One had mostly healed, though it wasn't difficult 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.399 to remember just a few years earlier, in nineteen twenty three, 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:22.320 when the German financial market had all but imploded, with 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:27.960 runaway inflation so rampant that some families resorted to burning 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.360 their German marks as kindling to keep warm in the winter. 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:35.720 While those desperate enough to still use the currency for 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:40.400 its intended purpose raced to the markets on payday in 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:44.479 hopes of gathering enough scraps of food before the prices 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:50.840 would inevitably rise again. Luckily, in the near decade since 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:56.760 the war ended, Germany's financial straits had seemingly resolved. But 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:02.320 scars like that don't heal over. The sheer number of 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:07.320 men behind the prison bars, each face haunted by crimes, 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:12.200 likely committed out of poverty and desperation, were in all 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:17.239 too real reminder of that. After clocking in, the guard 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:22.080 went about his typical rounds, observing the inmates with the 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:26.320 same detached air that he had become accustomed to as 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:31.080 a guard. Every day. He walked past everyone from petty 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:35.360 criminals to violent offenders. But the guard's job wasn't to 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.280 judge them for their crimes. The court saw to that. 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:45.240 Of course, that didn't stop prison guards from talking amongst themselves. 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:50.400 And while this prison held dozens of men, each with 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.560 their own stories to tell since January of that year, 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:59.120 there was only one inmate that the guards were interested 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:03.359 in talking about. From the outside, this man wasn't who 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:07.680 you'd expect to be a hardened criminal. He had soft, 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.679 delicate features. His skin was pale and smooth, unmarred by 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:17.320 the calluses and wrinkles that so often signified a life 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:21.600 of hard labor or poverty. But more than this prisoner's 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:25.480 appearance was the way he chose to spend his days. 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.640 He may have ventured into the mess hall at meal times, 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.800 may have even taken to the fresh air when it 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.480 was allowed, But what this man did with his free 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:40.440 time in his cell was the primary source of his 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:45.640 air of mystique. More often than not, when guards walked 0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:49.600 past this man's cell, they saw him hunched over on 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:54.560 his cot or over a table with ink stained fingers, 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.720 scribbling frantically over pages that he never seemed to tire 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:02.440 of filling. In the months since this man came to 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.920 the prison, his quarters had become littered with crumpled pieces 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.960 of parchment and stacks of loose leaf paper decorated with 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:16.400 his musings. And perhaps the most unsettling aspect was the 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:20.720 fact that, even after six months in prison, he hardly 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:26.520 showed any signs of slowing down his writings. In the 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.760 years after the Great War, men had gone to absurdly 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:35.200 desperate measures to keep themselves and their families afloat in 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:40.120 the bereft New German Republic. But the rumors that swirled 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:45.359 around the prison about this exceedingly prolific man in his 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:50.040 cell topped all those stories of all those prisoners that 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:55.360 came before him. Until six months ago, no one had 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.880 ever heard the name Harry Domila. But after his arrest, 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:04.800 the prison guards in Cologne lingered just a moment longer 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:09.240 outside of his cell, each day, craning their necks to 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.600 get a glance at the men who fooled a nation 0:05:13.279 --> 0:05:18.400 into thinking that he was the recently deposed Prince Wilhelm 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:23.000 of Prussia, the man who conned himself into some of 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:27.799 the most exclusive rooms and parties in Germany with nothing 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.600 more than the clothes on his back and the lies 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:38.279 through his teeth. Before nineteen twenty seven, Harry Damila was 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.240 a nobody. But as that sixth month came to a 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:47.080 close and Damila stared down at the array of pages 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:51.320 that littered the floor of his cell, a small smile 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:56.160 likely crept onto his face as he no doubt felt 0:05:56.279 --> 0:06:01.320 the eyes of the omnipresent guards on his back. After 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:06.000 so long parading in the shadow of someone else, the 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:11.080 eyes of the world were finally turning to him, and 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.880 as he took in the mass of pages that made 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:19.960 up the now completed first draft of his memoir, he 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:24.279 was confident that the world would be unable to ever 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:34.040 forget him. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is noble Blood. 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:40.120 On February sixth, nineteen twenty seven, The New York Times 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:46.599 was decorated with an iconic headline, false German prince lived 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:51.839 a gay life for many weeks. The subhead added, Harry Domila, 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:57.719 soldier and vagabond received honors paid only to royalty. Now, 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.760 even if the term had yet to be invented, I 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.320 know a clickbait title when I see one, But in 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:08.480 the case of this article, the stranger than fiction premise 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:12.280 is more than just a hollow headline meant to grab 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:18.600 the reader's attention. Notable quotes include Damala attending quote fencing 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:22.800 parties given in his honor every day and champagne suppers 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.440 every night, as well as his meeting the Mayor of 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:30.360 Gotha and when asked whether he should be addressed as 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:36.320 your Oyal Highness or your Imperial Highness, allegedly he said, 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.840 with a wave of the hand call me Wilhelm if 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:45.240 you like. It is every journalist's dream, a true Aladdin, 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:50.240 Prince Ali, a Babwa parading across Germany, only instead of 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:55.240 a magic, all powerful genie. The only resources at Damala's 0:07:55.320 --> 0:08:00.360 disposal were his charm, good looks and an abundant lack 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:05.400 of quite literally anything else to lose. But the subtext 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:11.240 underneath the entire article boils down to one question, how 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:14.440 did he do it? How did one man fool the 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:18.440 upper echelons of an entire nation into lavishing him with 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:25.080 gifts and Champagne suppers without a penny to his name. Well, 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.640 in order to fully understand just how Harry Domelup pulled 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.920 off his royal deception, we need to take a brief 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.360 step back and talk about what Germany looked like in 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:49.920 the aftermath of World War One. When the war ended 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:54.080 in November nineteen eighteen, the German people were in a 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.120 state of flux. The country they knew as the German 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:02.640 Empire dissolved in the wake of the November Revolution, a 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:07.920 period of civil unrest from November nineteen eighteen until August 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:13.719 nineteen nineteen, when pressures between the working classes and aristocratic 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:18.880 elite came to a head following Germany's devastating losses in 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:23.440 the war. From the ashes of the German Empire came 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:29.560 the German Republic, a new democratic parliamentary republic, which in 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:35.160 turn cemented the end of the nation's monarchy in addition 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:38.400 to a new form of government. The end of World 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:42.880 War One brought forth the Treaty of Versailles, which, in 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.920 the absolute simplest of terms, for the sake of this episode, 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:52.839 blamed Germany for instigating the war and sought financial compensation 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:57.040 to the Allied powers for the damages that it caused. 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:02.560 The ensuing financial strain on an already war torn Germany 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.400 caused the newly founded Republic to stumble into one of 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:13.120 the worst financial crisses in history, having gone into debt 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.400 to pay for their war efforts. Germany's loss in the 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:21.640 war already had them at a substantial financial deficit, but 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.960 with the reparations the Allies saddled them with paying, Germany 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:31.760 was put into even more unimaginable debt, ultimately sending the 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:36.880 country into such a drastic case of hyper inflation that, 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:40.440 in some reports, a loaf of bread that had cost 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:44.640 one hundred and sixty marks in nineteen twenty two, rose 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:48.760 to over two hundred billion by the fall of nineteen 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:53.760 