40 years after the publication of the forged Hitler diaries in “Stern”, they will be handed over to the Federal Archives in the course of the year and made accessible there. The Bertelsmann Group and the authority shared this on Monday.
In 1983, the magazine of the Hamburg publishing house Gruner Jahr had published alleged diaries of Adolf Hitler, which only a few days later turned out to be forgeries. It was one of the biggest media scandals in Germany.
Bundesarchiv President Michael Hollmann said the forged diaries showed a “brazen attempt to give the brutal crimes of National Socialism a human touch that resonated in society in the 1980s”. The documents are therefore stored permanently at the Koblenz site and made accessible within the framework of the statutory mandate.
investigations
The Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) is also examining the forged diaries. Bertelsmann wants to get as objective a picture as possible of how and why it was published.
On behalf of Bertelsmann – the “Stern” is part of the company portfolio – the researchers are also investigating the period from the founding of the magazine by Henri Nannen in 1948 to his departure in 1983. In May 2022, the debate about the role of the former “Stern” was over. -editor-in-chief and magazine initiator Nannen (1913-1996) was rekindled during the Nazi era.
The trigger was a contribution to the research format “STRG_F” by the public ARD broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). It was about anti-Semitic leaflets in World War II. A connection to Nannen was established in the post.
In view of the investigation, the renowned journalism award Nannen Prize has been temporarily renamed the Stern Prize. The award will be presented this week for the second time with the alternative name.
