Hitler beganMein Kampf while imprisoned followinghis failed coup in Munich in November 1923 and a trial in February 1924 forhigh treason, in which he received a sentence of five years in fortress confinement (Festungshaft). Although he received many visitors initially, he soon devoted himself entirely to the book. As he continued, he realized that it would have to be a two-volume work, with the first volume scheduled for release in early 1925. The governor ofLandsberg Prison noted at the time that "he [Hitler] hopes the book will run into many editions, thus enabling him to fulfill his financial obligations and to defray the expenses incurred at the time of his trial."[4][5] After slow initial sales, the book became a bestseller in Germany followingHitler's rise to power in 1933.[6]
AfterHitler's death, copyright ofMein Kampf passed to the state government ofBavaria, which refused to allow any copying or printing of the book in Germany. In 2016, following the expiry of the copyright held by the Bavarian state government,Mein Kampf was republished in Germany for the first time since 1945, which prompted public debate and divided reactions from Jewish groups. A team of scholars from theInstitute of Contemporary History in Munich published a two-volume almost 2,000-page edition annotated with about 3,500 notes. This was followed in 2021 by a 1,000-page French edition based on the German annotated version, with about twice as much commentary as text.[7]
Title
Hitler originally wanted to call his forthcoming bookViereinhalb Jahre (des Kampfes) gegen Lüge, Dummheit und Feigheit (Four and a Half Years [of Struggle] Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice).[8]Max Amann, head of the Franz Eher Verlag and Hitler's publisher, is said to have suggested[9] the much shorter"Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle").
Contents
The arrangement of chapters is as follows:
Volume One: A Reckoning
Chapter 1: In the House of My Parents
Chapter 2: Years of Study and Suffering in Vienna
Chapter 3: General Political Considerations Based on My Vienna Period
Chapter 4: Munich
Chapter 5: The World War
Chapter 6: War Propaganda
Chapter 7: The Revolution
Chapter 8: The Beginning of My Political Activity
Chapter 9: The "German Workers' Party"
Chapter 10: Causes of the Collapse
Chapter 11: Nation and Race
Chapter 12: The First Period of Development of the National Socialist German Workers' Party
Volume Two: The National Socialist Movement
Chapter 1: Philosophy and Party
Chapter 2: The State
Chapter 3: Subjects and Citizens
Chapter 4: Personality and the Conception of theVölkisch State
Chapter 5: Philosophy and Organization
Chapter 6: The Struggle of the Early Period – the Significance of the Spoken Word
Chapter 7: The Struggle with the Red Front
Chapter 8: The Strong Man Is Mightiest Alone
Chapter 9: Basic Ideas Regarding the Meaning and Organization of the Sturmabteilung
Chapter 10: Federalism as a Mask
Chapter 11: Propaganda and Organization
Chapter 12: The Trade-Union Question
Chapter 13: German Alliance Policy After the War
Chapter 14: Eastern Orientation or Eastern Policy
Chapter 15: The Right of Emergency Defense
Conclusion
Index
Analysis
InMein Kampf, Hitler used the main thesis of "the Jewish peril", which posits aJewish conspiracy to gain world leadership.[10] The narrative describes the process by which he became increasinglyantisemitic andmilitaristic, especially during his years in Vienna. He speaks of not having met aJew until he arrived in Vienna, and that at first his attitude was liberal and tolerant. When he first encountered the antisemitic press, he says, he dismissed it as unworthy of serious consideration. Later he accepted the same antisemitic views, which became crucial to his program of national reconstruction of Germany.
Mein Kampf has also been studied as a work onpolitical theory. For example, Hitler announces his hatred of what he believed to be the world's two evils:communism andJudaism. In the book, Hitler blamed Germany's chief woes on theparliament of theWeimar Republic, the Jews, andSocial Democrats, as well asMarxists, though he believed that Marxists, Social Democrats, and the parliament were all working for Jewish interests.[11] He announced that he wanted to destroy theparliamentary system completely, believing it to be corrupt in principle, as those who reach power are inherentopportunists.
