Today a book that was banned in Germany by the Allies since 1945 is back in print! We are talking about Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, a book that is part autobiography and part manifesto. The 70-year copyright that was held by the state of Bavaria expired on December 31, 2015; and despite the fact that Hitler’s work of prose has always been available in translation outside of Germany, the republication has caused much controversy in Germany.
The new German edition of the two volumes of Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” has been expertly prepared with about 3,500 annotations that offer commentary and critical references. The sales of the book with a price tag of 59 Euros (about $64) have exceeded all expectations with the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich receiving 15,000 pre-orders already before Friday’s release. The book sold out within hours on Amazon’s German site.
Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf” while he was in prison and his writing style apparently displayed many mistakes in syntax, grammar and style over all. The two volumes were first published in 1925 and 1926 and didn’t get much attention until 1933, when Hitler seized power.
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Image: Wikipedia – Dust jacket of Mein Kampf (1926–27)
Source: New York Times – ‘Mein Kampf,’ Hitler’s Manifesto, Returns to German Shelves; Economist – “What the Führer means for Germans today”
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