Following reports claiming Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical Mein Kampf would enter the public domain, a serious effort to reprint the book (despite its surging popularity on Kindles) was made in Germany. Aside from an Italian newspaper’s ill-fated idea to give away free copies of the book over the summer, however, little was heard about Mein Kampf after the Institute of Contemporary History of Munich (IfZ) issued its first printing of 4,000 copies in January 2016.
According to a new statement from the IfZ reported by the Agence France-Presse, however, it seems the new annotated edition of Hitler’s infamous book is doing quite well. So well, in fact, that 85,000 copies of the book have flown off German bookstore shelves since its initial printing last year. Yet the IfZ stresses in its statement that it isn’t trying to promote Hitler’s or modern Nazism’s far-right ideologies:
“It turned out that the fear the publication would promote Hitler’s ideology or even make it socially acceptable and give neo-Nazis a new propaganda platform was totally unfounded,” IfZ director Andreas Wirsching said in a statement.
“To the contrary, the debate about Hitler’s worldview and his approach to propaganda offered a chance to look at the causes and consequences of totalitarian ideologies, at a time in which authoritarian political views and rightwing slogans are gaining ground.”
Despite Wirsching’s reassurance that the book was mostly purchased by “customers interested in politics and history as well as educators,” and not “reactionaries or rightwing radicals,” certain limits remain in place. For example, the institute will continue to maintain its restrictive policy regarding international rights by limiting future non-German language editions to French and English.