Antisemitism
While historians dispute the exact date Hitler decided toexterminate the Jewish people, few place the decision before the mid-1930s.[12] First published in 1925,Mein Kampf shows Hitler's personal grievances and his ambitions for creating aNew Order. Hitler also wrote thatThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated text that purported to expose a Jewish plot to control the world,[13] was an authentic document. This later became a part of theNazi propaganda effort to justify persecution and annihilation of the Jews.[14][15]
The historianIan Kershaw observed that several passages inMein Kampf are undeniably of agenocidal nature.[16] Hitler wrote "the nationalization of our masses will succeed only when, aside from all the positive struggle for the soul of our people, their international poisoners are exterminated",[17] and he suggested that, "If at the beginning of the war and during the war twelve or fifteen thousand of these Hebrew corrupters of the nation had been subjected to poison gas, such as had to be endured in the field by hundreds of thousands of our very best German workers of all classes and professions, then the sacrifice of millions at the front would not have been in vain."[18]
The racial laws to which Hitler referred resonate directly with his ideas inMein Kampf. In the first edition, Hitler stated that the destruction of the weak and sick is far more humane than their protection. Apart from this allusion to humane treatment, Hitler saw a purpose in destroying "the weak" in order to provide the proper space and purity for the "strong".[19]
Anti-Slavism andLebensraum (living space)
Hitler described that, when he was inVienna, it was repugnant for him to see the mixture of races "of Czechs, Poles, Hungarians,Ruthenians, Serbs and Croats, and always that infection which dissolves human society, the Jew, were all here and there and everywhere."[20] He also wrote that he viewed the Japanese victory over the Russians in theRusso-Japanese War in 1904 as a "blow toAustrian Slavism".[21]
In the chapter "Eastern Orientation or Eastern Policy", Hitler argued that the Germans neededLebensraum (living space) in the East, a "historic destiny" that would properly nurture the German people.[22] Hitler believed that "the organization of a Russian state formation was not the result of the political abilities of the Slavs in Russia, but only a wonderful example of the state-forming efficacy of the German element in an inferior race."[23] InMein Kampf, Hitler openly described his proposed future German expansion in the East, foreshadowingGeneralplan Ost:
And so weNational Socialists consciously draw a line beneath the foreign policy tendency of our pre-[First World] War period. We take up where we broke off six hundred years ago. We stop the endless German movement to the south and west, and turn our gaze toward the land in the east. At long last we break off the colonial and commercial policy of the pre-War period and shift to the soil policy of the future.If we speak of soil in Europe today, we can primarily have in mind only Russia and her vassal border states.[24]
Hitler wrote that he was against any attempts toGermanise Slavs, and criticised previous attempts at trying to Germanise the Austrian Slavs. He also criticised people in pan-German movements in Germany who thought that forcing ethnic Poles living in Germany to speak the German language would turn them into Germans; he believed that would have caused a "foreign race" by its own "inferiority" to damage the "dignity" and "nobility" of the German nation.[25]
Sales
Arabic edition of Mein Kampf
Although Hitler originally wroteMein Kampf mostly for the followers of Nazism, interest in the work grew after his rise to power. (Two other books written by party members,Gottfried Feder'sBreaking The Interest Slavery andAlfred Rosenberg'sThe Myth of the Twentieth Century, have since lapsed into comparative literary obscurity.)[26] Hitler had made about 1.2 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ from sales of the book by 1933 (equivalent to €5,562,590 in 2021), when the average annual income of a teacher was about 4,800 ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to €22,250 in 2021).[26][27] He had accumulated a tax debt of 405,500 ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to €1,879,692 in 2021) from the sale of about 240,000 copies before he became chancellor in 1933, at which time his debt was waived.[26][27]
Hitler began to distance himself from the book after becoming chancellor of Germany in 1933. He dismissed it as "fantasies behind bars" that were little more than a series of articles for theVölkischer Beobachter newspaper, and later toldHans Frank that "If I had had any idea in 1924 that I would have become Reich chancellor, I never would have written the book."[28] Nevertheless,Mein Kampf was a bestseller in Germany during the 1930s.[29] During Hitler's years in power, the book was in high demand in libraries and often reviewed and quoted in other publications. It was given free to every newlywed couple and every soldier fighting at the front.[26] By 1939, it had sold 5.2 million copies in eleven languages.[30]
Contemporary observations
Mein Kampf, in essence, lays out the ideological program Hitler established for theHolocaust, by identifying the Jews and "Bolsheviks" as racially and ideologically inferior and threatening, and "Aryans" and National Socialists as racially superior and politically progressive. Hitler's revolutionary goals included expulsion of the Jews, and the unification of German peoples into oneGreater Germany. Hitler desired to restore German lands to their greatest historical extent, real or imagined.
