The dangerous book
First there was this... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17837325
And then there's this... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25346140
At first, the German province of Bavaria, which still holds the copyright on Hitler's Mein Kampf, had been planning to publish the book once more - but not to popularize its ideas, rather to show its real worth by means of adding clarification notes and commentaries to it. But now the project is about to be abandoned. Wonder why?
As of now, the renowned Institute for Contemporary History still vows to proceed with publishing the infamous Hitler book with historic notes and critical comments added, and to complete the project at their own responsibility and in the previously planned deadlines, despite all the potential shitstorm this may lead to. The point is, the copyright for the book (which is now held by Bavaria) expires in 2015. The reasoning behind the provincial government canceling their funding of the project was that the book had an inciting character and a new reprint, even if containing historical criticism from experts, would be undesirable.
So Bavaria is practically out of the game, although a team of München scholars have been working hard on filling some gaps in the scientific research on Germany's modern history. There's something like a consensus among the scientific circles that such work would've been very useful, because right now lots of folks are prone to spilling plenty of ink discussing Mein Kampf without actually knowing jack shit about the book itself (some, without having even read it). Although this is the only autobiographical document to ever come from Hitler, so far in-depth analysis on the way it was conceived, its structure and its impact on the German society, remains severely lacking.
Even now many heed the persistent myth that Mein Kampf was some kind of "best-seller", even if one that few have actually read. This myth was created by some of Hitler's contemporaries, and it gained particular popularity in the first post-war years, conveniently serving the narrative of those who were eager to find excuses for what they had done during the war.
This extensive work on an edition that would critically examine and provide commentary on what Hitler wrote and why exactly, has also been a race with time. By the end of 2015 (i.e. exactly 70 years after Hitler's death), copyright on Mein Kampf will be freely accessible, and any publishing company would be able to release it on the market. In order to prevent that, the Bavarian government had vowed to sue anyone who dared publish it on charges of instigation to hatred and discrimination. But in reality, the book has already been accessible on the Internet for a long time, and there's a sufficient number of old copies being traded on eBay.
Many people were surprised from the sudden U-turn of the Bavarian government and the abandonment of a project that was supposed to make a serious contribution to the historical and political education of the German public, and the demystification of a book that has had an almost taboo status in many places. Indeed, a comprehensive scientific examination of Mein Kampf could've cast more light on the ideas that it espouses, and potentially show that Hitler actually didn't come up with those ideas on his own as if he were some kind of great political thinker - they were rather a compilation of a myriad of notions and moods that were wide-spread and prevalent throughout the German society at the time.
Today's debate on Mein Kampf raises some fundamental questions about society and politics: are Germans mature enough nowadays, 70 years after the end of WW2 and the Holocaust, to avoid falling prey to inhuman and hateful ideas? And, could this piece of ad-hoc pseudo-philosophy (which in the opinion of many experts is more of an embarrassment for its author), pose a threat to modern society? And where could that threat possibly come from? Would it be from the fact that words have power, and ideas tend to lead to actions when seeded in the "right" way at the right (wrong?) time? The debate whether a book could be as dangerous in the 21st century as it was in the first half of the preceding one, is a fairly complex one, that's for sure.
And then there's this... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25346140
At first, the German province of Bavaria, which still holds the copyright on Hitler's Mein Kampf, had been planning to publish the book once more - but not to popularize its ideas, rather to show its real worth by means of adding clarification notes and commentaries to it. But now the project is about to be abandoned. Wonder why?
As of now, the renowned Institute for Contemporary History still vows to proceed with publishing the infamous Hitler book with historic notes and critical comments added, and to complete the project at their own responsibility and in the previously planned deadlines, despite all the potential shitstorm this may lead to. The point is, the copyright for the book (which is now held by Bavaria) expires in 2015. The reasoning behind the provincial government canceling their funding of the project was that the book had an inciting character and a new reprint, even if containing historical criticism from experts, would be undesirable.
So Bavaria is practically out of the game, although a team of München scholars have been working hard on filling some gaps in the scientific research on Germany's modern history. There's something like a consensus among the scientific circles that such work would've been very useful, because right now lots of folks are prone to spilling plenty of ink discussing Mein Kampf without actually knowing jack shit about the book itself (some, without having even read it). Although this is the only autobiographical document to ever come from Hitler, so far in-depth analysis on the way it was conceived, its structure and its impact on the German society, remains severely lacking.
Even now many heed the persistent myth that Mein Kampf was some kind of "best-seller", even if one that few have actually read. This myth was created by some of Hitler's contemporaries, and it gained particular popularity in the first post-war years, conveniently serving the narrative of those who were eager to find excuses for what they had done during the war.
This extensive work on an edition that would critically examine and provide commentary on what Hitler wrote and why exactly, has also been a race with time. By the end of 2015 (i.e. exactly 70 years after Hitler's death), copyright on Mein Kampf will be freely accessible, and any publishing company would be able to release it on the market. In order to prevent that, the Bavarian government had vowed to sue anyone who dared publish it on charges of instigation to hatred and discrimination. But in reality, the book has already been accessible on the Internet for a long time, and there's a sufficient number of old copies being traded on eBay.
Many people were surprised from the sudden U-turn of the Bavarian government and the abandonment of a project that was supposed to make a serious contribution to the historical and political education of the German public, and the demystification of a book that has had an almost taboo status in many places. Indeed, a comprehensive scientific examination of Mein Kampf could've cast more light on the ideas that it espouses, and potentially show that Hitler actually didn't come up with those ideas on his own as if he were some kind of great political thinker - they were rather a compilation of a myriad of notions and moods that were wide-spread and prevalent throughout the German society at the time.
Today's debate on Mein Kampf raises some fundamental questions about society and politics: are Germans mature enough nowadays, 70 years after the end of WW2 and the Holocaust, to avoid falling prey to inhuman and hateful ideas? And, could this piece of ad-hoc pseudo-philosophy (which in the opinion of many experts is more of an embarrassment for its author), pose a threat to modern society? And where could that threat possibly come from? Would it be from the fact that words have power, and ideas tend to lead to actions when seeded in the "right" way at the right (wrong?) time? The debate whether a book could be as dangerous in the 21st century as it was in the first half of the preceding one, is a fairly complex one, that's for sure.