Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ Reprint Rejected as Bavarian Ban UpheldThis jew-loving article came from
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=asCgbFu9SDZIBy Brian Parkin
Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Plans by German scholars to reprint Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” as an academic treatise were rejected by the state copyright holders, who said a new edition of the book could fuel support for far-right groups.
The Bavarian authorities this week reaffirmed a 64-year-old ban on the book after the Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History, or IFZ, applied for permission to reprint the work. State officials said that extremist groups could have legally promoted the book if the ban had been lifted.
“Scholarly as the aims of the institute are, we won’t lift the ban as it may play straight into the hands of the far- right,” Horst Wolf, a spokesman for the Bavarian Finance Ministry, the legal guardians of the state’s copyright, said today in an interview. “Prohibition is recognized and highly regarded by Jewish groups and we mean to keep it that way.”
Written by Hitler in 1924 as he languished in a Munich prison, Mein Kampf, or My Struggle, combines autobiography with the Nazi leader’s political manifesto. It last rolled off authorized German presses in 1945 before being banned that same year after World War II ended.
While Nazi regalia such as the Swastika are outlawed in Germany under the postwar constitution, Mein Kampf was subject to a 70-year copyright lodged with the state authorities where the book was penned. Wolf said the Bavarian authorities aim to “pass the baton on” and achieve some means of banning the book in perpetuity, once copyright expires in 2015.
Copyright Expiry Looms
Historians at the IFZ, which was set up with public funds in 1949 to document and research the Nazi era, had sought exclusive rights to repackage the work in an annotated scholarly volume and publish it ahead of potential rivals.
They received backing from Bavarian state Education Minister Wolfgang Heubisch, who said in a June 26 speech that he supported the proposal because “otherwise there’s a danger that charlatans will gain control of this shameful book.”
Bernhard Gotto, the institute’s spokesman, said he still hopes the state will lift the ban to allow a full analysis of the book.
“The work can be demystified,” Gotto said in a telephone interview today. “An analysis of the text may reveal answers to key questions such as how much Hitler copied from others and how much he stayed true to his dreadful outpourings.”
A team of historians could need three to four years to work on the book, Gotto said.
“The job is right up our street,” he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at
bparkin@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 4, 2009 06:10 EDT
(Just send your German friends to http://mk.christogenea.org/! - bill)