1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Köpenick

KÖPENICK (Cöpenick), a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on an island in the Spree, 9 m. S.E. from Berlin by the railway to Fürstenwalde. Pop. (1905), 27,721. It contains a royal residence, which was built on the site of a palace which belonged to the great elector, Frederick William. This is surrounded by gardens and contains a fine banqueting hall and a chapel. Other buildings are a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church and a teachers’ seminary. The varied industries embrace the manufacture of glass, linoleum, sealing-wax and ink. In the vicinity is Spindlersfeld, with important dyeworks.

Köpenick, which dates from the 12th century, received municipal rights in 1225. Shortly afterwards, it became the bone of contention between Brandenburg and Meissen, but, at the issue of the feud, remained with the former, becoming a favourite residence of the electors of Brandenburg. In the palace the famous court martial was held in 1730, which condemned the crown-prince of Prussia, afterwards Frederick the Great, to death. In 1906 the place derived ephemeral fame from the daring feat of a cobbler, one Wilhelm Voigt, who, attired as a captain in the army, accompanied by soldiers, whom his apparent rank deceived, took the mayor prisoner, on a fictitious charge of having falsified accounts and absconded with a considerable sum of municipal money. The “captain of Köpenick” was arrested, tried, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

See Graf zu Dohna, Kurfürstliche Schlösser in der Mark Brandenburg (Berlin, 1890).