Gerd Heidemann
{{Short description|German journalist (1931–2024)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gerd Heidemann
| image = File:Gerd Heidemann.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Heidemann in 1983
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1931|12|04}}
| birth_place = Altona, Hamburg, Germany
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2024|12|09|1931|12|04}}
| death_place = Hamburg, Germany
| nationality = German
| other_names =
| occupation = Journalist
| years_active =
| known_for = Role in the publication of purported Hitler Diaries that were subsequently proved to be forgeries
| notable_works =
}}
Gerd Heidemann (4 December 1931 – 9 December 2024) was a German journalist best known for his role in the publication of purported Hitler Diaries that were subsequently proved to be forgeries, the work of Konrad Kujau.
Biography
=Early life and career=
Born in Hamburg, Heidemann showed an early interest in photography, and began his career as a freelance photo journalist. He joined the permanent staff of the weekly magazine Stern in 1955.Jefferson Adams. Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence (2009), p. 193 He proved to be a tenacious researcher and a determined traveller to exotic and dangerous locales, but a writer of limited ability. His early work included extensive research into the identity of author B. Traven.Roy Pateman. The Man Nobody Knows: The Life and Legacy of B. Traven (2005), p. 12
In the 1970s, Heidemann bought the yacht Carin II, which had belonged to Hermann Göring, 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.{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Wyden |title=The Hitler Virus: The Insidious Legacy of Adolf Hitler |year=2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w0RGVHB8YucC&pg=PA173 |page=173 |publisher=Arcade |isbn=9781559705325 }}
=Hitler diaries=
Heidemann came forward with his story of lost diaries written by Adolf Hitler in 1983. He sold the rights to Stern 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 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 fired from Stern just weeks later.{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/05/11/stern-fires-hitler-diary-reporter/a67909ba-1ac6-4c37-98a6-9f909a7a0bd7/|title=Stern Fires Hitler 'Diary' Reporter|website=washingtonpost.com|accessdate=28 April 2024}} Following the revelations, Heidemann was arrested, tried and sentenced in 1985 to four and a half years in prison for fraud.{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_4464000/4464109.stm |title=BBC ON THIS DAY | 25 | 1983: 'Hitler diaries' published |publisher=BBC News |date=25 April 1983 |accessdate=20 February 2016}} Heidemann had also stolen some of the money from Kujau; and kept $600,000 of the money from Stern to acquire the diaries. He was renting expensive residences, buying new cars and jewellery and buying more Nazi memorabilia, of which a great amount was more of Kujau's forgeries.{{Cite book |first=Robert |last=Harris |title=Selling Hitler: The Story of the Hitler Diaries |location=London |publisher=Faber |year=1991 |orig-year=1986 |isbn=9780571147267 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sellinghitlersto0000harr/page/159 159–61] |url=https://archive.org/details/sellinghitlersto0000harr/page/159 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-07-08-mn-9688-story.html|title=3 Found Guilty in Sale of Fake 'Hitler Diaries'|website=Los Angeles Times|accessdate=28 April 2024}}
=Later life and death=
In 2002, Der Spiegel alleged that Heidemann had worked as a double-agent for the Stasi, 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.{{cite news |title=Was Hitler diary a plot? |url=https://theweek.com/articles/527053/hitler-diary-plot- |access-date=16 September 2021 |work=The Week |date=8 January 2015}} In the BBC Radio 4 programme The Reunion broadcast on 7 September 2008, Heidemann vehemently denied that he had ever been a spy for the Stasi.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00d8gvj The Reunion, BBC Radio, 7 September 2008]
By 2008, Heidemann was living in poverty in Hamburg, receiving a €350 monthly welfare payment. At the time he had extensive debt estimated to be €700,000.{{cite news |date=24 April 2008 |last=Hall |first=Allan |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/living-in-poverty-the-man-who-found-hitlers-diaries-814757.html |title=Living in poverty, the man who 'found' Hitler's diaries |newspaper=The Independent |accessdate=20 February 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/bitter-memories-hitler-diaries-discoverer-living-on-welfare-a-548962.html|title='Hitler Diaries' Discoverer Living on Welfare|website=spiegel.de|accessdate=28 April 2024}} In 2013, Heidemann was lobbying for the return of the manuscripts citing a contractual obligation of Stern publisher Gruner + Jahr.{{Cite web|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/reporter-who-found-forged-hitler-diaries-wants-them-back-a-893424.html|title='Hitler Diaries' Reporter Wants Them Back|website=spiegel.de|accessdate=28 April 2024}}
Heidemann died in Hamburg on 9 December 2024, at the age of 93.{{cite web|access-date=10 December 2024 |date=10 December 2024 |language=de |title=Früherer "Stern"-Reporter Heidemann gestorben |url=https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/deutschland/gesellschaft/id_100549088/hamburg-hitler-tagebuecher-skandal-ex-stern-reporter-gerd-heidemann-tot.html |website=t-online.de}}{{cite web |last1=Risen |first1=Clay |title=Gerd Heidemann, Journalist Duped by Fake Hitler Diaries, Dies at 93 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/business/media/gerd-heidemann-dead.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=17 December 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241214010121/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/business/media/gerd-heidemann-dead.html |archive-date=14 December 2024 |date=13 December 2024|url-access=subscription}}
After Heidemann's death, his collection of documents pertaining to World War II was acquired by the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford University. It contained, amongst other, nine never before published audiotapes of a 1979 meeting between Gestapo Chief Klaus Barbie and SS General Karl Wolff, in which they openly discussed their actions during the Nazi period. The recordings and photos of the meeting were made by Heidemann. In May 2025, the Dutch television documentary De Barbie Tapes showed how the tapes came about, how some of the war criminals lived their post-war life and played the main quotes from the meeting between Barbie and Wolff.{{cite web | url = https://uk.news.yahoo.com/previously-unheard-nazi-tapes-released-190000375.html | title = Previously unheard Nazi tapes released ahead of WW2 80th anniversary | last = Williams | first = Craig | date = 2 May 2025 | access-date = 4 May 2025 | website = yahoo.com}}{{cite web | url = https://www.vprogids.nl/documentaires/lees/artikelen/2025/De-Barbie-tapes-oorlogsmisdadiger-zonder-berouw-spreekt-vrijuit-over-zijn-mooiste-tijd.html | title = De Barbie tapes: oorlogsmisdadiger zonder berouw spreekt vrijuit over zijn ‘mooiste tijd’ | trans-title = The Barbie Tapes: Unrepentant War Criminal Speaks Out About His ‘Best Times’ | date = 29 April 2025 | access-date = 4 May 2025 | website = www.vprogids.nl | language = nl | last = van Wetering | first = Hans}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name| 5361348}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heidemann, Gerd}}
Category:German male journalists
Category:20th-century German journalists
Category:21st-century German journalists
Category:Journalists from Hamburg
Category:German prisoners and detainees
Category:Prisoners and detainees of Germany
{{Germany-journalist-stub}}