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Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' becomes German bestseller

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The book made Hitler a rich man. Who gets the profits this time? Will Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda films also be released and become big hits again?

Populist movements led by political messiahs and cult leaders. Loops. The more things change...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Normally, I would take umbrage at such a patronizing attitude toward people. 2016 disabused me of any illusions I may have had about the average intelligence of the general public.

Will we ever evolve past knuckle-dragging and blaming others for our ills? Hitler was a master manipulator who could have made fish hate water.

A noble leader brings out the very best in the people who follow him or her, not by inflaming people's worst instincts in order to energize a secret criminal agenda.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I don't see a problem with this. People have studied other opinions for a long time without all becoming indoctrinated. Sure, there will be a few Neo Nazis or whatever who buy this and use it as a their bible, but what does that really change? I think the debate and the approach scholars can take on this are much more valuable than giving in to the fear of a simple book. I am sure there are far more dangerous books circulating that nobody talks about. Most Germans I know have a healthy attitude towards the past.

Burning Bush:

Interesting, is that just your assessment or is there an actual source backing this up? Not trying to annoy you but honestly curious about this since I never gave it a second thought.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Not trying to annoy you but honestly curious about this since I never gave it a second thought.

I've read while Hitler was in prison he dictated parts of the book to Rudolf Hess, who also edited it. Ullrich's recent bio of Hitler (Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939) suggests the thoughts are Hitler's. The book, by the way, is well worth the time to read. History doesn't repeat itself but...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

How would a guy write and distribute a book whilst in a federal prison?

It wasn't a gulag. He was pampered while in prison. I don't know what Russian sources are saying, but there are lots of books written in English that provide ample evidence the book was written by Hitler. Hess helped him edit, but because he was an autodidact does not mean he couldn't write well.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I don't know why Mein Kampf is a best seller again, it's odd. But Hitler and Hess definitely wrote it and the Weimar government let him get away with it.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The English wikipedia page for Mein Kampf doesn't mention ghostwriters (or Bernhard, Staempfle, or Stempfel). The Simple English page says:

There were several editions between 1925 and 1945. With each new edition, the text was revised as well. This was done to clarify those parts of the text that were unclear. Probably, Ghostwriters around Hitler did this work.

Also, googling says:

https://www.google.com/#q=did+mein+kampf+have+a+ghost+writer

http://www.illuminati-news.com/051406a.htm

... Did Jesuit Fr. Staempfle Write Mein Kampf For Hitler?

According to the late Jesuit priest, Fr. Alberto Rivera, whose job was to infiltrate and destroy Protestant ministries, he was privy to sensitive Vatican briefings and documents, revealing the Jesuit role in backing Hitler. ... According to the late Jesuit priest, Fr. Alberto Rivera, a fellow Jesuit named Fr. Staempfle wrote Mein Kampf, as the stage was being set for Germany's new Roman Catholic star, Adolf Hitler. ...

This is also claimed in a book titled something like 'Secret History of the Jesuits', I forgot what article referenced that.

And wikipedia page for Fr. Stempfle claims he 'helped Hitler' write the book. Fr. Stempfle was murdered in the Night of the Long Knives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Stempfle

I'm not saying it's true, though.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Extreme actions (such as opening one's borders to millions of refugees without the direct consent of one's citizens) can have extreme reactions.

Merkel will be tossed out on her ear in the next election, she can retire to her villa on the Mediterranean and cry "let them eat cake" from her window. The people will be stuck with the consequences of millions of low educated or uneducated people with contrary cultural and religious beliefs living among them. The end result of her trying to make Germany more inclusive and more tolerant will end up making it less inclusive and less tolerant, meaning that she has been better off leaving things as they were.

