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Journalist Gerd Heidemann claimed to have discovered them, and submitted them to be reviewed by a number of experts in WWII history, notably the historians Hugh Trevor-Roper and Gerhard Weinberg . At a press conference on April 25, 1983, the diaries were declared by these experts to be authentic. Even though they had not yet been properly examined by scientists, Trevor-Roper endorsed the diaries thus:

"I am now satisfied that the documents are authentic; that the history of their wanderings since 1945 is true; and that the standard accounts of Hitler's writing habits, of his personality and, even, perhaps, of some public events, may in consequence have to be revised"

Trevor-Roper was at that time a director of Times Newspapers, and although he denied acting dishonestly, there was a clear conflict of interests, because The Sunday Times had already paid a substantial sum for the rights to serialise the diaries in the UK.

Heidemann claimed to have received the diaries from East GermanyFor the historical eastern German provinces, see Eastern Germany East Germany officially the German Democratic Republic GDR , German Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR , was a Communist Party-led state that existed from 1949 to 1990 in the former Soviet, smuggled out by a Dr. Fischer. The diaries were claimed to be part of a consignment of documents recovered from an aircraft crash in Börnersdorf near DresdenDresden [ˈdreːsdn̩] ( Sorbian/Lusatian Drjezdzany , the capital city of the German federal state of Saxony, is situated in a valley on the river Elbe. The city’s population stood at 478,000 in 2004. At the same time, the total populat in April 1945. However within two weeks the Hitler Diaries were revealed as being "grotesquely plump fakes" made on modern paper using modern ink and full of historical inaccuracies, the most obvious of which might have been the fact that the monogram on the title page read 'FH' instead of 'AH' (for Adolf Hitler) - even though in the old German font those letters looked strikingly similar. The content had been largely copied from a book of Hitler's speeches with additional 'personal' comments. As a reaction, Stern editors Peter Koch and Felix Schmidt declared the end of their work with the magazine and Heidemann was arrested for fraudFraud is the crime or offense of deliberately deceiving another in order to damage them usually, to obtain property or services from him unjustly. Fraud can be committed through many methods, including mail, wire, phone, and the Internet. Forms of crimina.

The diaries were actually written by Konrad KujauKonrad Kujau ( June 27, 1938, Lobau, Saxony September 12, 2000, Stuttgart, Germany) was most noted for being a well-known forger, who faked artwork, and later made a name for himself when he forged 60 volumes of Adolf Hitler's supposed diary. He later sol, a notorious StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany and has about 600,000 inhabitants June 2004 . Overview Stuttgart Germany, capital of Baden-Wurttemberg state (pop. 11 million, 36,000 square kilometers) and the Administrative District of Stuttgart (p forger of Hitler's works. Both he and Heidemann went to trial in 19851985 is a common year starting on Tuesday. Events January events January 1 Creation of the Internet's Domain Name System. January 17 British Telecom annouces they are going to abolish the famous red telephone boxes. January 23 A debate in the House of Lor and were each sentenced to 42 months in prison.

In 19911991 like 2002, is a palindromic year. It also has the same calendar as 2002, including Easter on March 31. It is a common year starting on Tuesday. Events January January 2 Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of Washington, DC becoming the first blac a television mini-series based on the Robert Harris book of the affair called Selling Hitler was produced for the British ITV network. A 1992 film by German director Helmut Dietl called Schtonk! with fictional characters mirrored many of the events.