Dabrowski Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 I've heard different opinions on this from reviews and ratings on several websites. Has anyone here actually read it from cover to cover word to word not just looked it over? If so what do you think about it? I'm interested in this period of history and I am thinking about reading Mein Kampf, Second Book and Table Talks, has anyone read any and if so what does it tell you? I've heard people say that Hitler was a speaker not a writer but when you read it you see a genius words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sakura Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 I've thought about reading it for historical reasons, but it's not very easy to get in Germany. It's not forbidden to own or sell old copies, as people tend to think, but there are no reprints that I know of since Bavaria, who believes it has the copyright, doesn't allow any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 My sister-in-law has read it in German, but it was years ago and I can't remember what she thought about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintmark Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 I decided against it when I could get a copy as Hitler comes from a different political hemispher than I do, and according the various reviews it is not a very coherent book. So I rather spend my time with worthier efforts in book writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleonora Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 I read Mein Kampf when I was at school: I read it in german end my class made a huge work on it from an historical point of view. It's not very coherent, it's easy to understand there was a highly disturbed mind behind it, but it's terrific too. The things that mad man told about politicians and his resolutions to the economical problems are so current, so vivid that you can't be afraid. There are a lot of people right now, in our time, that have ideas similiar to the ones he had. And the economical crisis we're living spreads them so much. I think we should all know the past to better face the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dabrowski Posted August 21, 2013 Author Share Posted August 21, 2013 I've heard that some of the German-English translations are very poor and make it out to be worse than what it is (long words you cannot understand, long sentences that don't really make any sense) and so on. I'm Polish and have always wanted to read this book and there is a German-Polish translation of the book and was thinking of buying it. I have looked around on the internet and some of his quotes and ideas are actually good for example believing that jobs should go to people that are best suited at them and not just anyone and that everyone should be healthy and fit and he says boxing is what men should learn to be able to defend themselves and I do agree in his view about people with genetic illnesses be better to adopt a child than make a child suffer from it. Good reads, Amazon and a few other sites have some very interesting reviews on it - from Germans themselves in both Austria and Germany. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleonora Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 I have looked around on the internet and some of his quotes and ideas are actually good for example believing that jobs should go to people that are best suited at them and not just anyone and that everyone should be healthy and fit and he says boxing is what men should learn to be able to defend themselves and I do agree in his view about people with genetic illnesses be better to adopt a child than make a child suffer from it. Well, he said everything and its contrary. As I wrote before, the book is not very coherent. Which makes the events of WW2 much worse: milions of people followed that broken mind, the majority of men because they were so desperate they needed someone to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dabrowski Posted August 22, 2013 Author Share Posted August 22, 2013 Well, he said everything and its contrary. As I wrote before, the book is not very coherent. Which makes the events of WW2 much worse: milions of people followed that broken mind, the majority of men because they were so desperate they needed someone to follow. Well this isn't what I really was asking but I've ordered it and hopefully see how actually hard it is read for myself. In regards too the war, from what I have read his book doesn't really go in with the war I don't think he mentions his intentions of invading Poland but just living space in the East and it was not his book that got the Germans to follow him not many actually even read it but rather his magnificent ways of speaking to the masses of people just watch a speech and you can easily say for yourself if you was a German then you would have been on his side it was like hypnotizing the youth he did really intelligent man regardless of his views but you need to actually know too and this is from a Polish person that a lot of what we are told is actually just rumours and lies for example his so-called wanting to exterminate Jews is nonsense he never he wanted to expulsion them from Europe the Jewish Question was not even Hitler's invention and he had several plans of doing this such as the Haavara Agreement and the Madagascar Plan and his so-called hatred of Slavs is complete nonsense too as Slavs were regarded as Aryans and many Slavs fought on Hitler's side against the Bolsheviks a lot of books are just victor stories. Same as he never wanted war with Britain. I don't want to come across as saying I'm defending Hitler or his policies but it is not as black and white as people like to try and make out like from first hand accounts he was a very relaxed man who just devoted his whole life to the state and his long-time girlfriend/wife Eva and his dog Blondi not this mad man Jew-killer that the media like to portray him as. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 (edited) I haven't read the book, but my boyfriend has an early English edition. He hasn't got around to reading it yet. Edited August 22, 2013 by Athena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleonora Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 Well this isn't what I really was asking but I've ordered it and hopefully see how actually hard it is read for myself. In regards too the war, from what I have read his book doesn't really go in with the war I don't think he mentions his intentions of invading Poland but just living space in the East and it was not his book that got the Germans to follow him not many actually even read it but rather his magnificent ways of speaking to the masses of people just watch a speech and you can easily say for yourself if you was a German then you would have been on his side it was like hypnotizing the youth he did really intelligent man regardless of his views but you need to actually know too and this is from a Polish person that a lot of what we are told is actually just rumours