Mein Kampf Being Republished In Germany

For the first time in seventy years it will be possible, as of 2015, to buy a copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf within Germany. What many of you may know is that since the end of World War II it has been illegal within Germany to, among other things, sell Mein Kampf, use/reproduce a swastika, and/or participate in, publish, or otherwise perform select activities that honor or commemorate the Third Reich.

However, copyright law, at least as applicable to Mein Kampf, is forcing an end to what have been entirely appropriate and needed policies. At the end of World War II the government of Bavaria assumed the copyright to Mein Kampf as part of the Allied nations de-Nazification program during their occupation of post-war Germany. For the nearly seventy years since this has meant that, as part of Germany's "normalization policies" following Nazi rule, that Mein Kampf has been formally unavailable in Germany. Nevertheless, according to German law such copyright ends 70 years following the death of the author, and with Hitler having committed suicide April 30, 1945, this means that in 2015 the ban on publishing Mein Kampf in Germany ends.

To its credit the German state of Bavaria is not sitting on its hands. Instead it is planning on publishing its own version of Mein Kampf - a volume replete with commentary from leading scholars explaining the book's content; thus performing a vital and educational function in regards to a text that left to stand on its own regrettably still holds a certain attraction for some.