Harry Domela (1905[1] – 4 October 1979) was a Russian-born impostor[2] who pretended to be a deposed German crown prince.
Domela was too young to join the army corps after the war and thus held numerous menial jobs.
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.
In no time, upper class circles were rife with rumors that he was in fact the heir of the German throne who was traveling incognito.
As a result, when he travelled in Thuringia and Prussia local pro-monarchy dignitaries and businessmen entertained him at their own expense.
He used this time to write the narrative of his experiences, A Sham Prince: The Life and Adventures of Harry Domela as Written by Himself in Prison at Cologne, January to June 1927.