I read an article in the newspaper about how rich Hitler was and that much of his wealth was accumulated from royalties from the sale of Mein Kampf. I’m just wondering now, where does the money go now? All to the publisher (who even wants to publish that book?), German government, holocaust survivors, Hitler’s relatives?
Thanks.
Confiscated in USA, given to charity in England. From this article.
Isn’t it now in the public domain? Hitler also made money off of every postage stamp sold with his picture on it, and a lot of people gave him “gifts”. He was probably the wealthiest man (secretly) in Germany.
IIRC it won’t be in the public domain until the author has been dead for 75 years.
don’t ask, read teh article a bit more carefully. The proceeds were confiscated in US between 1940’s and 1979, when Houghton Mifflin bought the rights to the title. Last year they decided to start donating the surplus to charity.
So if I understand that article correctly, the state of Bavaria owns the copyright outside the English-speaking world, and tries to ensure it’s never published. And in the Anglo world, it’s published but the publishers donate the royalties to charity.
Why doesn’t Bavaria do the same? It’s a document of historic interest. (I sort of read it, years ago, and it’s a rambling mish-mash of autobiography and nonsense.)
Because that would pretty obviously contravene Germany’s very strict laws prohibiting the propagation of Nazi ideas.
Regarding the article, I find it interesting how Heather Reisman had phrased her comments, being that she is the chairwoman and CEO of Indigo books and music.
She says, “We consider it hate literature,” and “With freedom of expression, the line is drawn on hate literature. It’s a corporate decision. It’s what we stand for. It’s our point of view.”
Note the use of the words ‘we’ and ‘our’, rather than ‘I’ because she then goes on to say, “It isn’t written down, but I would have no difficulty writing it down.” If this is a corporate decision, why isn’t it written down? And if it isn’t written down, why make any reference to it not being written down when there is no need to.
No, her comments look too much like someone trying hurredly to make it look like part of the company policy and failing woefully in the process. I suspect you can go into any of her bookstores and order as many copies of the Bible or the Koran as you want to. Talk about hypocrisy!
If you’re the owner of a bookstore it’s your privilege to choose which books to carry and which not to carry. Your customers will go elsewhere if they want books you don’t carry, and your profits will suffer accordingly (in theory, your profits might suffer if customers boycot your store because you DO carry a particular title they dislike - but your choice).
I don’t understand this problem Bavaria has - how can they justify banning the book? Don’t they have freedom of the press there? The book is a historic document, and (as I say) the poor quality of argument in it illustrates the stupidity of Naziism. Why “honor” it by banning it, especially when sales of it could not only show the redundancy of Hitler’s thought processes, but generate some revenue for charity?
And what about historians? Can’t they read it in Bavaria?
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It’s against the law in Germany to own Nazi symbols or propaganda. There’s an exception in the law for historical or educational ownership of the symbols or propaganda.