Reinhold’s forged papers

Reinhold’s forged papers turn a wanted man into Moroskiewicz, a supposed Polish pickpocket, and briefly make the authorities treat that identity as real. The false documents help Reinhold enter prison under an assumed name and evade recognition; his capture depends not on an examination of the papers but on an informant who connects the alias to his true identity.

Identity and Function

The narrative identifies the documents as false identification papers but does not describe their appearance, how they were made, or whose name they bear beyond the name attached to the identity they support: Moroskiewicz. At police headquarters, officials find the papers and take Reinhold for a Polish pickpocket wanted in Poland. Their immediate function is practical concealment: they give the police a name and criminal profile that divert attention from the man behind the disguise.

Arrest and Mistaken Conviction

Reinhold goes to Motzstrasse intending to get himself arrested while criminal attention is focused on him. He steals a woman’s handbag, striking her too hard in the course of the theft, and the police arrest him. The false papers support the mistaken identification as Moroskiewicz; the officers do not recognize Reinhold, who has never previously been in prison.

The misidentification continues through a quiet, secret trial. The court treats him as a wanted pickpocket and sentences him to four years’ imprisonment and five years’ loss of civil rights, orders police surveillance, and confiscates his knuckleduster. Reinhold accepts the sentence as a way to escape the danger surrounding him, confident that the false identity has carried him safely into custody.

Exposure of the Alias

The deception unravels when Konrad tells an unemployed former friend from reform school that Reinhold is using the name Moroskiewicz and is wanted for a serious crime. The friend later sees a police poster naming Reinhold in connection with the murder of Emilie Parsunke in Freienwalde and offering a reward of 1,000 marks. He reports what he knows to an inspector, identifying both Moroskiewicz and Reinhold and placing him in prison.

The papers therefore delay recognition rather than defeat it. They enable Reinhold to be arrested and sentenced under a false identity, but the identity is exposed through information passed between people and checked against a public police notice. Once the report reaches the authorities, Reinhold is taken back to Berlin, and the disguise that had helped secure his imprisonment no longer protects him.