One of the most hilariously successful hoaxes, taking in the cream of European publishers, happened today.

German magazine Stern published the diaries which had, it was alleged, been penned by the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler himself.

However, the source who originally authenticated the diaries (an eminent Hitler historian), admitted that he was having second thoughts soon after publication, in a press conference.

The diaries had been discovered, so the story went, in a Hayloft in East Germany. They had been rescued from a plane crash.

Stern allegedly paid $5 million for the diaries and the Sunday Times, in Britain, paid $400,000 for the British serialization rights.

The diaries covered a period from 1932 until shortly before Hitler's death in Berlin in 1945.

Eventually the hoax was uncovered as the ink used was modern and the writing was very consistent, indicating the copy had been hand-written in a few goes, and not regularly like in normal diary.