Due to itsracist content and the historical effect of Nazism upon Europe duringWorld War II and the Holocaust, it is considered a highly controversial book. Criticism has not come solely from opponents of Nazism.Italian fascist dictator and Nazi allyBenito Mussolini was also critical of the book, saying that it was "a boringtome that I have never been able to read" and remarking that Hitler's beliefs, as expressed in the book, were "little more than commonplace clichés".[31] The American literary theorist and philosopherKenneth Burke wrote a 1939 analysis of the work,The Rhetoric of Hitler's "Battle", pointing out an underlying message of aggressive intent.[32]
The American journalistJohn Gunther said in 1940 that compared to autobiographies such asLeon Trotsky'sMy Life orHenry Adams'sThe Education of Henry Adams,Mein Kampf was "vapid, vain, rhetorical, diffuse, prolix." However, he added that "it is a powerful and moving book, the product of great passionate feeling". He suggested that the book exhausted curious German readers, "but with its message, if only by ceaseless repetition of the argument, left impregnably in their minds, fecund and germinating".[33]
In March 1940, British writerGeorge Orwell reviewed a then-recently published uncensored translation ofMein Kampf forThe New English Weekly. Orwell suggested that the force of Hitler's personality shone through the often "clumsy" writing, capturing the magnetic allure of Hitler for many Germans. In essence, Orwell notes, Hitler offers only visions of endless struggle and conflict in the creation of "a horrible brainless empire" that "stretch[es] to Afghanistan or thereabouts". He wrote, "Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people 'I offer you a good time,' Hitler has said to them, 'I offer you struggle, danger, and death,' and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet." Orwell's review was written in the aftermath of the 1939Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, when Hitler made peace with the USSR after more than a decade of vitriolic rhetoric and threats between the two nations; with the pact in place, Orwell believed, England was now facing a risk of Nazi attack, and the UK must not underestimate the appeal of Hitler's ideas.[34]
In his 1943 bookThe Menace of the Herd, Austrian scholarErik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn[35] described Hitler's ideas inMein Kampf and elsewhere as "a veritablereductio ad absurdum of 'progressive thought'"[36] and betraying "a curious lack of original thought" that shows Hitler offered no innovative or original ideas but was merely "avirtuoso of commonplaces which he may or may not repeat in the guise of a 'new discovery.'"[37] Hitler's stated aim, Kuehnelt-Leddihn writes, is to quash individualism in furtherance of political goals:
When Hitler and Mussolini attack the "western democracies" they insinuate that their "democracy" is not genuine. National Socialism envisages abolishing the difference in wealth, education, intellect, taste, philosophy, and habits by a leveling process which necessitates in turn a total control over the child and the adolescent. Every personal attitude will be branded — after communist pattern — as "bourgeois", and this in spite of the fact that the bourgeois is the representative of the most herdist class in the world, and that National Socialism is a basically bourgeois movement.InMein Kampf, Hitler repeatedly speaks of the "masses" and the "herd" referring to the people. The German people should probably, in his view, remain a mass of identical "individuals" in an enormous sand heap or ant heap, identical even to the color of their shirts, the garment nearest to the body.[38]
In hisThe Second World War, published in several volumes in the late 1940s and early 1950s,Winston Churchill wrote that he felt that after Hitler's ascension to power, no other book thanMein Kampf deserved more intensive scrutiny.[39]
A number of translators have commented on the poor quality of Hitler's use of language in writingMein Kampf. Olivier Mannoni, who translated the 2021 French critical edition, said about the original German text that it was "An incoherent soup, one could become half-mad translating it", and said that previous translations had corrected the language, giving the false impression that Hitler was a "cultured man" with "coherent and grammatically correct reasoning". He added "To me, making this text elegant is a crime."[7] Mannoni's comments are similar to those made byRalph Manheim, who made the first English-language translation in 1943. Manheim wrote in theforeword to the edition "Where Hitler's formulations challenge the reader's credulity I have quoted the German original in the notes." This evaluation of the poor quality of Hitler's prose and his inability to express his opinions coherently was shared by William S. Schlamm, who reviewed Manheim's translation inThe New York Times, writing that "there was not the faintest similarity to a thought and barely a trace of language."[41]
German publication history
While Hitler was in power (1933–1945),Mein Kampf was made available in three common editions, all of which combined both volumes into one book. The first, theVolksausgabe or People's Edition, featured the original cover on the dust jacket and was navy blue underneath with a goldswastika eagle embossed on the cover. TheHochzeitsausgabe, or Wedding Edition, in a slipcase with the seal of the province embossed in gold onto a parchment-like cover was given free to marrying couples. In 1940, theTornister-Ausgabe, or Knapsack Edition, was released. This edition was a compact, but unabridged, version in a red cover and was released by the post office, available to be sent to soldiers fighting at the front.
