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Reading "Mein Kampf"

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  • 15-04-2010 7:00pm
    #1
    pablomakaveli
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,752 ✭✭✭


    I'm considering buying a copy of Mein Kampf to read mainly just out of curiousity. I'm a bit concerned about getting it though given there is a stigma attached to it.

    Has anyone else read it and if so is it worth reading at all?


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    #2
    Morlar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,273 ✭✭✭Morlar


    I have read it. The only stigma is the one you as an adult decide to enforce on yourself (in my view).

    It depends really on how interested you are in that period. If you are going to read about that period from other authors including those who will be interpreting this book on your behalf then why not get it direct from the horses mouth free of distortion and characterisations (considering this is possibly the most hysterically demonised book in exsistence) ?

    Aside from the famous quote ;

    Once, when passing through the inner City, I suddenly encountered a phenomenon in a long caftan and wearing black side-locks. My first thought was: Is this a Jew? They certainly did not have this appearance in Linz. I watched the man stealthily and cautiously; but the longer I gazed at the strange countenance and examined it feature by feature, the more the question shaped itself in my brain: Is this a German?

    Other than quote and one or two others it's all surprisingly tame. Overall I'd say you are left with the impression of a very frustrated, motivated and thoughtful person, achingly politically aware. Also pretty boring and relentlessly attached to details. There are passages in there you will probably find yourself agreeing with (such as austrian politics and so on).

    If you are expecting ranting and raving 'jew this and jew that' then it's going to be a letdown.

    There is a lot in there that doesn't tend to get mentioned too often on the history channel. About his youth, artistic interests, things like the all important Weltanschaung & Pflichterfüllung. Also lots about austrian politics, local politics, and the hapsburgs reign, Friedrich, bismarck and so on. As well as the stuff it is known for labourplace politics, workers, capitalism, communism etc. I'd say if you are interested then download a free copy before spending any money on it.


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    #3
    Morlar
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,273 ✭✭✭Morlar


    Just had a look through it there, and there is probably more jewish references in there than I had remembered. There is a kind of strange poetic quality to some of it considering when it was written.

    I'd say if he had fallen down a staircase in landsberg, banged his head and died of a swollen brain a few days later, and you then came across a translation of this book 80 yrs later and all you knew was that it was written by a WWI vet, who led a failed putsch while the leader of a fledgling party and read it in that context then, I'd say it would be a noteworthy book. Here is another quote to give you an idea :


    The Jewish doctrine of Marxism repudiates the aristocratic principle of Nature and substitutes for it the eternal privilege of force and energy, numerical mass and its dead weight. Thus it denies the individual worth of the human personality, impugns the teaching that nationhood and race have a primary significance, and by doing this it takes away the very foundations of human existence and human civilization. If the Marxist teaching were to be accepted as the foundation of the life of the universe, it would lead to the disappearance of all order that is conceivable to the human mind. And thus the adoption of such a law would provoke chaos in the structure of the greatest organism that we know, with the result that the inhabitants of this earthly planet would finally disappear.
    Should the Jew, with the aid of his Marxist creed, triumph over the people of this world, his Crown will be the funeral wreath of mankind, and this planet will once again follow its orbit through ether, without any human life on its surface, as it did millions of years ago.


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    #4
    pablomakaveli
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,752 ✭✭✭pablomakaveli


    I do have a large interest in the WWII era and find Hitlers rise to power to be quite interesting. I would like to see what his personal views were from reading it.


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    #5
    Exile 1798
    Registered Users Posts: 709 ✭✭✭Exile 1798


    Well it's worth reading, but not at all enjoyable.

    Here is a very interesting and short review of Mein Kampf by George Orwell.

    http://fascisimile.com/node/17


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    #6
    ChocolateSauce
    Registered Users Posts: 2,892 ✭✭✭ChocolateSauce


    I've got a copy of it (I keep it beside my Koran and my Communist Manifesto), and it is a very interesting read. I agree that the only stigma attached to it in countries which allow you the right to read it is that which you attach to it.


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    #7
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,303 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    If you lived in Oz then copyright is only 50 years after death so it's in public domain down there. Here you'd have to wait another 5 years.

    http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601.txt


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    #8
    SlabMurphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 462 ✭✭SlabMurphy


    pablomakaveli wrote: »
    I'm considering buying a copy of Mein Kampf to read mainly just out of curiousity. I'm a bit concerned about getting it though given there is a stigma attached to it.

