'Mein Kampf’ copyright expires
“Mein Kampf”, the manifesto of Adolf Hitler, will be available to buy in Germany for the first time in 70 years after the book’s copyright expired.
Copyright protection for the work, which translates as “my struggle”, was passed to the state of Bavaria after Hitler’s death in 1945 following the end of World War II.
The state, which did not release or re-publish the book, opposes the dissemination of Nazi propaganda.
But last week, which marked the end of 2015, the 70-year protection term following Hitler’s death expired, leaving the door open for others to print and sell the book.
The new version of the book, which will be annotated, is expected to be published later this month by Munich's Institute of Contemporary History.
It will feature comments and annotations from researchers, while the rest of the publication will be made up of Hitler’s original text.
The copyright expiration has already been widely spoken about by German government officials.
In 2014 WIPR reported that Bavaria’s justice minister Winfried Bausback said that although the state could not prevent the re-publication of the book, it should be “at least” guaranteed that it is a scholarly work that provides a scientific and critical analysis in order to demystify the “horrible” text.
