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They used several close range photos, not the one in the article.

It says several images were used. You can't generate a correct fingerprint from that blurry fingerprint picture. The data has to exist in order to reproduce it.

iirc they had a waiter as a conspirator serving that guy at a banquet

There were (at least) two such "stunts" in the past involving German ministers:

In 2008. "fingerprint of then interior minister and current Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble" was sourced from a glass:

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1995935/posts

In 2014. "A speaker at the yearly conference of the Chaos Computer Club has shown how fingerprints can be faked using only a few photographs. To demonstrate, he copied the thumbprint of the German defense minister" Ursula von der Leyen

https://m.dw.com/en/german-defense-minister-von-der-leyens-f...