It was not only a shock for the public, but also for many journalists in the editorial office: when it became clear that the Hitler diaries were a gross forgery, the stern editorial team began to fight back. Against their own bosses.
It’s Friday, May 6, 1983. Speaking in the conference at eleven o’clock star-Editors cautiously suspect that their paper could have been taken in by a forgery. Editor-in-chief Felix Schmidt calls such doubts “denunciation” and thunders: “Anyone who doesn’t understand that is on the wrong page.”
At 1:28 p.m., the German Press Agency reported that the Hitler diaries had been exposed as fake. Schmidt and his editor-in-chief colleague Peter Koch resign. What happens in the next two weeks is as unique in German press history as the super flop. The editors feel ignored, presented, humiliated.