    Has anyone else read it and if so is it worth reading at all?
    Funny enough I've thought of reading it myself but Morlar says it's a bit of a bore. If I did read it I'd like to read it with just Hitler's input and don't need any one to be butting in interpreting it for me. Though I'd say I'd get funny looks in the library if I order it there !


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    #9
    pablomakaveli
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,752 ✭✭✭pablomakaveli


    SlabMurphy wrote: »
    Funny enough I've thought of reading it myself but Morlar says it's a bit of a bore. If I did read it I'd like to read it with just Hitler's input and don't need any one to be butting in interpreting it for me. Though I'd say I'd get funny looks in the library if I order it there !

    Even before this thread i had heard that Hitlers writing style is pretty poor in the book and makes it difficult to read and that probably would be the main thing that would put me off reading it.


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    #10
    convert
    Registered Users Posts: 9,338 ✭✭✭convert


    It's not something I'd ever have thought of reading, but now that you've mentioned it here it's something that I'd now consider reading... Just to see what it's all about. It's always much more interesting/rewarding to look at the primary sources, without anyone else's opinion other than the author, rather than read all about it in the secondary sources.


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    #11
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    pablomakaveli wrote: »
    I'm considering buying a copy of Mein Kampf to read mainly just out of curiousity. I'm a bit concerned about getting it though given there is a stigma attached to it.

    Has anyone else read it and if so is it worth reading at all?

    its hard to get a good edition of it. Easons has a paperback, but that looks terrible when well thumbed. i have several editions but have never read it from cover to cover.
    the library should have a copy of it or be able to get one for you. its a famous book like Das Kaptital.


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    #12
    Fuinseog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,371 ✭✭✭Fuinseog


    SlabMurphy wrote: »
    Funny enough I've thought of reading it myself but Morlar says it's a bit of a bore. If I did read it I'd like to read it with just Hitler's input and don't need any one to be butting in interpreting it for me. Though I'd say I'd get funny looks in the library if I order it there !

    you would and you wouldnt get funny looks. a librarian who is professional will not behave like that. a lot of people need it for academic research. most university libaries have a copy of it


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    #13
    Hobby Horse
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10 ✭Hobby Horse


    Any edition of Mein Kampf that you buy or take out on loan will be be special editions intended for students of the time, not potenital NAZI's...

    Most editions come with extensive introductions and notes, mainly to explain what the **** he's babbling about.

    The strange thing about Mein Kampf, is that it's all there, nobody reading the book should be surprised at the crimes Hitler committed.

    One particularly interesting part is when he talks about 'Dwarf nations' ie smaller countries that aren't part of larger Geographical and Racial entities... You'd think someone in the IRA would have read it before throwing their support behind Hitler during the war.


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    #14
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,303 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Hobby Horse wrote: »
    You'd think someone in the IRA would have read it before throwing their support behind Hitler during the war.
    'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' how many times have we heard that one ?
    How many terrorists were supported by governments and then turned against them ? CIA in Afghanistan, India and the Tamils ?

    People who don't understand history repeat the mistakes :mad::mad::mad:


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    #15
    longhalloween
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,207 ✭✭✭longhalloween


    No stigma attached but you have to give your details to the bookseller or librarian so they can enter it into a top secret CIA file, so if there are ever any anti-semetic murders on your street theyre gonna come lookin for you.

    Or at least thats what i learned from watching se7en.


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    #16
    CDfm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,649 ✭✭✭✭CDfm


    A few years ago I was down in Middleton Co Cork and waiting to meet up with someone I went into the local library and Mein Kamph was in the biography section. I had a browse and found it boring.

    From memory, it was Hitler with Rudolf Hess as ghostwriter and the publisher came up with the catchy title. I read somewhere that one of the German States appropriated the copywrite to the book and that all royalties go into their coffers.

    I dont think you would get any more looks then taking out a true crime book

    Checking on the Dublin City library catalogue on line http://libcat.dublincity.ie/cgi-bin/dublin-cat.sh?


    There are a few copies in circulation. The one in Walkinstown is out on loan but in Phibsboro it should be on the shelf.:pac:


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