"Hitler's diaries discovered". Stern's front page on 28 April 1983
The Hitler Diaries (German: Hitler-Tagebücher) were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983. The diaries were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche Marks (£2.3 million or $3.7 million) by the West German news magazine Stern, which sold serialisation rights to several news organisations. One of the publications involved was The Sunday Times, who asked their independent director, the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, to authenticate the diaries; he did so, pronouncing them genuine. At the press conference to announce the publication, Trevor-Roper announced that on reflection he had changed his mind, and other historians also raised questions concerning their validity. Rigorous forensic analysis, which had not been performed previously, quickly confirmed that the diaries were fakes.
Kujau, born and raised in East Germany, had a history of petty crime and deception. In the mid-1970s he began selling Nazi memorabilia which he had smuggled from the East, but found he could raise the prices by forging additional authentication details to associate ordinary souvenirs to the Nazi leaders. He began forging paintings by Hitler and an increasing number of notes, poems and letters, until he produced his first diary in the mid-to-late 1970s. The West German journalist with Stern who "discovered" the diaries and was involved in their purchase was Gerd Heidemann, who had an obsession with the Nazis. When Stern started buying the diaries, Heidemann stole a significant proportion of the money.
Kujau and Heidemann spent time in prison for their parts in the fraud, and several newspaper editors lost their jobs. The story of the scandal was the basis for the films Selling Hitler (1991) for the British channel ITV, the German film Schtonk! (1992), and the television series Faking Hitler (2021).
The HitlerDiaries (German: Hitler-Tagebücher) were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by Konrad Kujau...
journalist best known for his role in the publication of purported HitlerDiaries that were subsequently proved to be forgeries. Born in Hamburg, Heidemann...
and forger. He became famous in 1983 as the creator of the so-called HitlerDiaries, for which he received DM 2.5 million (€2,421,020 in 2020 terms, adjusted...
Selling Hitler is a 1991 ITV television comedy-drama mini-series about the HitlerDiaries hoax and was based on Robert Harris's 1986 book Selling Hitler: The...
Paula Hitler, also known as Paula Wolff and Paula Hitler-Wolff, (21 January 1896 – 1 June 1960) was the younger sister of Adolf Hitler and the last child...
Heinrich Hitler (14 March 1920 – 21 February 1942) was the son of Alois Hitler Jr. and his second wife Hedwig Heidemann whom he had married bigamously...
alleged Hitlerdiaries was that the fake diaries contain no reference to the Holocaust, thereby buttressing Irving's claim in Hitler's War that Hitler had...
The Hitler family comprises the relatives and ancestors of Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945), an Austrian-born German politician and the leader...
Science, Volume 302, November 1955. Harris, Robert. Selling Hitler: The Story of the HitlerDiaries. London: Faber and Faber, 1986 ISBN 0-571-14726-7. Hauner...
Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Adolf Hitler's government from 1933 to 1945. The diaries, which have only recently been published in full in...
half-niece of Adolf Hitler. Born in Linz, Austria-Hungary, she was the second child and eldest daughter of Leo Raubal Sr. and Hitler's half-sister, Angela...
Goebbels Diaries, written by Hitler's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, provide important insights into Hitler's thinking and actions. In a diary entry...
Adolf Hitler is an umbrella term for psychiatric (pathographic, psychobiographic) literature that deals with the hypothesis that Adolf Hitler, the leader...
The health of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, has long been a subject of popular controversy. Both his physical and mental health...
Kujau's forged HitlerDiaries, which copied from the original first edition as its main source, since Kujau copied these errors into the Diaries. Domarus,...
direct order from Hitler authorising the mass killings has surfaced, his public speeches, orders to his generals, and the diaries of Nazi officials demonstrate...
The Meaning of Hitler (German: Anmerkungen zu Hitler) is a 1978 book by the journalist and writer Raimund Pretzel, who published all his books under the...
the Jews. The HitlerDiaries were an example of a 20th-century forgery for money: Konrad Kujau, an East German forger, created diaries purportedly written...
The Hitlers Zweites Buch (German: [ˈtsvaɪ̯təs buːχ], "Second Book"), published in English as Hitler's Secret Book and later as Hitler's Second Book, is...
opposite Jonathan Pryce in mini-series Selling Hitler, inspired by the publishing fraud known as the HitlerDiaries. She subsequently relocated to Hollywood...
Adolf Hitler, chancellor and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, committed suicide via a gunshot to the head on 30 April 1945 in the Führerbunker...
century and establish the Fourth Reich. Forged journals of Hitler, known as the HitlerDiaries, were published in West Germany by the magazine Stern in...
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