twenty three. This tenuous state of affairs in the newly 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:59.840 founded German Republic left its citizens destitute in a country 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:04.800 already floundering with its national identity. For the working class, 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:11.000 whose fixed salaries were suddenly worthless, survival was their primary concern, 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:16.320 But the former aristocratic elite were forced to reckon with 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:20.680 a new Germany, one which no longer put its stock 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.520 in the monarchy or cared much about the status of 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:35.240 high society. Which brings us to our favorite prolific prison 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:40.880 inmate and fraudulent German Prince, Harry Damila. Though I feel 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.040 I can't continue this story without mentioning the fact that, 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:48.680 apart from the previously mentioned New York Times article from 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:53.520 February nineteen twenty seven, most of what we know about 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:58.440 Damila's life comes from those pages that lay scattered across 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.960 his prison cell. They would eventually be compiled into his 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:08.760 best selling memoir titled A Sham Prince, The Life and 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.640 Adventures of Harry Damila, as written by himself in prison 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:18.760 at Cologne January to June nineteen twenty seven. As you 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:21.960 would expect from a man who decided to write a 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:27.120 memoir after being imprisoned for parading around impersonating a former 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:31.920 German prince. This guy had an excessive amount of what 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:36.360 I think we can call main character syndrome, the type 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.800 of person who feels it starting to rain and decides 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.920 that it must be the universe unfairly singling them out 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.600 for some cosmic misdeed, rather than you know that it's 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.600 just reigning out. That being said, should you ever find 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.760 yourself in possession of a copy of this memoir, it 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:59.480 is no doubt an interesting read. Damila is a compelling, 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:05.240 though at times painfully self indulgent, storyteller who manages to 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:10.440 paint his many, many personal anecdotes with the sides that 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:15.280 give us insight into these stark differences between the working 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:21.800 and aristocratic classes in post World War One Germany. At 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.160 the same time, though the book is obviously an interesting text, 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.600 I would, by no stretch of the imagination call this 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.480 an unbiased account of the event that took place, So 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:38.640 bear that in mind. Whether Damila is begging for help 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.720 on the streets of Berlin or tricking German aristocracy into 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:47.559 believing him to be former nobility. Damila predictably paints himself 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.520 as the hero of his story, and why shouldn't he. 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:56.560 It's his memoir, his story. But as far as delving 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:59.960 into the historical accuracy of it all, I just want 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:04.120 to reiterate that in the case of Harry Damila, there 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:09.800 really are no quote unquote accurate historical accounts to go by. 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.960 That isn't to say he's outright lying about his exploits, 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:16.840 but when going through his work, I find it's more 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.720 worthwhile to view his story through a more critical lens, 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.800 one that takes into account the fledgling sense of German 0:14:24.920 --> 0:14:28.920 identity that citizens struggle to take hold of in their 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:34.360 newly founded republic following their losses in World War One. Okay, 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.880 with the historical context and memoir disclaimers out of the way, 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:50.320 let's get into the good parts the story. In nineteen 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:54.560 oh four, Harry Damola was born into a small agricultural 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:58.320 town on the border of the Russian Empire. Today, the 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:02.200 area known as Corland resides within the country of Latvia, 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.280 but as Damala came of age in the midst of 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:10.720 World War I, the area in and surrounding Courland essentially 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:15.360 made up the Eastern Front, seemingly surrounded by war at 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:20.240 every turn. At fourteen years old, Damala joined the Free Corps, 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:25.440 a private militia group fighting under the German Empire against 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:30.160 Baltic rebels. Ousted from his home in the fallout of 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:34.360 the Bolshevik Revolution, Damala found a new place to call 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:39.800 home among the ranks of other Free Corps soldiers. It 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:43.400 was during this time when he spent his nights huddled 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:48.560 around campfires with other young men, telling stories that Damala claims, 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:53.200 quote it was here I learned all about lying and bragging, 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:57.480 the sort of lying and bragging that hurts nobody, and 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:01.720 which would only take in somewhere even more stupid than 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:07.320 oneself end quote. Of course, simple lies that have no 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:11.920 consequences except for those stupid enough to fall for them. 