August Friedrich Kellner (1 February 1885 – 4 November 1970) was a German mid-level official and diarist who worked as a justice inspector in Laubach from 1933 to 1945.

[1] During World War II, working as a civil servant at a small court house, Kellner wrote a diary to record his observations of the Nazi regime.

In 1968, he gave his diary to his American grandson, Robert Scott Kellner, to translate into English and to bring it to the attention of the public.

Kellner's diary is voluminous – consisting of 10 notebooks – and all the entries were handwritten in the Old German style Sütterlin script.

The Kellner family could trace its beginnings to when the Protestant reformer Martin Luther lived and preached not far from Arnstadt.

From September 1907 to October 1908, Kellner fulfilled his initial military reserve duty in the 6th Infantry Company of the Leibregiments Großherzogin (3.

When the First World War began in 1914, Kellner was called up for active duty as a sergeant and deputy-officer in the Prinz Carl Infantry Regiment (4.

Within the first month of his return to army service, Kellner was in eight engagements in Belgium and France, including fights at Neufchâteau, Revigny-Laimont, and Rinarville, associated with what has become known as the Battle of the Frontiers.

During the November pogrom of 1938, known as Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Glass"), Friedrich and Pauline Kellner tried to stop the rioting.

From his reading of Mein Kampf, Kellner believed the election of Adolf Hitler would mean another war in Europe, and events soon were to support his view.

It was on this day that Friedrich Kellner began to record his observations in a secret diary that he entitled Mein Widerstand, "My Opposition".

He wanted the coming generations to know how easily young democracies could turn into dictatorships, and how people were too willing to believe propaganda rather than resist tyranny and terrorism.

[10] A report written by the district Nazi leader, Hermann Engst, shows that authorities were planning to punish Kellner at the conclusion of the war.

Numerous entries in the diary reveal Kellner's belief that Germany had no chance to win if America would put aside its neutrality and do more than just send supplies to the United Kingdom.

When Germany declared war on America in 1941, the diary entries show Kellner's impatience for the Allies to mount an effective invasion of the continent, and to bring the fight to the Germans on their own territory.

When the invasion of Normandy took place on 6 June 1944, Kellner inscribed in large letters in the entry of that date: "Endlich!," meaning "Finally!

Only a few days earlier, beginning on 23 March 1945, in a series of coordinated events between the British and American forces, the Allies had crossed the Rhine River in their invasion of the German homeland.

On 19 July 1966, Kellner received compensation from the Federal Republic of Germany because of the injustices committed against him during the time of National Socialism.

Decades later, Robert Scott Kellner would use the diary to combat the resurgence of fascism and anti-Semitism in the twenty-first century, and to counter historical revisionists[19] who would deny the Holocaust and other Nazi atrocities.

He offered a copy of the diary to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has referred to the Holocaust as "a myth" and has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map.

"[20][21] In his offer to Ahmadinejad, Kellner said: "We need to renounce ideologies that do not uphold, above all else, human life and personal liberty.

He meant for his observations to detail the events of those years, and to offer a prescription for future generations to prevent what occurred in Germany during Adolf Hitler's rise to power, when a fledgling democracy willingly embraced dictatorship to solve political disputes.

"[25] The diary's first public appearance was at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, where it was on display to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE Day, the end of the war in Europe.

The director of the group, Dr. Sascha Feuchert, considers Kellner's work one of the most extensive diaries of the Nazi period.

[30] A number of major universities in the United States, such as Purdue, Columbia, and Stanford, have offered to make the diary part of their libraries.