Oskar Daubmann

Oskar Daubmann (originally Ignaz Karl Hummel; March 9, 1898 – January 20, 1954) was a Swiss-German con man whose case attracted international attention in 1932.

[1] In 1932, he left his pregnant wife for economic reasons (she filed for divorce the same year) and went to Algeria with the intention of enlisting in the French Foreign Legion.

[1] Since he had no money for the return journey, he decided to call himself Oskar Daubmann, the name of a former school friend from Endingen am Kaiserstuhl, whom he knew had been missing since the First World War.

[1] According to another version of the story, he had been imprisoned for ten years for burglary, and shortly after his release had bought a second-hand uniform in a shop, in which pockets he found a soldier's passport in the name of Oscar Daubmann.

[1] The German press found in him a welcome opportunity for stirring up "national passions", inciting a hate campaign against France, which was accused of hypocrisy and cruelty.

[1] Amazingly, the parents of the real Oskar Daubmann accepted the impostor as their son - despite his different eye color and lack of known facial scar.

[1] The Nazi press dismissed the French report, but other German authorities investigated the claims, due to growing inconsistencies in Daubmann's story, as many former colleagues had failed to recognize him.

[1] After serving his sentence, Nazi authorities exacted revenge for their past embarrassment, persecuting him once more, and from 1938 till 1945, when he was freed by the American forces, Hummel was in preventive detention in Schwäbisch Hall.