The refugees will become mostly a large underclass of people who are not looked at as equals in German society. They will face high unemployment, low wages, and require the support of the state for much of their upkeep. This will of course make them look even worse to ordinary Germans. On the other hand, since these new millions will be dependent on handouts from the state, they will use the votes they will eventually be given to give more authority to the state, thinking that in doing so the handouts will increase. The state will use the extra power it gains to enrich it's politicians, and the politically connected, and the lot of the people will at best, remain the same, but most likely deteriorate. In other words, the rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer, and society will become progressively less free.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

you realize you're living crazy ages when you hear someone saying "Hitler would never let this happen" and somehow it makes some sense.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

"The Man in the High Castle" TV series may be driving sales. Interesting book and show.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Michael WerkerJan. 04, 2017 - 08:26AM JST I don't see a problem with this. People have studied other opinions for a long time without all becoming indoctrinated.

Very good post Michael. I see Mein Kampf, in 2017, as a historical and sociological book not a nazi propaganda tool.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I read this at university.

Complete and utter drivel.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

One request, please do not let it be translated into Japanese and come into Abe's hands, he would certainly find it useful.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's probably selling first and foremost out of curiosity and pumped up expectation. After that, yes, there are radicals who are probably buying it out of their worship of the monster. But there's no reason why it shouldn't be sold for objective reading and argument. It's good to know something you are going to argue about, whatever it is. I tried reading it in high school because I knew it was an important book, but like Mike L I found it to be unreadable.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Let's just be thankful Hitler didn't have Twitter back then, or who knows what havoc might have ensued.

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@Mike L

I read this at university.

Complete and utter drivel.

You read, but so many people have not.

It is like the Communist Manifesto (far shorter than 'Capital'), the Bible, the Koran, or any other contentious text - reading and then having some informed respectability for one's view.

Until then your commentary remains uninformed at best or 'complete and utter drivel' at worst.

My response to the news is that the annotations in the new edition would be the more interesting in this age; the Mein Kampf text itself shines as a litany of a bankrupt ideology fueling a narcissistic hypocritical hubris-ridden regime dedicated to selfish aggrandizement at the risk of annihilation of everything it stood for anyway, which is just what happened, and not for the first time in history. And it wasn't even futurist.

Wait to see how the sales figures fluctuate before drawing conclusions. Personally I would look at any other chest-thumping ideologies reactionary around now and beware of hem more.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Mein kampf today is a double edged sword. We can only pray that it's used for the purpose quoted above. As for me? It's wa....y out of mine kamfort" zone . Nothing fuhrer * to add.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It's mostly unhinged ranting. Maybe they should have it as a video book and get that guy who played Hitler in the film "Downfall" to read it. That was an epic portrayal of mad dog 'Dolf...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7PmzdINGZk

1 ( +1 / -0 )

PT Townsend

Hitler got the money from the book while he was alive. After the war a state in Germany became the copyright holder except for the US and, I think, India where Hitler is a hero (little man taking on the Empire like Luke, Han, & Leia.) Now, being 70 years after the death of the author, the book is copyright free so whoever publishes it will get the money.

Writing a book while in prison depends on the prison, time, and warden. The Travels of Marco Polo was "written" in prison, too. As were Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's two major novels: The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail (obviously) and Don Quixote.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

As more and more ordinary workers in democracies are being squeezed and squeezed (working poor), I expect that, the great slogan of the Hitler era -

"Arbeit macht frei - Work shall set you free"

will appeal and see a rise in sales of the said book.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Now Germany has to unban the Nazi salute and swastika to show that it is ready to face itself honestly. It hasn't got rid of its Nazi underpinnings as shown the dictatorial EU that it fully supports and greenie extremism. Having Nazi shrines will bring the trash to the surface so it can directly faced instead of being allowed to hide in shadows.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Much of "Mein Kampf" was dictated by Hitler during his incarceration in the fortress of Landsberg. Hitler's "Best Friend", Emil Maurice, helped to type out the manuscript. You can see photos of the dark-haired Maurice standing beside or behind Hitler, both posing in traditional Bavarian lederhosen. Maurice served as Hitler's chauffeur and factotum and in 1925 was a co-founder with Julius Schreck of the SS. Little known is the fact that Maurice was of Jewish descent, but was protected by the Jew-hater Hitler to the end. He survived to "come out of the closet" after the war.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It is on Pirates as a PDF in English, but that is illegal to download. So buy a copy.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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