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.960 It's a wonder Damla didn't succumb to altitude sickness from 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.239 the height at which he stood atop his own pedestal. 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.440 But I digress. When the war ended, the Free Corp 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:28.120 dismissed Damla on account of his being underage and now 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:31.400 without a home left to go back to, he set 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:36.320 off for Germany to start a new life. Unfortunately for him, 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:41.880 without German citizenship or any papers at all to identify himself. 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:47.640 Damlo is left with few to know resources at his disposal. 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.240 Should he try to get work, he would be turned 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.960 away for not having German papers. Then, unable to make 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.720 a livable wage, he was forced to starve on the 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:04.680 sleeping in train stations to keep warm until police would 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:09.480 arrest him and subsequently detain him for not having papers 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:13.679 proving his identity. Eventually he would be released and the 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.680 cycle would start over again. During these years, he would 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:23.040 run into a motley crew of interesting characters that sort 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.000 of seem like they're out of an edgy Dickens novel 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.880 from a cocaine addict named Wolf who took Domila under 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:33.240 his wing and taught him how to survive on the 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:38.080 streets of Berlin. To a man who called himself Baron Luderates, 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.000 who was, in fact, in case you hadn't guessed, not 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:46.240 a baron at all. The man who Damala described as 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:50.840 quote looking like a scarecrow with worn shoes and an 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:55.280 eclectic wardrobe that hung limply off his frame, seemed to 0:17:55.280 --> 0:18:00.760 make his living selling pamphlets, and after attempting to sell 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.639 Domila some of his wares, the two shared a meal together, 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:08.720 after which the man came clean about his true identity. 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:13.600 Quote my name is simply Luderates. But since old Baron 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:18.000 von Rothschild addressed me in Vienna as her baron, I 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.639 am a baron who's going to stop me? Titles of 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:24.880 nobility have been abolished by the constitution of the right, 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.840 So I am a baron end quote. Initially Domila laughed 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:34.240 at his odd counterpart, but throughout the meal the quote 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:39.320 baron had taken to calling him her graff, insisting you 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:43.639 look like a count ergo you are one. And while 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:49.960 the quote Baron's words had first made Domila scoff, after 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:54.520 their meal, Damila's laughter seemed to die on his lips. 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:59.920 In his own words, quote was he so wrong? After all? Should? 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.320 Did I not have had a much easier time as 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:08.840 a nobleman? Endote? You can probably guess what happened next. 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:14.200 After his introduction to Baron Ludertz, Damila began to adopt 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:19.880 his own self imposed honorary titles, often passing himself as 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:25.240 Baron Korff during his travels. This worked with varying degrees 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.320 of success, until after winning a lucky hand of cards, 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:34.240 Damila decided to travel from Berlin to Heidelberg, and his 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.399 career as a fraudulent noble took on a life of 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:50.960 its own. A few decades before all of this, in 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:56.119 nineteen o six, a con man named Wilhelm Voit famously 0:19:56.240 --> 0:20:00.040 used a cobbled together military uniform and pretended to be 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:03.399 a captain, And he actually got a number of soldiers 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:07.040 behind him under his command, and he enacted a robbery 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:11.280 under the guise of official duty. It was a famous case. 