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August 23, 2021, updated 23-08-2021.

The Hitler Forgery Industry

to Hitler Forgery Industry main page - to Droog Magazine

1983  |

The strange business of selling fakes, forgeries and other concoctions attributed to Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and other Nazi criminals.

The Hitlers Diaries scam
The Kujau Kabinett - Marc-Oliver Boger, Kujau specialist

15-o6-1983: a "Hitler" in Italy

Exchange rates / value of money 1983




The Hitler Diaries scam

1983 was the year of the Hitler Diaries Scam. Stern reporter Gerd Heidemann (born 1931) claimed to have discovered the diaries of Adolf Hitler. His employer paid 9.3 million D-mark for the 62 handwritten books, which turned out to be written not by Adolf Hitler, but by the German forger Konrad Kujau (1938-2000).

Kujau not only forged the diaries, but he made also a great number of fake Hitler watercolors, oil paintings, drawings, sketches as well as poems.

Kujau was not a very gifted forger, but his clients were people who wanted so desperately that their Hitlers were authentic, that they were blind and deaf for all signals that these objects were fake.

In 1985 Heidemann and Kujau were sentenced to respectively four years and and eight months and four years and six months prison. Because of his ill health Kujau was released after three years.  


The best works about this scam are:

Robert Harris. Selling Hitler. Faber & Faber, London, 1986.
E-book-version at Arrow Books, Random House, London, 2009.

The full story, inclusive the roles of Billy F. Price, Wolfgang Schulze von Mertschinksy (Kujau's German-American agent) and August Priesack.  

Michael Seufert. Der Skandal um die Hitler-Tagebücher. Scherz Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 2008. 320p. Reprint at bij Fischer.

The story from the perspective of a Stern reporter, who witnessed the how Heidemann cheated everyone. In German.

Very funny is the satirical movie Schtonk! (1992) by Ulrich Limmer and Helmuth Dietl about the affair.


Screenshot from Schtonk! It can be watched on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSkgtKF778w


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The Kujau Kabinett

For questions about Konrad Kujau or his forgeries, please consult Marc-Oliver Boger of the Kujau Kabinett, a museum dedicated to Konrad Kujau.
www.kujau-kabinett.de


See also for a concise history of the diaries scam:

Jaap van den Born & Bart FM Droog. Bloemen van het kwaad. Hitler dagboeken. Droog Magazine, Eenrum, 2016-2017.

http://www.bartfmdroog.com/droog/dd/hitler-dagboeken.html

In Dutch, but with the translation function in your browser easy to understand.

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15-o6-1983: a "Hitler" in Italy

At an auction in Milan (Italy) an alleged Hitler watercolor, on which a city scape was depicted, with dimensions of about 22 x 30 cm, was sold for $15,000. The names of the seller were not revealed.


Source:

Aquarel van Hitler geveild. Leeuwarder Courant, Leeuwarden, 16-06-1983.
https://resolver.kb.n/resolve?urn=ddd:010622342:mpeg21:a0283


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Exchange rates / value of money 1983

1 US dollar = 0.66 UK pound.
1 UK pound = 1.53 US dollar
1 US dollar = 2.54 D-mark
1 D-mark  = 0.39 US dollar
1 US dollar = 2.84 NL guilder
1 NL guilder = 0.35 US dollar    
1 US dollar = 7.60 F-franc
1 F-franc = 0.13 US dollar.

1 D-mark = 1.12 NL guilder
1 NL guilder = 0.89 D-mark
1 NL guilder  2.70 F-franc
1 F- franc = 0.37 NL guilder

Wisselkoersen Amsterdam / New York, De Telegraaf, Amsterdam, 02-07-1983
https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:011205664:mpeg21:p055

CPI Inflation Calculator – for US dollars.This inflation calculator uses official records published by the U.S. Department of Labor.
https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/

Convertisseur franc-euro. Pouvoir d'achat de l'euro et du franc. Le convertisseur franc-euro mesure l'érosion monétaire due à l'inflation.
https://www.insee.fr/fr/information/2417794


Historischer Währungsrechner. Österreichische Nationalbank (Geldwertrechner).
https://www.eurologisch.at/docroot/waehrungsrechner/#/


Value of the Guilder/Euro. International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam.
http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/calculate.php


© Compilation Jaap van den Born and Bart FM Droog, 2021.