Harry Domela

Harry Domela (1905-1978) was a Latvian-born German impostor who pretended to be a deposed German crown prince.

Harry Domela was born to German parents in 1905 in Kurland, Latvia (at the time part of the Russian Empire). At the age of fifteen he fought in the first Freikorps against Baltic rebels. He moved to Germany after the World War I. His brothers and his father had died in the war.

Domela was too young to join the army and had numerous menial jobs. At the same time, however, he experimented with various titles like Baron Korff but was also imprisoned for his impostures many times.

His big break came when he went to Heidelberg and impressed himself on the members of German nobility who had been stripped of their official titles by the Weimar Republic. He presented himself as "Prince Lieven of Latvia" but managed to create an impression that this was only part of the truth. Aristocrats noticed his resemblance to Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern, grandson of deposed Kaiser. In no time, upper class circles were rife with rumors that he was in fact the heir of the German throne who was traveling .

As a result, when he traveled in Thuringia and Prussia, local pro-monarchy dignitaries and businessmen entertained him in their own expense. He never asked or received money. However, he also begun to attract attention of the press and suspected that his imposture would soon be over. Eventually he decided to leave for France to try to join French Foreign Legion. He was arrested when he was boarding the train.

For the next seven months he was in prison in Cologne, waiting for his trial. He used the time to write his story. In the trial, the court ruled that his imposture had been harmless and he was acquitted.

Domela's book sold well, not to mention its movie rights. There were two plays about his life; in one he played himself (he sued the actor who played him in the other one but lost). However, by 1930 he had disappeared from the public life.

Domela left Germany for Netherlands in 1933 and lived with false papers as "Victor Zsajka". He befriended Dutch author Jef Last who acquainted him with André Gide. Domela served with Last in Spanish Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War. Afterwards he stayed in Belgium until he moved to France where he was interned by Vichy France regime. Gide helped him to leave for Mexico.

Domela later resurfaced as a teacher in Venezuela and recontacted Jef Last in 1965. The last sign of him dates from 1978.