麻豆社

Andrew Hunter Murray travels to the scene of the crime, just outside Stuttgart, from where the forger Konrad Kujau ran his cottage industry.

Who was this man, prone to splash the cash in local bars and have a good time while knocking out forgeries? Curator of the Konrad Kujau museum, Marc Oliver Boger, reveals more.

Our story takes us to 1980 in Hamburg, where the Stern journalist Gerd Heidemann is down on his luck. He has serious money problems, sinking thousands into maintaining G枚ring鈥檚 old yacht and still nothing to show for it. Lucky for him that a huge story is about to become tantalisingly close. All he needs is to persuade his magazine, Stern.

Writer and broadcaster Andrew Hunter Murray uncovers last century鈥檚 biggest ever publishing scandal, a forgery which rocked the world and destroyed reputations.
It鈥檚 a tale of greed, obsession and mass delusion. It includes Hermann G枚ring鈥檚 yacht, Nazi-themed honeymoons, Idi Amin鈥檚 underpants, and more details almost too unbelievable for words.

Andrew interviews the people who were there as the diaries were announced to the world, and as the story fell apart - the archivist tasked with authenticating the diaries in Germany, the TV producer led around the homes of retired Nazis to film a promotional documentary for the scoop, and the Fleet Street editor given 24 hours to create a world-beating story based on fraudulent material.

In our own time of AI, fake news and disinformation, are there any lessons we can take from the greatest hoax of the last 50 years?

Gerd Heidemann tapes part of the Gerd Heidemann collection, Hoover Institute, copyright Stanford University.

Presenter: Andrew Hunter Murray
Producer: Ruth Abrahams
Story Editor: Andrew Dickson
Sound Design: Joel Cox
Mix Engineer: Nigel Appleton
Executive Producers: David Prest and Robert Nicholson
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

A Whistledown production for 麻豆社 Sounds and Radio 4

Show less