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:16.240 While Voight was arrested and imprisoned, he became something of 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:19.959 a folk hero in Germany, as the quote captain of 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:25.240 Copenick Kaiser Wilhelm second would actually pardon him. There was 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:29.040 a silent movie made about Voight in nineteen twenty six, 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:34.040 the year before Damila's impersonation, and you have to wonder 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:39.640 whether maybe Damla either saw the movie or felt something 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:45.200 in the air, the sense that maybe confidence could be key, 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:50.520 and that pretending to be somebody powerful might actually make 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:57.600 you powerful. Upon arriving in Heidelberg, Damala decided to wander 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:03.120 the historic university town and introduce himself to the known 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:09.360 aristocratic student social group, the Saxo Borussia. He'd known royals 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.639 from Courland who had taken part in the famous group, 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:18.040 and upon finding them, he introduced himself as Prince Levin 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:24.640 Lieutenant in the fourth Reichwack Cavalry Regiment Potsdam. The effect 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:29.240 he had on the students was instantaneous. Members of the 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:33.640 Saxo Barassia began tripping over themselves to buy him drinks, 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:37.360 take him out to the most exclusive clubs and shows, 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.960 and generally flaunt their wealth and status in front of 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.760 a figure that represented a time and way of living 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:48.639 that had been lost after the war, but which they 0:21:48.760 --> 0:21:54.520 still romanticized. For Domila, this was his first real taste 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:58.679 into how the other half lived and how out of 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:01.600 touch they seemed to be with the plight of the 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:06.800 working class. When passing a local soup kitchen at the university, 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:10.720 one member of the Saxo Borussia scoffed at the very 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:15.439 thought of disenfranchised students being able to get free food. 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:19.800 In return, Domila, with what I imagine to be a 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:25.760 golden halo of purity and righteousness adorning his now saintly visage, 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:30.600 retorted quote, it must make you feel damned uncomfortable to 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.159 live up there in such a fine core house without 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.280 a care in the world, while your fellow students down 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:41.199 here don't know how they are meant to keep themselves alive. 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:45.919 The next day, according to Damila, he soon tired of 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:50.160 the Saxo Barosia fawning over him and decided to turn 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:54.360 over a new leaf, leaving his persona of Prince Levin 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:58.800 behind in Heidelberg as he set out for Irfurt, only 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:03.719 to check into his hotel hell there as Baron Korff. Apparently, 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:07.159 the judgment he felt in regards to his counterparts in 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:11.320 Heidelberg wasn't enough to fully convert back to a life 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:16.119 of being simply Harry Domila in any case, similar to 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:20.520 his experience with the members of the Saxo Berusia, Damiala's 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:25.040 noble alter ego soon took on a new life of 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:31.080 its own, unrelated to his new identity. In airport, Domiala 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:34.960 happened upon an old friend who knew him as Harry, and, 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:37.639 upon visiting him at the hotel where he was staying, 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:41.240 asked him a question that would go on to shape 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:46.600 the rest of Domila's life. Quote, I say, Harry, do 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:49.399 you know whom they are taking you for? Here? For 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:55.600 Prince William of Prussia. Damila laughed in turn, telling him quote, 0:23:55.920 --> 0:24:01.520 don't make silly jokes, my friend. But unbeknownst to rumors 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:06.679 around the hotel had spread that quote, baron Korff was 0:24:06.800 --> 0:24:09.840 a fake name. But it was a fake name being 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:14.919 used by Prince Wilhelm of Prussia in disguise, wishing to 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:19.760 keep a low profile during his travels. Of course, we 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:24.360 know Bhon Korff was actually a penniless nobody named Harry Damila. 0:24:25.520 --> 0:24:30.080 But who was he to correct them? And so Damala 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:36.000 chose to embrace his newly bestowed identity writing quote. Odd 0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:40.480 glances were directed toward me. It gave me quite a turn. 