Der Skandal um die Hitler-Tagebücher: The Forgery Scandal
About the book
This true crime book tells the story of the Hitler diaries scandal, in which the German weekly magazine Stern believed in 1983 that it had made the journalistic find of the century. Michael Seufert examines in detail how forger Konrad Kujau systematically deceived experts, historians, and seasoned journalists with his fake Hitler diaries.
The book describes how Stern paid over 9 million D-Marks for the forged diaries, which Kujau had produced using simple methods and cheap postwar paper. The scandal exposed fundamental weaknesses in the media's verification processes and experts' willingness to see what they wanted to see.
Seufert documents the entire course of events, from the first contacts between middleman Gerd Heidemann and Kujau, through Stern's press conference where the diaries were presented to the world, to the embarrassing exposure shortly afterward. Both Kujau and Heidemann were later sentenced to prison for fraud.
The book serves as a cautionary tale of how hunger for prestige, financial interests, and a lack of source criticism can lead to catastrophic misjudgments, even at reputable media outlets with access to leading experts.
