Mein Kampf: can you still read it.

Discussion in 'Books, Films, TV, Radio' started by Deacs, Oct 12, 2011.

  1. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34980701

    Annotated Hitler's Mein Kampf to be published

    [​IMG]
    Hitler's book was first published in 1925

    Adolf Hitler's political manifesto Mein Kampf with critical notes by scholars is to be published next month - for the first time since the end of WWII.

    The Institute of Contemporary History (IfZ) in Munich says it will print up to 4,000 copies with some 3,500 notes.

    IfZ director Andreas Wirsching says the text with expert comments will "shatter the myth" surrounding the book.

    But the move has been criticised by Jewish groups, who argue that Nazi works should never be republished.

    Mein Kampf (My Struggle) was originally printed in 1925 - eight years before Hitler came to power.

    After Nazi Germany was defeated in 1945, the Allied forces handed the copyright to the book to the state of Bavaria.

    The local authorities have refused to allow the book to be reprinted to prevent incitement of hatred.

    Under German law copyright lasts for 70 years, and so publishers will be able to have free access to the original text from January.
    However, German officials have said they will limit public access to the text amid fears that this could stir neo-Nazi sentiment.
     
  2. idler

    idler GeneralList

    I think I will wait for the film...
     
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  3. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I do seem to have read a lot of guff about this new edition. The thing's been pretty much available in print from day one in a variety of languages and formats.
    A decent annotated edition was, to be honest, needed. Some expert commentary would help in those bits where he gets somewhat 'carried away', if only as a distraction from what is a rather turgid tract.

    Presumably 'the myth' is that it contains any really useful insight into the man, which I don't think it does, while still regarding it as worth a bash if getting one's head around the prison years.

    The irony of groups wishing to ban a book in protest against Nazism is not lost on me, though apparently it is to many of them...
     
  4. Nijmegen

    Nijmegen Member

    I doubt very much if Hitler's publications had that much to do with his rise to power.

    Fear for the unknown/refugees is nowadays the main asset for right wing populists.
     
  5. ritsonvaljos

    ritsonvaljos Senior Member

    I have seen paperback copies of the English language version of 'Mein Kampf' on sale for years. In fact, I saw one in the window of a bookshop only a few days ago.
     
  6. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36536317

     
  7. Deacs

    Deacs Well i am from Cumbria.

  8. A-58

    A-58 Not so senior Member

    It read better than the Koran. Read both of them in high school for some reason. Wasn't my idea as best as I can remember. Comic books were more interesting than the both of them. Of course comic books do hold the imagination of a 15 year old quite easily.
     
  9. JohnS

    JohnS Senior Member

    I don't think that this has been mentioned yet and it surprised me when I heard it: that a copy of Mein Kampf was given to every couple on their wedding day. The cost came from the state. Nice wedding present.

    I can't imagine our PM giving my wife and I a copy of his book. It would have been Paul Martin and thankfully I don't think that he has ever written a book. If he did it couldn't be as bad as Mein Kampf, which I've tried to read on several occasions and just can't get into it. Maybe it read better in German.
     
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  10. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    It's not uncommon to see the zeig rune SS presentation boxes for such at Militaria fairs etc.,
     
  11. canuck

    canuck Closed Account

    Our current PM writes at a Grade 5 level so it might contain shorter words and be easier to digest.
     
  12. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

  13. ritsonvaljos

    ritsonvaljos Senior Member

    Reading or owning a copy of 'Mein Kampf' does not necessarily mean that they believe in Nazi doctrine.
     
  14. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Joe

    Just for the record, I own a Kindle copy of Mein Kampf.

    I don't think you could find anyone who loathes and despises Naziism more than I do but I have always felt that one should know one's enemies.

    Ron
     
    Last edited: Sep 17, 2016
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  15. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

  16. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    From today's charity shop haul:
    Mein Rant - A summary in light verse of Mein Kampf, by RF Patterson with illustrations by none other than Heath Robinson.
    Facsimile of a 1940 original.

    IMG_20180806_170735055_HDR.jpg
    Never heard of it before.
    Rather good.

    IMG_20180806_170755932.jpg

    IMG_20180806_170810042.jpg
     
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  17. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Nice note in the 2009 introduction that the Blackie & co Glasgow printworks had been given over to war work, so the original was printed amongst torpedoe production.

    Also that the editor of the Beano was on a German capture list for gross disrespect to the fuhrer...
     
