‘Mein Kampf’ To Be Reprinted In Germany After 75 Years

Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s magnum opus and the notorious blueprint for his regime, will be republished in Germany for the first time in 75 years.

The book, which was written by Hitler during his post-WWI imprisonment in 1923, is expected to hit bookstores across Germany in 2016. The effort to republish Mein Kampf in Germany was an initiative of the Institute for Contemporary History.

Aside from reprinting the original book, the Munich-based organization will also provide commentary and criticism on the content of Mein Kampf, bumping the original word count of the book from 700 words to 2000 words, according to the New York Times.

The decision to provide commentary on the Mein Kampf follows a previous ruling recently agreed upon by justice ministers from the country’s 16 states, which disallows the republication of the book without accompanying commentary.

For the past decades, the government of the state of Bavaria has held legal rights over the contents of Mein Kampf, allowing them to prevent further reprints of Hitler’s infamous book inside the country. However, the copyright on the book expires December this year, allowing publishers to arrange for its re-release.

Mein Kampf‘s intriguing comeback has unsurprisingly received negative reaction from citizens and scholars alike. One librarian historian for the Bavarian State Library, Florian Sepp, describes the book as “too dangerous for the general public.” Another scholar, Levi Salomon of the Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Anti-Semitism in Berlin, told the Washington Post,“I am absolutely against the publication of ‘Mein Kampf,’ even with annotations. Can you annotate the Devil? Can you annotate a person like Hitler? This book is outside of human logic.”

Often described as the “Nazi Bible”, Mein Kampf — or “My Struggle” in English — outlines Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic ideology and his plans of implementing them in Germany. During the dictator’s days in power, the book was given free to every newly wed couple and to every German soldier fighting on the front lines.

Even before the announcement of Mein Kampf’s reprinting in Germany, the book had already received an unusual surge in popularity in the past few years. Last year, Inquisitr reported that the book was topping E-book charts of many online stores including iTunes and Amazon. In November, a copy of Mein Kampf with the fuhrer’s autograph sold for a whopping $30,000.

While most readers are purchasing it for historical or educational purposes only — while some are just intrigued by the novelty of owning a notoriously misguided book — many remain uneasy of the sudden boost in demand for the Mein Kampf. Critics blame the ban on reprinting Mein Kampf — which supplements the taboo that comes with reading or owning the book — for its recently revived popularity.

[Image from Andreas Rentz/Getty Images]