Werner Maser (12 July 1922 – 5 April 2007) was a German historian, journalist and professor at the

Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

. Maser was the first historian to claim that the

Hitler Diaries The Hitler Diaries (german: Hitler-Tagebücher) were a series of sixty volumes of journals purportedly written by Adolf Hitler, but forged by Konrad Kujau between 1981 and 1983. The diaries were purchased in 1983 for 9.3 million Deutsche ...

were forgeries.Werner Maser, a Leading Hitler Scholar, Dies at 84
''The New York Times'' (11 April 2007). He was born in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

to a farmer and horse breeder. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he served in the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

as an infantry officer. After Germany's defeat, Maser was interned by the Soviets in

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

. After his release, he studied theology, philosophy and political science at Berlin, Munich and Erlangen. His doctoral thesis was titled ''The Organisation of the Führer Legend''.''The Times'' (12 April 2007), p. 60. Maser was appointed professor of history at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

and he was also a guest professor at universities in America, Japan and Finland. He discovered Hitler's medical records, which had been thought lost. During the late 1970s Maser claimed that Hitler had fathered a son (

Jean-Marie Loret Jean-Marie Loret (25 March 1918 – 14 February 1985) was a French railway worker and allegedly Adolf Hitler's illegitimate son. According to Loret, his mother revealed to him shortly before her death in 1948 that the "unknown German soldier" wit ...

) with a French peasant dancer in 1918. He was a critic of the works of

Alan Bullock Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock, (13 December 1914 – 2 February 2004) was a British historian. He is best known for his book '' Hitler: A Study in Tyranny'' (1952), the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler, which influence ...

and

Sebastian Haffner Raimund Pretzel (27 December 1907 – 2 January 1999), better known by his pseudonym Sebastian Haffner, was a German journalist and historian. As an émigré in Britain during World War II, Haffner argued that accommodation was impossible not onl ...

. In his 1994 work ''Der Wortbruch: Hitler, Stalin und der Zweite Weltkrieg'' ("The Broken Agreement: Hitler, Stalin and the Second World War"), Maser argued that the Soviets were preparing to invade Germany and that Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union pre-empted the planned Soviet invasion of Germany by two weeks. He also wrote biographies of German Presidents

Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first President of Germany (1919–1945), president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925. Eber ...

Paul von Hindenburg Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fro ...

and

Helmut Kohl Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...

Richard Breitman Richard David Breitman, born in 1947, is an American historian best known for his study of the Holocaust. Richard Breitman is an American historian who has written extensively on modern German history, the Holocaust, American immigration and refuge ...

called Maser's biography of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

"the least reliable among the major biographies" and criticized Maser for giving credence to Hitler's alleged familiarity with many classics, preferring

Robert G. L. Waite Robert George Leeson Waite (February 18, 1919 – October 4, 1999) was a Canadian historian, psychohistorian, and the Brown Professor of History (1949–1988) at Williams College who specialized in the Nazi movement, particularly Adolf Hitler ...

depiction Depiction is reference conveyed through pictures. A picture refers to its object through a non-linguistic two-dimensional scheme, and is distinct from writing or notation. A depictive two-dimensional scheme is called a picture plane and may be cons ...

of Hitler as someone who "perused various sources for specific information to reinforce his own views".

Works

*''Genossen beten nicht. Kirchenkampf des Kommunismus'' (Köln: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Politik, 1963). *''Hitlers Mein Kampf: Entstehung, Aufbau, Stil, Anderungen, Quellen, Quellenwert, Kommentierte Auszuge'' (München: Bechtle-Verlag, 1966). **(English translation by Richard Barry), ''Hitler's Mein Kampf: An Analysis'' (London: Faber and Faber, 1970). *''Adolf Hitler: Legende, Mythos, Wirklichkeit'' (München: Bechtle-Verlag, 1971). **(English translation by Peter and Betty Ross), ''Hitler: Legend, Myth & Reality'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1973). *''Hitlers Briefe und Notizen. Sein Weltbild in Handschriftlichen Dokumenten'' (Düsseldorf and Vienna: Econ Verlag, 1973). **(English translation), ''

Hitler's Letters and Notes ''Hitler's Letters and Notes'' is a book by Werner Maser. It is a collection of Adolf Hitler’s personal correspondence and private notations with comments by Maser. It reproduces photo-facsimiles of the handwritten original documents, with tr ...

'' (1973). *''Nürnberg. Tribunal der Sieger, Econ-Verlag, Düsseldorf-Wien'' (1977). **(English translation by Richard Barry), ''Nuremberg: A Nation on Trial'' (London: Allen Lane, 1979). *''Der Wortbruch. Hitler, Stalin und der Zweite Weltkrieg'' (München: Günter Olzog Verlag, 1994).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maser, Werner 1922 births 2007 deaths German male non-fiction writers 20th-century German historians People from East Prussia German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union