and lies for example his so-called wanting to exterminate Jews is nonsense he never he wanted to expulsion them from Europe the Jewish Question was not even Hitler's invention and he had several plans of doing this such as the Haavara Agreement and the Madagascar Plan and his so-called hatred of Slavs is complete nonsense too as Slavs were regarded as Aryans and many Slavs fought on Hitler's side against the Bolsheviks a lot of books are just victor stories. Same as he never wanted war with Britain. I don't want to come across as saying I'm defending Hitler or his policies but it is not as black and white as people like to try and make out like from first hand accounts he was a very relaxed man who just devoted his whole life to the state and his long-time girlfriend/wife Eva and his dog Blondi not this mad man Jew-killer that the media like to portray him as. We can discuss after you've read the book and once you read to yourself what he thought about jews and how Germany should solve the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppyshake Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 In regards too the war, from what I have read his book doesn't really go in with the war I don't think he mentions his intentions of invading Poland but just living space in the East and it was not his book that got the Germans to follow him not many actually even read it but rather his magnificent ways of speaking to the masses of people just watch a speech and you can easily say for yourself if you was a German then you would have been on his side it was like hypnotizing the youth he did really intelligent man regardless of his views but you need to actually know too and this is from a Polish person that a lot of what we are told is actually just rumours and lies for example his so-called wanting to exterminate Jews is nonsense he never he wanted to expulsion them from Europe the Jewish Question was not even Hitler's invention and he had several plans of doing this such as the Haavara Agreement and the Madagascar Plan and his so-called hatred of Slavs is complete nonsense too as Slavs were regarded as Aryans and many Slavs fought on Hitler's side against the Bolsheviks a lot of books are just victor stories. Same as he never wanted war with Britain. I don't want to come across as saying I'm defending Hitler or his policies but it is not as black and white as people like to try and make out like from first hand accounts he was a very relaxed man who just devoted his whole life to the state and his long-time girlfriend/wife Eva and his dog Blondi not this mad man Jew-killer that the media like to portray him as. The fact that he loved his dog and girlfriend somehow isn't enough to reconcile me to him. You say that the 'Jewish Question' was not of his invention .. are you saying he knew nothing about the death camps? or had no control over their existence? I have watched his speeches and to be honest they turned my stomach. Historically 'Mein Kampf' is an important piece of literature .. I don't think I could read it though. I may be closed minded .. but with the greatest respect .. to me it is black and white. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted August 26, 2013 Share Posted August 26, 2013 Agree with Poppyshake. 'Mad man Jew-killer' sums him up pretty well. Hitler and co were monsters. That may be a black and white view, but it's true. I bought Mein Kampf recently because I'd like to read it to try and understand why he was the way he was ('know your enemy' and all that). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted August 27, 2013 Share Posted August 27, 2013 Never read it, though there's been a copy of it floating round my parents' house for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaliepud Posted August 27, 2013 Share Posted August 27, 2013 I've not read it and have no plans to but I was concerned about where the royalties from it went, and found this.. When Hitler committed suicide in 1945, his nephew Leo Raubal (his half sister's child) had a very legitimate claim to the royalties, which could have been worth millions of dollars, but Leo adamantly refused to have anything to do with Mein Kampf's profits. Therefore Mein Kampf became property of the state of Bavaria, Hitler's place of residence. Bavaria has outlawed publishing of Mein Kampf in Germany since the war ended, however under German copyright law the book becomes public domain on April 30th 2015, 70 years after the author's death. At that time, anyone with a printing press can sell the book within Germany and not pay a single royalty. After the war, the American publishing company Houghton Mifflin purchased the U.S. rights to Mein Kampf from the government's Office of Alien Property for $37,000. Houghton Mifflin would go on to earn $700,000 in royalties over the next 20 years which they ended up donating to charity amid wide public outcry and protest. The royalty situation in other countries varied. In the U.K., Mein Kampf was banned from being published from 1945 – 1969, after which all collected royalties were donated to anonymous charities. It turned out to be difficult to find a charity that would accept the royalties since most considered the funds to be blood money. Mein Kampf was unrestricted in other countries and has recently gone on to become a best seller in countries like Sweden, India and Turkey. Those royalties are begrudgingly accepted by the state of Bavaria, then distributed to charity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted August 27, 2013 Share Posted August 27, 2013 That's interesting information, thanks Chalie. I had wondered the same thing myself (although it wasn't relevant in my case because I bought it from a secondhand book shop). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TStarnes Posted September 25, 2013 Share Posted September 25, 2013 As with a couple of other people on here, as a fan of history and specifically WWII era history I wanted to read it for its historical context and significant. While it is disturbing, which you would expect, that is not why it is hard to read. As Eleonora said it is extremely incoherent. You can feel the crazy just jumping of the page and it rambles all over the place. It is without a doubt the writing of a mad man. Also I was worried about royalties when I got a hold of a copy so I to must say thanks to Charlie. That was interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkebook Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 my friend read it in Arabic I think he liked the parts which was written about the Jews. but he did not recommend it ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timebug Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 I tried to read it twice in the past,and failed both times. The sad,disjointed memoirs of a madman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 I read a book about Hitler recently, and it did make me want to read Mein Kampf out of curiosity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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