In spite of all the disillusionment of war the uniform has not lost its spell in Germany since the days of the cobbler of Kopenick. Richard Donnerhack has just gone to jail at Berlin after an astonishing career of fraud. He was a professional conjurer, but he preferred to pose as an officer who had been interned in India. Having deceived good patriots in many German towns, he descended on Dortmund as an agent of the Government, with full power to evacuate the city of all its young men in view of a proposed occupation by Entene troops. There was a great scare, and Donnerhack was captured and locked in the top storey of a hotel. In trying to escape he broke his leg, and then, as a convalescent, ingratiated himself with his guards by means of conjuring entertainments. In due time he borrowed the doctor's gold watch for "the disappearing trick," and disappeared along with it. Afterwards at Berlin he became a "marriage swindler," getting engaged - always as an officer - to a succession of young women, borrowing money from them, and then vanishing in space. On the last occasion, however, he did not vanish with sufficient speed. The memory of all these exploits ought to relieve the monotony of his enforced seclusion.
The Irish Times, October 5th, 1920