Otto Witte

Who was Otto Witte?

Otto Witte was a German circus acrobat and fantasist who said that he managed to be crowned King of Albania.

In 1913, when Albania broke away 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 Durrës with a friend, the sword-swallower Max Schlepsig. He claimed that he had succeeded in being crowned king by the local troops on 13 August 1913. He also claimed that, over the next five days, he enjoyed a harem and declared war on Montenegro before his ruse was discovered. His claims also include that he took a substantial portion of the kingdom's treasury, and along with Schlepsig he managed to escape the palace with the aid of the harem, and eventually made their way out of the country.

Most parts of his story were found to be impossible. There was no Halim Eddine and the Sultan Abdul Hamid II's son Burhan Eddine who was offered the throne in 1914 never came, he may be the model for this story. Originally he claimed this escapade happened in February 1913, when Albania was still under Serbian occupation, so he changed the date to August 1913. There is no local evidence to support his claims. Nevertheless, he became famous in Germany for his public appearance. The Berlin police later allowed his official identity card to bear the artistic pseudonym ehemaliger König von Albanien. For the rest of his life he insisted on being greeted with that title, and it was put on his tombstone at Ohlsdorf Cemetery, Hamburg.