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Saturday 30 April 2016

Mein Kampf

On April 1, 1924 Adolf Hitler was sent to jail for his participation in the Beer Hall Putsch. During his nine months incarceration in Landsberg Prison, he wrote the first part of his political testament Mein Kampf ("My Struggle").

Mein Kampf was typed with two fingers by Rudolf Hess, Hitler's fellow room-mate during his 1923 imprisonment.

It was the composer Richard Wagner's daughter in law, Winifred, who bought to prison the paper that Hitler used to write Mein Kampf.

Hitler wrote the second part of Mein Kampf after his (early) release from jail.

Hitler's last sentence in Mein Kampf is an acknowledgement of the influence of Dietrich Eckart, an influential occultist.

Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published on July 18, 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926.

Both volumes were sold separately between 1926 and 1930, at the price of 12 Reichsmark each. In 1930, both volumes were published as one book.

Dust jacket of 1926–1928 edition

Originally a poor seller, sales picked up once Hitler came to power. However many leading Nazi's such as Eichmann claimed they had never read Mein Kampf as it was so boring.

Henry Ford was praised in Mein Kampf and Hitler kept a life-size portrait of the motor mogul next to his desk.

Once Hitler came to power, schoolteachers in Germany were ordered to read Mein Kampf and to become thoroughly familiar with the Nazi creed.

Hitler mandated that every German couple be  given a copy of his book as a wedding gift.

Bavaria owned the rights to Mein Kampf until 2016. Proceeds were given to charity – although it could be tough finding a charity willing to accept.

In 2016, following the expiry of the copyright held by the Bavarian state government, Mein Kampf was republished in Germany for the first time since 1945. It stayed on German best-seller lists for 35 weeks and sold 75,000 copies.

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