The deluxeJubiläumsausgabe, or Anniversary Issue, containing both volumes, was published in 1939 in honour of Hitler's 50th birthday. It came in both dark blue and bright red boards with a gold sword on the cover. The book could also be purchased as a two-volume set during Hitler's rule, and was available with soft or hard covers. The soft-cover edition had the original cover (as pictured at the top of this article). The hardcover edition had a leather spine with cloth-covered boards. The cover and spine contained an image of three brown oak leaves.
2016 critical edition
Along with therest of his wealth and property, Hitler left the rights to the book to the German state. As Hitler's official place of residence was inMunich, the copyright passed to the government of Bavaria, which refused to allow the book to be republished. The copyright ran out on 31 December 2015.
On 3 February 2010, theInstitute of Contemporary History (IfZ) in Munich announced plans to re-publish an annotated version of the text, for educational purposes in schools and universities, in 2016. The book had last been published in Germany in 1945.[42] The IfZ argued that re-publication was necessary to get an authoritative annotated edition by the time the copyright ran out, which might open the way forneo-Nazi groups to publish their own versions.[43] The Bavarian Finance Ministry opposed the plan, citing respect for victims of theHolocaust. It stated that permits for reprints, or a new annotated edition, would not be issued, at home or abroad.
There was disagreement about the issue of whether the republished book might be banned as Nazi propaganda. The Bavarian government emphasized that even after expiration of the copyright, "the dissemination of Nazi ideologies will remain prohibited in Germany and is punishable under the penal code".[44] However, the Bavarian Science Minister Wolfgang Heubisch supported a critical edition, stating in 2010: "Once Bavaria's copyright expires, there is the danger of charlatans and neo-Nazis appropriating this infamous book for themselves."[43]
On 12 December 2013, the Bavarian government cancelled its financial support for an annotated edition. IfZ, which was preparing the translation, announced that it intended to proceed with publication after the copyright expired,[45] and scheduled an edition ofMein Kampf for release in 2016.[46]
Richard Verber, vice-president of theBoard of Deputies of British Jews, stated in 2015 that the board trusted the academic and educational value of republishing. "We would, of course, be very wary of any attempt to glorify Hitler or to belittle the Holocaust in any way," Verber declared toThe Observer. "But this is not that. I do understand how some Jewish groups could be upset and nervous, but it seems it is being done from a historical point of view and to put it in context."[47]
The annotated edition ofMein Kampf was published in Germany in January 2016 and sold out within hours on Amazon's German site. The two-volume edition included about 3,500 notes and was almost 2,000 pages long.[48] Usually, according toGerhard Weinberg, the information in the annotated edition that accompanies a chapter is mostly about when the chapter was written, though "in some cases" there is commentary on the nature and argument of the chapter.[49]
The book's publication led to public debate in Germany, and divided reactions from Jewish groups, with some supporting, and others opposing, the decision to publish.[29] German officials had previously said they would limit public access to the text amid fears that its re-publication could stir neo-Nazi sentiment.[50] Some bookstores stated that they would not stock the book. Dussmann, a Berlin bookstore, stated that one copy was available on the shelves in the history section, but that it would not be advertised, and more copies would be available only on order.[51] By January 2017, the German annotated edition had sold over 85,000 copies.[52][53]
Gerhard Weinberg wrote a generally positive review of the annotated edition, praising the choice to include not only editors' comments but also changes of the original text. He said that notes such as those of chapters eight and nine "will be extremely helpful" about the situation in the time of Hitler's entry into politics and lauded the notes to chapter 11 ("People and Race") as "extensive and very helpful" as well. On the negative side, Weinberg observed that the editors make a false correction at one point; that they miss an informative book on German atrocities during World War I; that they include a survey of Nazi membership too late; and that all of his own work on Hitler goes unmentioned in the bibliography.[49]
Ever since the early 1930s, the history ofMein Kampf in English has been complicated and an occasion for controversy.[54][55] No fewer than four full translations were completed before 1945, as well as a number of extracts in newspapers, pamphlets, government documents and unpublished typescripts. Not all of these had official approval from his publishers,Franz Eher Nachfolger. Since the war, the 1943Ralph Manheim translation has been the most commonly published translation, though other versions have continued to circulate.
Current availability
Germany
At the time of his suicide, Hitler's official place of residence was inMunich, which led to his entire estate, including all rights toMein Kampf, changing to the ownership of the state ofBavaria. The government of Bavaria, in agreement with the federal government of Germany, refused to allow any copying or printing of the book in Germany. It also opposed copying and printing in other countries, but with less success. UnderGerman copyright law, the entire text entered thepublic domain on 1 January 2016, upon the expiration of the calendar year 70 years after the author's death.[56]
Owning and buying the book in Germany is not an offence. Trading in old copies is lawful as well, unless it is done in such a fashion as to "promote hatred or war." In particular, the unmodified edition is not covered by §86StGB that forbids dissemination of means of propaganda of unconstitutional organizations, since it is a "pre-constitutional work" and as such cannot be opposed to the free and democratic basic order, according to a 1979 decision of theFederal Court of Justice of Germany.[57] Most German libraries carry heavily commented and excerpted versions ofMein Kampf. In 2008, Stephan Kramer, secretary-general of theCentral Council of Jews in Germany, not only recommended lifting the ban, but volunteered the help of his organization in editing and annotating the text, saying that it is time for the book to be made available to all online.[58]
After the copyright expired,Mein Kampf was reprinted and sold on a large scale by a right-wing extremist publisher. Several thousand copies were confiscated during a raid.[59] In a court ruling against the publisher's operator, the distribution of the unabridged, uncommented version ofMein Kampf was classified asIncitement of masses in accordance with Section 130 of the German Criminal Code.[60][61] As a result of the ruling,Mein Kampf was added to theList of Media Harmful to Young People by theFederal Agency for Child and Youth Protection in the Media.[62]
Egypt
InEgypt, the book was first translated into Arabic in 1937. It had a new translation in 1963 which was reprinted in 1995.[63] The book was also displayed for sale inCairo's state-run book fairs in 2007, 2021, and 2023.[64][65][66]
Finland
The Nazi groupFinnish People's Organisation had circulated an unofficial translation since at least 1934.[67] One of Finland's largest publishing companies,Werner Söderström Osakeyhtiö, was granted publishing rights toMein Kampf after the Winter War in 1940, and Lauri Hirvensalo was approved as a translator by a German publishing house after WSOY confirmed his "Aryan" ancestry. In 1941–1944, two editions of Mein Kampf, 27,000 and 32,000 copies respectively were sold, a large number in Finland, and professorVeikko Antero Koskenniemi wrote a glowing review of the book forUusi Suomi newspaper. During the first week after its publication, 8,000 copies were sold.[68][69] In the 2000s, a group calledNordic Heritage reprinted Mein Kampf. This edition was funded by department store tycoon and Holocaust denierJuha Kärkkäinen.[70] In the 2020s, the Kielletyt Kirjat ('Banned Books') publishing company, linked to the neo-Nazi groupNordic Resistance Movement published new editions of the 1941 translations ofMein Kampf, and it has been sold in department stores in Finland.[71]
Pseudonymous Thomas Dalton, suspected of being a researcher inUniversity of Helsinki has also republished Mein Kampf in the 2020s.[72]
France
In 1934, the French government unofficially sponsored the publication of an unauthorized translation. It was meant as a warning and included a critical introduction byMarshal Lyautey ("Every Frenchman must read this book"). It was published byfar-right publisherFernand Sorlot in an agreement with the activists ofLICRA who bought 5,000 copies to be offered to "influential people"; however, most of them treated the book as a casual gift and did not read it.[73] The Nazi regime unsuccessfully tried to have it forbidden. Hitler, as the author, andEher-Verlag, his German publisher, had to sue forcopyright infringement in theCommercial Court of France. Hitler's lawsuit succeeded in having all copies seized, the print broken up, and having aninjunction against booksellers offering any copies. However, a large quantity of books had already been shipped and stayed available undercover by Sorlot.[74]
In 1938, Hitler licensed for France an authorized edition byFayard, translated by François Dauture andGeorges Blond, without the threatening tone against France of the original. The French edition was 347 pages long, while the original title was 687 pages, and it was titledMa doctrine ("My doctrine").[75] After the war, Fernand Sorlot re-edited, re-issued, and continued to sell the work, without permission from thestate of Bavaria, to which the author's rights had defaulted. In the 1970s, the rise of the extreme right in France along with the growing ofHolocaust denial works, placedMein Kampf under judicial watch, and in 1978 LICRA entered a complaint in the courts against the publisher for incitingantisemitism. Sorlot was issued a "substantial fine", but the court also granted him the right to continue publishing the work, provided certain warnings and qualifiers accompanied the text.[74]
On 1 January 2016, 70 years after Hitler's death,Mein Kampf entered thepublic domain in France.[74] A new edition was published in 2017 by Fayard, now part of theGroupe Hachette, with a critical introduction like the 2018 edition published in Germany by theInstitut für Zeitgeschichte.[74] In 2021, a 1,000-page critical edition, based on the German edition of 2016, was published in France. TitledHistoriciser le mal: Une édition critique de Mein Kampf ('Historicizing Evil: A Critical Edition of Mein Kampf'), with almost twice as much commentary as text, it was edited by Florent Brayard and Andraes Wirsching, translated by Olivier Mannoni, and published by Fayard. The print run was deliberately kept small at 10,000, available only by special order, with copies set aside for public libraries. Proceeds from the sale of the edition were earmarked for theAuschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. Some critics who had objected in advance to the edition's publication had fewer objections upon publication. One historian noted that there were so many annotations that Hitler's text had become "secondary."[7]
An extract ofMein Kampf inHebrew was first published[9][5][4][3] in 1992 by Akadamon in a run of 400 copies.[80] A complete translation of the book into Hebrew by Dan Yaron, a Vienna-born retired teacher and Holocaust survivor,[81] was published by theHebrew University of Jerusalem in 1995.
Latvia
On 5 May 1995, a translation ofMein Kampf released by a small Latvian publishing houseVizītkarte began appearing in bookstores, provoking a reaction from Latvian authorities, who confiscated the approximately 2,000 copies that had made their way to the bookstores and charged director of the publishing house Pēteris Lauva with offences under anti-racism law.[82] Currently the publication ofMein Kampf is forbidden in Latvia.[82][83] In April 2018, multiple Russian-language news sites (Baltnews,Zvezda,Sputnik,Komsomolskaya Pravda andKomprava among others) reported that Adolf Hitler had allegedly become more popular in Latvia thanHarry Potter, referring to a Latvian online book trading platform ibook.lv, whereMein Kampf had appeared at the No. 1 position in "The Most Current Books in 7 Days" list.[84][85][86]
Alexa Internet reported that ibook.lv was only the 878th-most-popular website and 149th-most-popular shopping site in Latvia at the time, and only had 4 copies on sale by individual users, and no users wishing to purchase the book.[85] Owner of ibook.lv pointed out that the book list is not based on actual deals but rather page views, of which 70% in the case ofMein Kampf had come from anonymous and unregistered users she believed could be fake users.[86]Ambassador of Latvia to the Russian FederationMāris Riekstiņš responded to the story by tweeting "everyone, who wishes to know what books are actually bought and read in Latvia, are advised to address the largest book stores @JanisRoze; @valtersunrapa; @zvaigzneabc".[84] TheBBC also acknowledged the story was fake news, adding that in the last three yearsMein Kampf had been requested for borrowing for only 139 times across all libraries in Latvia, in comparison with around 25,000 requests for books about Harry Potter.[86]
Netherlands
In the Netherlands,Mein Kampf was not available for sale for years following World War II.[87][88] Sale of the book has been prohibited since a court ruling in the 1980s. In September 2018, however, Dutch publisher Prometheus officially released an academic edition of the 2016 German translation with comprehensive introductions and annotations by Dutch historians.[89] The book is widely available to the general public in the Netherlands for the first time since World War II.
