Otto Witte

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Otto Witte (October 16 1872 – August 13, 1958) was a circus acrobat who said that he managed to be crowned King of Albania. In 1913, when Albania broke off from the Ottoman Empire, some Albanian Muslims invited Halim Eddine, a nephew of the Sultan, to come and be crowned king. Noticing his own resemblance to Halim Eddine, Witte said, he traveled to Durres, Albania with a friend, the sword-swallower Max Schlepsig. He succeeded in being crowned king by the local troops on August 13, 1913. Over the next five days, he enjoyed a harem and declared war on Montenegro before his ruse was discovered. Taking a substantial portion of the kingdom's treasury^[1], he and Schlepsig managed to escape the palace with the aid of the harem and they eventually made their way out of Albania. His story was adapted for Harry Turtledove's fantasy novel Every Inch a King. Most parts of his story were found to be impossible. In his original version he claimed February 1913, where Albania was still under Serbian occupation, so he changed it later to August 1913. There are no local evidence in the region that would support his claims. Nethertheless he became a famous person in Germany for his public appearance. The Berlin police would later even allow his official identity card to bear the artistic pseudonym "ehemaliger König von Albanien" ("one-time King of Albania") in his profession as a "circus entertainer". All through is lifetime he insisted to be greeted with that name and it was put on his tombstone in Hamburg-Ohlsdorf (Parzelle Q 9, 430–433). From his appearance it is believed that he suffered from pseudologia fantastica - for example he claimed also to have founded a political party and that he was candidating for the German presidency in 1925 gaining 25.000 to 230.000 votes in the first round but resigned in favour of Paul von Hindenburg. The voting records do not support this either.