Konrad Kujau

Konrad Paul Kujau (27 June 1938 – 12 September 2000) was an illustrator and forger. He became famous in 1983 as the creator of the so-called Hitler Diaries, for which he received DM 2.5 million from a person who in turn sold it for DM 9.3 million to the magazine Stern. The forgery resulted in a four-and-half year prison sentence.

Biography

Early life

"Konny" Kujau was one of five children of Richard Kujau, a cobbler, and his wife, both of who had joined the Nazi party in 1933. Kujau's early life was of unremitting poverty and his mother was obliged to send her children into orphanages for periods of time. The boy grew up believing in the Nazi ideals and idolising Adolf Hitler; the defeat to the Allies in 1945, and Hitler's suicide did not temper his enthusiasm for the Nazi cause. He held a series of menial jobs until 1957, when he was working as a waiter at the Löbau Youth Club and a warrant was issued for his arrest in connection with the theft of a microphone. In June he fled to Stuttgart, West Germany where he soon drifted into temporary menial work and petty crime. In 1959 he was fined 80 Marks for stealing tobacco; in 1960 he was sent to prison for nine months after being caught breaking into a storeroom to steal cognac; in 1961 he spent more time in prison after stealing five crates of fruit; six months later he was arrested after getting into a fight with his employer while employed as a cook in a bar.