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At a press conference immediately afterward in Coblenz, Luis-Ferdinand Werner, who had supervised chemical analysis on the paper, cover, bindings, labels and glue used in three of the seven volumes submitted by Stern, said flatly that the diaries were "obvious fakes." Beside him, Federal Archives President Hans Booms, who characterized the forgeries as "grotesque" and "superficial," contended that much of the contents had been plagiarized from a book, Hitler's Speeches and Proclamations 1932-45, written in 1962 by a former Nazi Federal Archivist, Max Domarus. Booms dated the production of the forgeries as about 1964.
As many specialists in forgery detection had predicted, once competent experts had a full and fair chance to examine the documents, evidence of any but the most crafty forgery would be swiftly found. But this fabrication, the German scientists discovered, was astonishingly inept. Chemical analysis of the binding showed that it contained polyester threads, which were not produced until after World War II. The glue used on the book labels also contained postwar chemicals. The same typewriter had been used on all labels on the volumes. It was a 1925 machine, all right, but close inspection of a label ostensibly typed in 1943 showed no wear on the keys since a label typed in 1934.
Moreover, as in so many manuscript forgeries, a knowledgeable reading of the diaries was damning in itself. The forger or forgers had unknowingly perpetuated minor errors that historians had found in the Domarus book. The crowd at a Hitler rally in Breslau was put at half a million, for instance, whereas more reliable non-Domarus reports had estimated 130,000. Both the diaries and Domarus had General Franz Ritter Von Epp congratulating Hitler in 1937 on his 50th anniversary in army service, when the dictator was only 48 years old; the Führer had actually praised Von Epp for his 50 years in the Army. Said Booms sarcastically about the Hitler portrayed in the diaries: "You get the impression of very limited understanding from a person who had an interest in making entries only when Domarus did."
Henri Nannen, Stern's publisher since its founding in 1948, first reacted with scorn, declaring on German television: "The Federal Archives is not God Almighty." But he soon calmed down and admitted, "We have some reason to be ashamed." He announced that "there won't be a single word about these diaries in the next issue." He promised, however, to "make an attempt to uncover the history of this forgery for our readers," adding, somewhat needlessly, "We have no reason to protect the swindler."
Stern's editorial workers, now even more distressed, met once again to discuss the fiasco. They presented a list of demands to their editors, but would not make them public. One employee reported: "Everyone is panicking. No one can believe that this is happening to us." Editor Koch's head was the first to roll. He submitted his resignation, as did another top editor, Felix Schmidt.
Other publications abruptly canceled their plans to print the Hitler diaries. Arthur Brittenden, a spokesman for Times Newspapers, said it had paid only half of its $400,000 to Stern. "We'll be asking Stern for our money back," he said. "We won't be paying any