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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.\nGenerally 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, \u2018former King of Albania\u2019.\nIn this episode, Rebecca, Olly and Arion explore the phenomenon of the German \u2018originale\u2019; uncover the legend of \u2018Sausage Hans\u2019 and \u2018the slag monkey\u2019; and reveal who inspired the story of Baron Munchausen\u2026\xa0\nFurther Reading:\n\u2022 \u2018The Man Who Was King\u2019 (TIME, 1958): http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,868723,00.html\n\u2022 \u2018The legend of Otto Witte, the impostor King of Albania\u2019 (The Balkanista, 2018): http://thebalkanista.com/2018/10/04/the-legend-of-otto-witte-the-impostor-king-of-albania/\n\u2022 An enterprising man acts out the works of the Cologne 'originales' on German Wikipedia:\xa0https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6lsche_Originale\nFor bonus material and to support the show, visit\xa0Patreon.com/Retrospectors\nWe'll be back on Monday! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts:\xa0podfollow.com/Retrospectors\nThe Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.\nTheme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.\nCopyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.\xa0\n#1910s #Person #Germany\n Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices