and an investigation was launched in 1993, it was suspended three
years later because of his poor health.HITLER DIARIES FORGERY. A major journalistic scandal origi-
nating in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1982, the Hitler
diaries forgery concerned a set of 62 handwritten volumes presum-
ably written by Adolf Hitler. The actual author was Konrad Kujau
(whose various aliases included Konrad Fischer, Peter Fischer, and
Heinz Fischer). Born in Loebau (Saxony) on 27 June 1938, and
rootless at war’s end, Kujau began a life of occasional employment
and petty crime, including forgery. In the 1970s, residing near Stutt-
gart, he developed a flourishing business trafficking in Nazi military
memorabilia illegally obtained from the German Democratic Repub-
lic (GDR). His talent for drawing also led him to produce a series
of paintings employing Hitler’s style, which he then sold as genuine
items. For one of his prime customers, the industrialist Fritz Stiefel,
Kujau forged a slim diary in Hitler’s hand as well.
The other central figure in this affair was Gerd Heidemann, a
prominent reporter for Stern, West Germany’s leading illustrated
magazine. Born in Hamburg on 4 December 1931, Heidemann had
shown an early passion for photography and, at the age of 24, became
a permanent member of the magazine’s staff. Although his ability as
a writer was limited, he soon gained a reputation for his dogged per-
sistence in tracking a story and traveled to numerous exotic locales.
Heidemann also had a strong penchant for Nazi memorabilia, which
led to frequent purchases, including the former yacht of Hermann
Göring. In January 1980, Stiefel showed Heidemann the purported
diary, which aroused his desire to inspect the other volumes.
Slowly the paths of Kujau and Heidemann converged, and an
agreement resulted. Insisting on total anonymity, Kujau would
deliver the volumes in regular intervals, supposedly from an East
German general who had found them at the site of a plane crash near
Dresden in the last months of World War II. Heidemann, on behalf
of Stern and its parent firm, Gruner und Jahr, would pay roughly 2.5
million DM. Despite some early indications pointing to the inauthen-
ticity of the volumes, Heidemann appeared no less intent on proceed-
ing with the project and visited Börnersdorf in the GDR, the site
of the plane crash, to investigate matters further. In spring 1982, the
HITLER DIARIES FORGERY • 193