German historians want Adolf Hitler’s infamous manifesto, “Mein Kampf,” to be republished in the country before the copyright lapses in 2015.
Though the book is widely available in the English-speaking world, its publication has been banned in Germany since World War II and its resale is tightly regulated.
But German copyright law dictates that an author’s work enters the public domain 70 years after his or her death, and that deadline is fast approaching. Hitler killed himself in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945.
Before that anniversary, historians want Bavaria – which controls the copyright because Hitler’s last official address was in Munich – to authorize an annotated version of “Mein Kampf.” They say a thorough, academic presentation that places Hitler’s work in historical context would be the best defense against radical right-wing groups and neo-Nazis who might want to use the book to advance racist agendas once the copyright expires and anyone is free to publish it.
