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German circus performer Otto Witte went to his death-bed claiming he had been crowned King of Albania on 13th August, 1913 for a five-day reign which culminated with him being chased out of the country as an imposter.
Generally believed to have been a fantasist who invented the story, Witte was humoured by the German authorities in his life-time, and his tombstone in Hamburg bears the inscription, ‘former King of Albania’.
In this episode, Rebecca, Olly and Arion explore the phenomenon of the German ‘originale’; uncover the legend of ‘Sausage Hans’ and ‘the slag monkey’; and reveal who inspired the story of Baron Munchausen…
Further Reading:
• ‘The Man Who Was King’ (TIME, 1958): http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,868723,00.html
• ‘The legend of Otto Witte, the impostor King of Albania’ (The Balkanista, 2018): http://thebalkanista.com/2018/10/04/the-legend-of-otto-witte-the-impostor-king-of-albania/
• An enterprising man acts out the works of the Cologne 'originales' on German Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6lsche_Originale
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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.
Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.
Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.
This episode originally aired in 2021.
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