Hitler’s anti-Semitic manifesto Mein Kampf will be on sale in Germany on January 8, for the first time since World War II.
In accordance with European law, a copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author, whereupon the published writings are officially in the public domain.
A team of six scholars from the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich led by Christian Hartmann will release 4,000 copies of the now 1,984 page book, which will include 3,700 critical annotations by the historians to demystify Hitler’s propaganda.
In the face of controversy over their decision to publish a new version of the book, with critics saying you can’t “annotate the devil”, the academics arguedthat the world is better off with their version in the mix.
“We are like a bomb disposal unit, rendering relics from the Nazi-era useless,” the author told ZDF, a German TV station.
“It’s 90 years since the book was written, so it has lost its power to influence people,” Hartmann commented further on the Heute current affairs show.
“Specific topics covered in it are forgotten in history,” Hartmann said. “We now have a critical reference to the book, which will work internationally.”
A new Mein Kampf
It remains to be seen whether people will openly buy a copy of the book in a bookshop without feeling judged. It sold well online, in a less public format, where only two years ago, in January 2014, Mein Kampf topped numerous eBook charts including Amazon.co.uk’s “propaganda and spin” chart and its “Fascism and Nazism” chart.
In the United States, a 99 cent version topped the retailer’s “propaganda and political psychology” chart, The Guardian newspaper reported.
The imminent release of the book has made headlines around the world, and historians, experts and members of the Jewish community have been called on to comment. “How Dangerous is Hitler’s Mein Kampf Today?” one newspaper asked.
According to Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews, not very. “Knowledge of Mein Kampf is still important to explain national socialism and the Holocaust,” he told the German Handelsblatt business daily newspaper.
It was Hitler’s aim to saturate the German psyche with his manifesto, of which 12.5 million copies were in circulation between 1933 and 1945. How many copies will be sold this time round is anyone’s guess.
In 2012, the Bavarian state government stated that it would support the annotated edition with 500,000 euros ($543,000) but pulled out citing concerns that it would offend families of Holocaust victims and survivors.
But no doubt “Der Fuhrer” himself would be happy to hear his book is not just online, but also back in people’s minds, 70 years after his death in an underground bunker in Berlin.
Franzen won’t be buying the book all the same.
“No thanks,” she said. “Annotations or not, I think I’ll pass. It’s not worth a possibility of a paper cut.”
Its initial printing run will be 4,000 copies and the book will sell for 59 euros ($64).
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