Hitler's Diary Scandal: Forgery Meets Ambition
A Stuttgart artist and an ambitious reporter deceived the world with 60 fake Hitler diaries
Quick Facts
The World Deceived in 1983
In April 1983, Stern magazine announced a sensation: Adolf Hitler's private diaries had been discovered—over 60 volumes allegedly written by the dictator between 1932 and 1945. The purported documents supposedly came from a plane crash near Dresden in 1945. Stern paid 9.3 million DM for the documents and sold exclusive rights to Newsweek and Sunday Times.
Just three weeks after publication on May 25, 1983, the entire story collapsed: the diaries were forgeries created by Stuttgart-based artist Konrad Kujau.
The new RTL+ series "Faking Hitler" starring Moritz Bleibtreu as Stern reporter Gerd Heidemann and August Diehl as Konrad Kujau recreates this media fraud, considered the greatest postwar swindle. The six episodes, available since October 17, 2024 on RTL+, are based on Robert Harris' book "The Fake Hitler Diaries" and court documents from Hamburg's 1985 trial.
The Artist with the Perfect Handwriting
Konrad Kujau was born June 27, 1938 in Stuttgart and developed into a skilled art forger. In his studio on Reinsburgstraße in Stuttgart, he produced over 60 diary volumes between 1980 and 1983, which he sold to Stern reporter Gerd Heidemann for a total of 9.3 million DM. Kujau used old notebooks, artificially aged them, and meticulously imitated Hitler's handwriting.