2 ms·

Let's hope it is more authentic than the Hitler Diaries[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries

by jansan 5mo ago

dcminter 5mo ago
Any time something of popular historical interest like this pops up I think about that. If you've not read it then Robert Harris's (factual) book about the affair is entertaining, not least because such a broad sweep of dislikeable characters were undone by greed and folly!
- spacechild1 5mo ago
  The whole affair was bizarre. At one point Kujau, the author of the fake diaries, ran out of ideas and let Hitler complain about his flatulence. There is also a very funny German movie about it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schtonk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schtonk!) The director later said that he intentionally omitted some facts about the real scandal because the audience would find it too far fetched.
  - dcminter 5mo ago
    I think my favourite aspect of the tale (at least as Harris tells it) is that Kujau was such a bad forger, and the recipients wanted it all to be true so badly that they skipped several opportunities to actually check! I shall see if I can find Schtonk! with subtitles, sounds up my alley.
    - spacechild1 5mo ago
      Yes! Like when Kujau couldn't get the letter A, so he went with "FH" instead of "AH" for the cover initials. Heidemann convinced the people at Stern that it surely stands for "Führer Hitler" :-D Schtonk! does a really great job at satirizing the Führerkult that was still very much present in large parts of German society.
bell-cot 5mo ago
Even inside the tiny niche of the classical music history world, a book of daily exercises - written for some now-obscure student, and owned by a national library - is actually a pretty minor thing. Very few counterfeiters bother doing nickles and dimes.
- NopIdoN 5mo ago
  BTW the metal in a nickel is worth about 7 cents.
ggm 5mo ago
Confiscated during the revolution, kept by the national library. That's a bit different to "forged on schoolbooks with a Bic pen" provenance-wise.
- pradeshhpatel 5mo ago
  [flagged]
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
estetlinus 5mo ago
> By coincidence, Goy had been looking at other documents Mozart had written for teaching just weeks earlier Color me sceptical
- nok22kon 5mo ago
  parallel construction
- bell-cot 5mo ago
  He was a niche-specialty career archivist, sorting through his library's collection of stuff from the right era and area. That is the discovery story behind a rather large fraction of such documents.
  - estetlinus 5mo ago
    So not much a coincidence I’d say. Very much by design.

Let's hope it is more authentic than the Hitler Diaries[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries

by jansan 5mo ago

Let's hope it is more authentic than the Hitler Diaries[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitler_Diaries

dcminter 5mo ago

Any time something of popular historical interest like this pops up I think about that. If you've not read it then Robert Harris's (factual) book about the affair is entertaining, not least because such a broad sweep of dislikeable characters were undone by greed and folly!

spacechild1 5mo ago
The whole affair was bizarre. At one point Kujau, the author of the fake diaries, ran out of ideas and let Hitler complain about his flatulence. There is also a very funny German movie about it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schtonk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schtonk!) The director later said that he intentionally omitted some facts about the real scandal because the audience would find it too far fetched.
- dcminter 5mo ago
  I think my favourite aspect of the tale (at least as Harris tells it) is that Kujau was such a bad forger, and the recipients wanted it all to be true so badly that they skipped several opportunities to actually check! I shall see if I can find Schtonk! with subtitles, sounds up my alley.
  - spacechild1 5mo ago
    Yes! Like when Kujau couldn't get the letter A, so he went with "FH" instead of "AH" for the cover initials. Heidemann convinced the people at Stern that it surely stands for "Führer Hitler" :-D Schtonk! does a really great job at satirizing the Führerkult that was still very much present in large parts of German society.

bell-cot 5mo ago

Even inside the tiny niche of the classical music history world, a book of daily exercises - written for some now-obscure student, and owned by a national library - is actually a pretty minor thing. Very few counterfeiters bother doing nickles and dimes.

NopIdoN 5mo ago
BTW the metal in a nickel is worth about 7 cents.

ggm 5mo ago

Confiscated during the revolution, kept by the national library. That's a bit different to "forged on schoolbooks with a Bic pen" provenance-wise.

pradeshhpatel 5mo ago
[flagged]

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

estetlinus 5mo ago

> By coincidence, Goy had been looking at other documents Mozart had written for teaching just weeks earlier Color me sceptical

nok22kon 5mo ago
parallel construction
bell-cot 5mo ago
He was a niche-specialty career archivist, sorting through his library's collection of stuff from the right era and area. That is the discovery story behind a rather large fraction of such documents.
- estetlinus 5mo ago
  So not much a coincidence I’d say. Very much by design.