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:45.480 Everything that I had of the simple Harry Damila dropped 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:50.119 away from me. I felt so isolated, so grand, and 0:24:50.240 --> 0:24:55.880 seemed to be raised above all ordinary creeping mortals. As 0:24:55.960 --> 0:24:59.680 I'm sure you can tell, the abundance of attention wasn't 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:08.879 at a going to his head. And it's here that 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:13.120 I'd love to make just a small personal interlude. When 0:25:13.160 --> 0:25:16.639 I was still in college, I spent a summer interning 0:25:16.800 --> 0:25:22.000 at the television show on TBS Conan Conan O'Brien's talk show. 0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:25.280 It was filmed at the Warner Brothers lot, and at 0:25:25.320 --> 0:25:29.120 the same time Warner Brothers lot also had the show 0:25:29.280 --> 0:25:34.080 Pretty Little Liars filming. The lot also had tourists come 0:25:34.240 --> 0:25:39.679 on sort of extended golf carts weaving away around the 0:25:39.760 --> 0:25:44.320 lot with tour guides pointing out various things that were 0:25:44.320 --> 0:25:49.600 filming in stages. My fellow interns and I, young women 0:25:49.920 --> 0:25:54.679 in our late teens early twenties, loved the feeling of 0:25:54.800 --> 0:25:57.639 putting on baseball caps while we were walking to the 0:25:57.680 --> 0:26:01.679 commissary for lunch and shield holding our faces as the 0:26:01.800 --> 0:26:05.840 tour groups went by, hoping desperately that they would think 0:26:05.880 --> 0:26:10.080 that we, any random trio of young women in athe 0:26:10.160 --> 0:26:14.360 leisure with our faces hidden, were actually the Pretty Little Liars. 0:26:14.880 --> 0:26:20.000 And people did snap pictures, and yes it was intoxicating. 0:26:20.640 --> 0:26:24.760 So this is just to say I understand, but for 0:26:24.880 --> 0:26:28.720 better or for worse. With Harry Damola, he was an 0:26:28.880 --> 0:26:32.320 Icarus and he decided that he wanted to continue to 0:26:32.440 --> 0:26:36.600 fly in style. Wanting to get a wardrobe that fit 0:26:36.720 --> 0:26:40.760 his new princely persona, Damla left for a day trip 0:26:40.840 --> 0:26:44.960 to Berlin, only to lose his bag with money on 0:26:45.040 --> 0:26:49.439 the train ride there. Upon going to the station master 0:26:49.560 --> 0:26:53.040 for help. He was almost immediately cast off with little 0:26:53.040 --> 0:26:56.440 patience from the man behind the counter and given a 0:26:56.520 --> 0:27:01.679 form to fill out. Damala smugly wrote Prince Wilhelm of 0:27:01.760 --> 0:27:05.560 Prussia when asked for his name, and he watched the 0:27:05.600 --> 0:27:09.840 station master's eyes nearly bulge out of his head when 0:27:09.880 --> 0:27:15.119 he realized his mistake. After leaving the train station with 0:27:15.240 --> 0:27:19.960 the station master's personal wallet gifted to him and what 0:27:20.080 --> 0:27:22.879 I imagined to be a jaunty skip in his step, 0:27:23.320 --> 0:27:28.399 not unlike Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, Damila later found 0:27:28.440 --> 0:27:32.840 his own purse in his pants pocket. How very convenient. 0:27:33.720 --> 0:27:36.439 When he was set to return to Rfort, the station 0:27:36.640 --> 0:27:40.520 master had organized a personal escort for him, and I 0:27:40.560 --> 0:27:43.440 feel like I should note this is just the beginning 0:27:43.680 --> 0:27:47.520 of the ridiculous hijinks Domla would revel in in his 0:27:47.800 --> 0:27:58.879 all too brief tenure as Prince Wilhelm. From that trip on, 0:27:59.240 --> 0:28:03.840 Damila would be treated to luxury suites, box seats at 0:28:03.840 --> 0:28:07.920 the opera, which he would critique as being overacted by 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:12.280 performers too awestruck at his presence to do their job well, 0:28:12.840 --> 0:28:16.879 and taken out to such lavish dinners and parties he 0:28:16.920 --> 0:28:21.560 could barely go a step without unwonted attention. There's not 0:28:21.920 --> 0:28:24.720 nearly enough time for me to go into even half 0:28:24.800 --> 0:28:28.880 of the stories Domala felt necessary to put in his memoir, 0:28:29.520 --> 0:28:31.960 And if I'm being honest, only a quarter of them 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:36.000 are really worth mentioning anyway. But there is one story 0:28:36.080 --> 0:28:40.600 I feel best encapsulates how exactly Domila was able to 0:28:40.720 --> 0:28:43.960 carry on his charade for as long as he did. 0:28:45.000 --> 0:28:48.160 One night, Doamala went out to dinner with the proprietor 0:28:48.320 --> 0:28:51.160 of the hotel he was staying at. The man whom 0:28:51.240 --> 0:28:55.760 Domla calls the counselor, mentioned that he saw something weighing 0:28:55.920 --> 0:29:00.200 on the young man's mind. Obviously, Domila couldn't answer with 0:29:00.280 --> 0:29:03.040 the truth that what was weighing on his mind was 0:29:03.040 --> 0:29:05.960 that he was a nobody parading as a prince and 0:29:06.040 --> 0:29:10.400 abusing everyone's good will for his own selfish gain. So 0:29:10.600 --> 0:29:15.080 when he didn't respond, the man continued, quote, the world 0:29:15.200 --> 0:29:18.480 lies open before you. Who knows how the future of 0:29:18.520 --> 0:29:22.480 our people will shape itself? Who knows what you may 0:29:22.760 --> 0:29:26.280 some day be called on to do. Many people see 0:29:26.320 --> 0:29:30.560 in you the future emperor and king. So you must 0:29:30.680 --> 0:29:34.080 learn to realize during the years of hoping and waiting 0:29:34.440 --> 0:29:39.160 what mistakes the old regime made. Remember the old national hymn, 0:29:39.560 --> 0:29:43.960 Neither horses nor men can keep secure the steep heights 0:29:44.000 --> 0:29:49.680 where princes stand end quote. The emotion with which Damila 0:29:49.760 --> 0:29:53.760 writes the old man speaking is likely the true reason 0:29:53.880 --> 0:29:57.240 he was able to carry on his farce for as 0:29:57.280 --> 0:30:02.560 long as he did. People want to believe it. Despite 0:30:02.600 --> 0:30:06.920 the high esteem Domla no doubt held himself in. I 0:30:06.960 --> 0:30:10.120 don't think his skill as an actor is what sold 0:30:10.200 --> 0:30:15.280 his persona as the deposed German prince. Really, I think 0:30:15.320 --> 0:30:19.400 it had little to do with Domola at all. Inside 0:30:19.440 --> 0:30:23.440 by side comparisons between the two men. Other than being 0:30:24.200 --> 0:30:28.520 white and young and having generally slender builds, they're not 0:30:28.640 --> 0:30:33.640 really twins. But what Damila and Prince Wilhelm did have 0:30:33.800 --> 0:30:37.440 in common was what their presence meant to the people 0:30:37.480 --> 0:30:41.880 who met them. After the devastating losses of World War One, 0:30:42.480 --> 0:30:46.480 the German Republic not only lost an entire generation of 0:30:46.560 --> 0:30:51.200 young men, but their sense of nationalism. They were eager 0:30:51.480 --> 0:30:55.840 for civil national pride wherever they could find it. The 0:30:55.880 --> 0:30:58.920 monarchy may have no longer served a purpose in the 0:30:59.040 --> 0:31:03.880 German government, but its presence remained a symbol of hope 0:31:03.960 --> 0:31:10.840