Romania
On 20 April 1993, under the sponsorship of the vice-president of theDemocratic Agrarian Party of Romania,Sibiu-based Pacific publishers began issuing a Romanian edition ofMein Kampf. Authorities promptly banned the sale and confiscated the copies, citing Article 166 of thePenal Code, but the ban was overturned on appeal by the Prosecutor General on 27 May 1993. Chief RabbiMoses Rosen protested, and on 10 July 1993 PresidentIon Iliescu asked the Prosecutor General in writing to reinstate the ban of further printing and have the book withdrawn from the market. On 8 November 1993, the Prosecutor General rebuffed Iliescu, stating that the publication of the book was an act of spreading information, not conducting fascist propaganda. Although Iliescu deplored this answer "in strictly judicial terms", this was the end of the matter.[90][91]
Russia
In theSoviet Union,Mein Kampf was published in 1933 in a translation byGrigory Zinoviev.[92] In theRussian Federation,Mein Kampf has been published at least three times since 1992; the Russian text is also available on websites. In 2006 thePublic Chamber of Russia proposed banning the book. In 2009, St. Petersburg's branch of theRussian Ministry of Internal Affairs requested to remove an annotated and hyper-linked Russian translation of the book from a historiography website.[93][94] On 13 April 2010, it was announced thatMein Kampf is outlawed on grounds of extremism promotion.[95]
Sweden
Mein Kampf has been reprinted several times since 1945; in 1970, 1992, 2002 and 2010. In 1992 the Government of Bavaria tried to stop the publication of the book, and the case went to theSupreme Court of Sweden which ruled in favour of the publisher, stating that the book is protected by copyright, but that the copyright holder is unidentified (and not theState of Bavaria) and that the original Swedish publishing firm from 1934 was no longer in existence. It therefore refused the Government of Bavaria's claim.[96]
Turkey
Mein Kampf (Turkish:Kavgam) was widely available inTurkey selling up to 100,000 copies in just two months in 2005. Analysts and commentators believe the sales of the book to be related to a rise in nationalism and anti-U.S. sentiment. İvo Molinas ofŞalom stated this was a result of "what is happening in the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian problem and thewar in Iraq."[97] Doğu Ergil, a political scientist atAnkara University, said both far-right ultranationalists and extremist Islamists had found common ground – "not on a common agenda for the future, but on their anxieties, fears and hate".[98]
United States
In theUnited States,Mein Kampf can be found at many community libraries and can be bought, sold, and traded: it is protected by theFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution as a matter offreedom of speech and offreedom of the press.[99] The U.S. government seized the copyright in September 1942 during theSecond World War under theTrading with the Enemy Act and in 1979, Houghton Mifflin, the U.S. publisher of the book, bought the rights from the government pursuant to 28 CFR 0.47.[100] More than 15,000 copies are sold a year.[99] In 2016, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reported that it was having difficulty finding a charity that would accept profits from the sales of its version ofMein Kampf, which it had promised to donate.[101]
Online availability
In 1999, theSimon Wiesenthal Center documented that the book was available in Germany via major online booksellers such asAmazon andBarnes & Noble. After a public outcry, both companies agreed to end these sales to addresses in Germany.[102] In March 2020, Amazon banned sales of new and second-hand copies ofMein Kampf, and several other Nazi publications, on its platform.[103] The book remains available on Barnes and Noble's website.[104] It is also available in multiple languages, including German, at theInternet Archive.[105] One of the first completeEnglish translations, completed byJames Vincent Murphy in 1939,[106] is freely available onProject Gutenberg Australia.[107]
Hitler believed that the reason for the Nazi party's poor showing in the 1928 elections was the public's misunderstanding of his ideas. He retired to Munich to dictate a sequel toMein Kampf to expand on its ideas, with more focus on foreign policy. Only two copies of the 200-page manuscript were originally made, and only one of these was ever made public. The document was neither edited nor published during theNazi era, and remains known asZweites Buch, or 'Second Book'. To keep the document strictly secret, in 1935 Hitler ordered that it be placed in a safe in an air raid shelter, where it remained until being discovered by an American officer in 1945.
