The West German popular magazine Der Stern reported on April 22, 1983, that it had acquired 60 volumes of diaries allegedly written by Adolf Hitler. … According to Der Stern the documents had been authenticated by 'internationally famous handwriting experts and historians' including the British historian Lord Dacre of Glanton (Prof. Hugh Trevor-Roper, who was an authority on the Nazi era). The Sunday Times published on April 24 the first instalment of excerpts in English from the diaries, for which it had agreed to pay Der Stern 400,000 dollars.
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The authenticity of the diaries was, however, immediately challenged by experts in many countries, and Lord Dacre (who was a director of Times Newspapers Ltd) conceded on April 25 that he had misunderstood the manner of their procurement so that he now doubted that they were genuine. Der Stern insisted until early May on their authenticity but agreed to submit certain volumes for examination by expert bodies such as the West German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv); the latter denounced them on May 6 as 'grotesquely primitive forgeries' after establishing that the paper, ink, glue and binding threads were all of post-war manufacture.
Der Stern immediately ceased publication of the serialized extracts (The Sunday Times having suspended their publication after the April 24 instalment) and Der Stern agreed to refund the fee paid by The Sunday Times; (it also dismissed Herr Gerd Heidemann, the journalist who had procured the diaries).
In the context of West Germany's relations with Eastern Europe, it was alleged in West Germany that the diaries had been forged in East Germany with the aim of destabilizing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) by spreading doubt as to the true nature and motives of Nazism. … However, the East German newspaper Neues Deutschland denied on April 29 that East Germany had played any part in the publication of the documents, which it described as representing 'a belated effort to rehabilitate Hitler'.
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