Fake 'Hitler diaries', one of world's biggest hoaxes, head for German archive

Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA

24/04/2023 11:12

BERLIN, April 24 (Reuters) - The forged diaries of Adolf
Hitler, whose publication in the 1980s was one of the world's
greatest hoaxes, are to be handed over to Germany's national
archive, Bertelsmann  BTGGg.F  media group said on Monday.
    The diaries, first published by Stern magazine for 9.3
million Deutsche marks, are to be handed over to the archive
this year following an inventory, Bertelsmann said.
    Stern, whose publisher Gruner + Jahr belongs to Bertelsmann,
published excerpts of the counterfeit series in 1983, even as
doubts mounted over their authenticity. It sold serialisation
rights to newspapers including Britain's Sunday Times.
    The diaries were found to be fake following inspection of
their content and the paper and ink used, prompting an
embarrassing climb-down one week after Stern's bombastic
announcement of their discovery.
    "The forged Hitler diaries are in good hands in the Federal
Archives as peculiar testimonies to contemporary German
history," said Michael Hollmann, president of the archives,
which first revealed the diaries to be fake 40 years ago.
    "They show a brazen attempt to give the brutal crimes of
National Socialism a human veneer," Hollmann added.
    Konrad Kujau was jailed for forging the diaries. His
handwriting had a strong resemblance to Hitler's but historical
inaccuracies were among the clues that gave him away.
    Bertelsmann has commissioned a review into Stern magazine
under founder Henri Nannen from 1948 until his departure in 1983
by the Institute of Contemporary History.
    It has extended the researchers' mandate to include the
Hitler diaries fiasco, in order to investigate "how and why it
was possible for the fakes to be published", the statement said.

 (Writing by Rachel More
Editing by Miranda Murray and Nick Macfie)
 ((rachel.more@thomsonreuters.com;))