Gerd Heidemann (born 4 December 1931) is a German

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

best known for his role in the publication of purported Hitler Diaries that were subsequently proved to be

forgeries Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbi ...

. In the 1970s, Heidemann bought the yacht ''Carin II'', which had belonged to

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

, met his daughter Edda Göring and had an affair with her which lasted for five years. They entertained on the yacht and their guests included two Second World War generals, Karl Wolff and Wilhelm Mohnke. Heidemann came forward with his story of lost diaries written by

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

in 1983. He sold the rights to the West German

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Or ...

'' for DM 10,000,000 (then approximately US$6 million), along with his tale about how they had been hidden in a barn in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In t ...

for many years. Several experts, including the British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, came forward to pronounce the diaries to be authentic. The "diaries" were exposed as fabrications and Heidemann was arrested, tried and sentenced in 1985 to four and a half years in prison for

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...

. Konrad Kujau, who had forged the diary, as he had done previously with other fraudulent Hitler documents, was also imprisoned. Heidemann had also stolen some of the money from Kujau; he was renting expensive residences, buying new cars and jewellery and buying more Nazi memorabilia, of which a great amount were more of Kujau's forgeries. In 2002, it was alleged that Heidemann had worked as a double-agent for the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maintaining state autho ...

, and that the publication of the Hitler diaries had been part of a Soviet and East German plan to embarrass and discredit the Capitalist West. In the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...

programme ''The Reunion'' broadcast on 7 September 2008, Heidemann vehemently denied that he had ever been a spy for the Stasi. By 2008, Heidemann was living in poverty.

References

1931 births Living people German journalists German male journalists 20th-century German journalists 21st-century German journalists German male writers German prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Germany German fraudsters {{Germany-journalist-stub