(Originally posted July 19, 2018)
This may surprise some of you, but I have actually read Mein Kampf. Well, at least part of it. I gave up halfway through because it was boring. I recognized it for what it was: the ramblings of a delusional failed artist.
Mein Kampf was published on July 18, 1925, by the Eher-Verlag publishing house in Munich. Eher-Verlag had actually been acquired by the NSDAP in 1920.
What many people are not aware of is that Hitler did write a “sequel” to Mein Kampf. It was called Zweites Buch or, in English, The Second Book. He wrote it in 1928, but it was not published in his lifetime. Eher Verlag had advised against it since “Mein Kampf” had not sold very well. Mein Kampf really only became a ‘success’ after he got to power, and everyone was more or less forced to buy it.
His first book was really about his plans for Germany, and his hate for Jews, and how he was going to make Germany great again. His second book went more into his foreign policies. along with his hate-mongering against the Jews. Below is the list of the chapters:
War and Peace
The Necessity of Strife
Race and Will in the Struggle for Power
Elements of Foreign Policy
National Socialist Foreign Policy
German Needs and Aims
Policies of the Second Reich
Military Power and Fallacy of Border Restoration as Goal
Hopelessness of an Economic Situation
On Necessity for an Active Foreign Policy
Germany and Russia
German Foreign Policy
German Goals
England as an Ally
Italy as an Ally
Summary
In the summer of 1928, Hitler dictated the book to his long-time friend Max Amann.
A copy of the manuscript remained in Eher Verlag’s vaults until the US Army discovered it in 1945.
There have been many attempts to publish the book, but a German version was published in 1961. Historian Gerhard L. Weinberg discovered the manuscript in 1958. He was born in Hannover, but when he was a kid, he and his parents emigrated to the US in 1938 to escape persecution.
The first reliable English version would not be published until 2003. In an interview with the Guardian, Gerhard L Weinberg stated why the book should be published.
“I believe it’s critical for a work by a central historical figure, even Hitler, to be publicly accessible. The book gives an untouched window into Hitler’s views at the time. It also shows his character as a politician. He had just done badly in an election, yet his reaction was not to soft-pedal the party’s position on a critical issue. No, he insisted that he was correct all along and tried to cast himself as supremely wise while all critics were knaves and fools.
I believe that it’s also important to have the book available in English in a way that accurately reflects the original German and is properly annotated, especially for terms, names, and references that might be unclear to many readers.”
I tend to agree with him because I believe it is important to have insight into the mind of undoubtedly the most evil man who has ever lived.
However, I am not sure if I will read it.
Sources
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/adolf-hitler-s-zweites-buch-secret-book
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