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  18. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    This BBC audio, 28 mins long, is from a few years back, but is currently still playable on the Iplayer: BBC Radio 4 - Mein Kampf: Publish or Burn?

    "Everyone's heard of it. Few may have read it, or have any idea of its remarkable publishing history. For all its bizarre style and bombast, Mein Kampf was Hitler's broadest statement of his aims and beliefs. Had the world understood its meaning, it's been claimed, the Nazi catastrophe might have been averted.

    It's a book that made Hitler rich and its ability to make money after his death has continued to pose sensitive problems. For the last 70 years the Bavarian authorities have effectively banned its republication in German through their control of the copyright. But this year, 2015, Mein Kampf's copyright expires. So what happens next?

    Chris Bowlby has been investigating Mein Kampf's strange history and future, both in Germany and beyond. He hears of its strange popularity in India and the intriguing story of its translation into English.
    "

    It address this....

    ...(earlier post)... about it's "strange popularity in India" around the 17 min mark, I think...

    As well as how various translations / translators have struggled to translate the original Hitler text.

    Sadly no mention there though of a " light verse" version "of Mein Kamp" called "Mein Rant" ;-)

    There's a bit on google books here: Mein Rant

    "When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, to reclaim the land they lost after World War One, many feared that Britain would not honour her many pledges of support to Poland. Britain stood alone. France feared a major war, and would not help. The USA were not prepared to get involved. Suddenly Adolf Hitler, with whom Prime Minister Chamberlain had negotiated peace in our time, and whom the Defence Secretary had called most sincere, was revealed for what he was. Within six months of declaring war, Britain faced massive loss and possible surrender. By May 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was being asked to approve plans to evacuate the Government, Royal Family and the Bank of Englands gold to Canada. Some 200,000 British troops stood on the beaches of Dunkirk, unable to get home, while Churchill bartered with the Americans to send destroyers to help rescue them. In the previous six months, children had been evacuated from London and cities; men had been called up and mobilised; and women had gone to work in munitions factory to do men's jobs for the first time*. People knew their lives would never be the same again.Amidst all this, propaganda was rife. Propaganda works best when the enemy is diminished and portrayed as a manageable entity, certain to be defeated. Much of the German propaganda was sinister, especially its portrayal of its Jewish citizens. American propaganda was cautionary and dark. British propaganda, on the other hand, was based on the premise that the righteous should prevail and that those in the wrong be they errant schoolboys, bullies, or robbers, or even wartime leaders should always fail. Rubbishing the enemy, assassinating nasty characters with humorous methods, these were techniques people learned from comics and Britain was expert in this area.Hitlers autobiography Mein Kampf (My Struggle), was written while Hitler was in Landsberg Prison and published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926. R F Patterson said of it: Mein Kampf had neither rhyme nor reason, while my abridgement undoubtedly has rhyme. So enter R F Paterson and Heath Robinsons Mein Rant which we reproduce in this book with a new introduction by leading comic archivist, Morris Heggie.This clever and funny satire of Hitlers Mein Kampf is illustrated by Heath Robinson. Today, and since World War One, Heath Robinsons name has been used to describe absurdly complicated inventions that achieved very simple results. Here his work is used to great impact.A conversion of Hitlers Mein Kampf to a delightful and pungent verse-satire. The result is an absolute triumph of the Comic Muse over intractable, almost hopeless material."

    * Though the bit "and women had gone to work in munitions factory to do men's jobs for the first time" surely discounts the first world war - when women e.g. "During WWI (1914-1918), large numbers of women were recruited into jobs vacated by men who had gone to fight in the war. New jobs were also created as part of the war effort, for example in munitions factories."
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2018
  19. Dave55

    Dave55 Atlanta, USA

    I bought this one in a used book store in Atlanta in 1991. Front cover is completely blank.

    I looked up Houghton Mifflin and they are a legit text book publisher still going today after various mergers.
    Found out that Verlag Frz. Eher Nachf. G.m.B.H was the Nazi publishing house.
    The yellow band was inside. I don't know anything about the Fund for Refugees, but it seems to have been a reoccurring thing for sales in the US.


    Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler: Hardcover - Nash Books

    Franz Eher Nachfolger - Wikipedia

    Band.jpeg
    Mein Kamph.jpg Title Plate.jpg
     
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  20. TriciaF

    TriciaF Junior Member

    "Maybe it read better in German.

    John Sliz"
    :) Very likely!
     

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