Editing Hitler Diaries (section)

===Production===
[[File:FH AH Hitlers Diaries 01.svg|thumb|upright=.75|alt=Top line: the letters F and H in gothic script. Bottom line: the letters A and H in gothic script|The initials FH (top row) which Kujau mistakenly used on the diary covers, instead of AH (bottom row). Both sets of initials are in Engravers Old English font.]]
It is unclear when Kujau produced his first Hitler diary. Stiefel says Kujau gave him a diary on loan in 1975. Schulze puts the date as 1976, while Kujau says he began in 1978, after a month's practice writing in the old German [[Kurrent|gothic script]] Hitler had used. Kujau used one of a pile of notebooks he had bought cheaply in East Berlin, and attempted to put the letters "AH" in gold on the front—purchasing plastic, Hong Kong-made letters from a department store, he inadvertently used "FH" rather than "AH". He took the black ribbon from a genuine SS document and attached it to the cover using a German army wax seal. For the ink, he bought two bottles of [[Pelikan]] ink—one black, one blue—and mixed them with water so it would flow more easily from the cheap modern pen he used. Finally he sprinkled tea over the pages and bashed the diaries against his desk to give them an aged look. Kujau showed the first volume to Stiefel, who was impressed and thought it a genuine Hitler diary; Stiefel wanted to buy it, but when the forger refused, the pair agreed that the collector could have it on loan.{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|pp=19–20}}{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=117, 137}}

In June 1979 Stiefel asked a former Nazi Party archivist, August Priesack, to verify the authenticity of the diary, which he subsequently did.{{efn|The previous year Priesack had "authenticated" Stiefel's primary archive, failing to uncover numerous Kujau forgeries.{{sfn|Harris|1991|p=118}}}} Priesack showed the diary to [[Eberhard Jäckel]] of the [[University of Stuttgart]], who also thought the diary to be genuine, and wanted to edit it for publication. News of the diary's existence soon began to filter through to collectors of Hitler memorabilia.{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|pp=21–22}} At the end of 1979 Tiefenthaeler contacted Heidemann to say that Stiefel had shown him around his collection, which included a Hitler diary—the only one Kujau had forged to that point.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=84–85}} According to Hamilton "the discovery inflamed Heidemann almost to madness", and he aggressively pressed for what would be a journalistic scoop.{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|p=28}}

Stiefel showed Heidemann the diary in Stuttgart in January 1980, telling him it was from a plane crash in East Germany, although he refused to tell the journalist the name of his source. The collector spoke to Kujau to see if he would meet Heidemann, but the forger repeatedly refused Heidemann's requests for nearly a year.{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|pp=28–29}} Heidemann returned to the ''Stern'' offices and spoke to his editor, but both Koch and Nannen refused to discuss the potential story with him, telling him to work on other features. The only person who was interested was Walde, who worked with Heidemann to find the source of the diaries. Their searches for Kujau proved fruitless, so they looked into the crash. Heidemann, who had read Baur's autobiography, knew of Gundlfinger's flight, and made a connection between Operation Seraglio and the diary; in November 1980 the two journalists travelled to Dresden and located the graves of the flight's crew.{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=90–91}}

In January 1981 Tiefenthaeler gave Kujau's telephone number to Heidemann, telling the journalist to ask for "Mr Fischer", one of Kujau's aliases. During the subsequent telephone call Kujau told Heidemann that there were 27 volumes of Hitler's diaries, the original manuscript of the unpublished third volume of ''Mein Kampf'', an opera by the young Hitler called {{lang|de|Wieland der Schmied}} (''Wayland the Smith''),{{efn|''[[Wieland der Schmied (libretto)|Wieland der Schmied]]'' was a libretto drafted by [[Richard Wagner]] in 1849–50, based on the legend of [[Wieland the Smith]] from the ''[[Poetic Edda]]''. Originally written for the Paris Opera, the project was abandoned by Wagner and not set to music.{{sfn|Gutman|1971|pp=193–198}}}} numerous letters and unpublished papers, and several of Hitler's paintings—most of which were still in East Germany. Heidemann offered two&nbsp;million DMs for the entire collection and guaranteed secrecy until everything had been brought over the border. Although the pair did not agree to a deal, they agreed to "the foundations of a deal", according to Harris; Kujau's condition was that he would only deal directly with Heidemann, something that suited the journalist as a way of keeping other members of ''Stern'' away from the story.{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|p=33}}{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=97–99}}

Heidemann and Walde produced a prospectus for internal discussion, outlining what was available for purchase and the costs. The document, signed by Heidemann, finished with a veiled threat: "If our company thinks that the risk is too great, I suggest that I should seek out a publishing company in the United States which could put up the money and ensure that we get the German publication rights." The pair did not show the prospectus to anyone at ''Stern'', but instead presented it to Gruner + Jahr's deputy managing director, Jan Hensmann, and Manfred Fischer; they also requested a 200,000&nbsp;mark deposit from the publisher to secure the rights with Kujau. After a meeting that lasted a little over two hours, and with no recourse to an expert or historian, the deposit was authorised.{{sfn|Evans|1998|pp=48–49}}{{sfn|Harris|1991|pp=99–100}} As soon as the meeting ended, at about 7&nbsp;pm, Heidemann travelled to Stuttgart, with the deposit money, to meet Kujau.{{sfn|Hamilton|1991|pp=33–34}}