The authenticity of the document found in 1945 has been verified by Josef Berg, a former employee of the Nazi publishing house Eher Verlag, andTelford Taylor, a former brigadier general of the United States Army Reserve and Chief Counsel at the Nuremberg war-crimes trials. In 1958, theZweites Buch was found in the archives of the United States by American historianGerhard Weinberg. Unable to find an American publisher, Weinberg turned to his mentor –Hans Rothfels at the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich – and his associateMartin Broszat, who publishedZweites Buch in 1961. A pirated edition was published in English in New York in 1962. The first authoritative English edition was not published until 2003 (Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf,ISBN1-929631-16-2).
See also
Berlin Without Jews, a dystopian satirical novel about German antisemitism, published in the same year asMein Kampf
Generalplan Ost, Hitler's "new order of ethnographical relations"
^Browning, Christopher R. (2003).Initiating the Final Solution: The Fateful Months of September–October 1941. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. p. 12.OCLC53343660.
^Orwell, George. "Mein Kampf" review, reprinted inThe Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Vol 2., Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus, eds., Harourt Brace Jovanovich 1968
^Francis Stuart Campbell, pen name ofErik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn (1943),Menace of the Herd, or, Procrustes at Large, Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing Company
^Winston Churchill: The Second World War. Volume 1, Houghton Mifflin Books 1986, S. 50. "Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message."
^abWeinberg, Gerhard L. (25 April 2017). Hartmann, Christian; Vordermayer, Thomas; Plöckinger, Othmar; Töppel, Roman; Raim, Edith (eds.)."Hitler, Mein Kampf: Eine kritische Edition".Holocaust and Genocide Studies.31 (1):110–115.doi:10.1093/hgs/dcx012.Archived from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved27 March 2022.
^§ 64 AllgemeinesArchived 5 October 2010 at theWayback Machine, German Copyright Law. The copyright has been relinquished for the Dutch and Swedish editions and some English ones (though not in the U.S., see below).
^Judgement of 25 July 1979 – 3 StR 182/79 (S); BGHSt 29, 73 ff.
^"Jewish Leader Urges Book Ban End".Dateline World Jewry.World Jewish Congress. July–August 2008.
^Ekholm, Kai:Kielletyt kirjat 1944–1946. Yleisten kirjastojen kirjapoistot vuosina 1944–1946. Väitöskirja, Oulun yliopisto. Jyväskylä: Things to come, 2000.ISBN951-8908-03-6.
^Hitler, Adolf: Taisteluni. I–II. ((Mein Kampf. I–II, 1925, 1926.) Saksan kielestä suomentanut Lauri Hirvensalo) Porvoo: WSOY, 1941.
^Jarl Hellemann:Kustantajan näkökulma: kirjoituksia kirjallisuuden reunalta, p. 236–238. Helsinki: Otava, 1999.ISBN951-1-16145-8.
^Barnes, James J.; Barnes, Patience P. (2008).Hitler's Mein Kampf in Britain and America: A Publishing History 1930–39. Cambridge, England:Cambridge University Press. p. 271.ISBN978-0521072670.
A. Hitler.Mein Kampf, Munich: Franz Eher Nachfolger, 1930
A. Hitler,Außenpolitische Standortbestimmung nach der Reichtagswahl Juni–Juli 1928 (1929; first published as Hitlers Zweites Buch, 1961), in Hitler: Reden, Schriften, Anordnungen, Februar 1925 bis Januar 1933, Vol IIA, with an introduction by G. L. Weinberg; G. L. Weinberg, C. Hartmann and K. A. Lankheit, eds (Munich: K. G. Saur, 1995)
Christopher Browning,Initiating the Final Solution: The Fateful Months of September–October 1941, Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, D.C.: USHMM, 2003).
Gunnar Heinsohn, "What Makes the Holocaust a Uniquely Unique Genocide",Journal of Genocide Research, vol. 2, no. 3 (2000): 411–430.
Littauer-Apt, Rudolf M. (1939–1940). "The Copyright in Hitler's 'Mein Kampf'".Copyright.5: 57 et seq.
Michaelis, Meir (1972). "World Power Status or World Dominion? A Survey of the Literature on Hitler's 'Plan of World Dominion' (1937–1970)".The Historical Journal.15 (2):331–360.doi:10.1017/s0018246x00002624.JSTOR2638127.S2CID162629479.
Rich, Norman (1973).Hitler's War Aims. New York: Norton.ISBN0-393-05454-3.
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