Peter McGee

Hitlers «Mein Kampf» am Zeitungskiosk?Liebe Leserinnen und Leser,
sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,

auf Antrag des Bayerischen Staatsministeriums der Finanzen hat ein Münchner Gericht am Nachmittag des 25.Januar entschieden, dass
Zeitungszeugen bis auf weiteres keine Auszüge aus ‘Mein Kampf’ verwenden darf, um sie wissenschaftlich kommentiert und analysiert zu veröffentlichen. Wir bedauern, dass wir deshalb anders als angekündigt allen interessierten Lesern, die uns einen frankierten und adressierten Rückumschlag zugesandt haben, vorerst keine vollständig leserliche Variante unserer Zeitungszeugen-Beilage ‘Das unlesbare Buch’ zusenden können. Gegen die Entscheidung des Münchner Gerichts werden wir Rechtsmittel einlegen. Sollten wir Erfolg haben, werden wir Ihnen die vollständig lesbare Variante zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt schicken.

Das große Interesse unserer Leserschaft und die breite Unterstützung für unser Anliegen einer verantwortungsvollen Auseinandersetzung mit diesem zentralen Werk der deutschen Geschichte bestärken uns in dem Wunsch nach einer abschließenden Klärung der Rechtslage.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Peter McGee

2 thoughts on “Peter McGee

  1. shinichi

    Adolf for Everyone: ‘Mein Kampf’ Extracts To Be Sold in Germany

    by Martin U. Müller and Florian Zerfaß

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/adolf-for-everyone-mein-kampf-extracts-to-be-sold-in-germany-a-809367.html

    A British publisher plans to sell excerpts from Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in Germany, claiming he wants to demystify the infamous book. But the controversial move could provoke a legal dispute with the Bavarian government, which owns the copyright and refuses reprint permission.

    Is it permissible to sit in a cafe and read Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf?” British publisher Peter McGee, 51, has no doubt. “Of course it is. It’s long overdue that a broad public should get the opportunity to deal with the original text.”

    And because McGee is so sure he’s right, he plans to serialize extracts of the book in three small 15-page brochures with an initial print run of 100,000 copies each. The front cover features a photo of Hitler with a black bar obscuring his eyes and a headline that translates to “The unreadable book.”
    The plans could trigger opposition from Bavarian civil servants, though. Contrary to common belief, “Mein Kampf” is not banned in Germany. But the state of Bavaria, which seized Hitler’s assets after his death, owns the copyright to his infamous treatise and has so far consistently prohibited efforts to reprint it.

    McGee likes a fight and is no stranger to scandal. In 2009, he published reprints of vintage Nazi newspapers like Der Angriff and Völkischer Beobachter with print runs of up to 300,000, delivered alongside comments from historians.

    Confiscated By Police

    The move caused a minor uproar in Germany, with the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung warning of an “embellishment of horror” and the Central Council of Jews in Germany labelling the reprints potential “blueprints for budding Nazis.”

    The row escalated and the Bavarian government, which also owns the copyright to the two newspapers, dispatched police throughout the nation to seize the republished copies.

    The Bavarian Finance Ministry takes a similarly strict view of the planned publication of “Mein Kampf.” It declared: “Permission to publish volumes isn’t granted in Germany or abroad.” It added that Bavaria would use “all means at its disposal” to fight copyright infringements. Their aim was to prevent the spread of National Socialist propaganda and to send a “clear signal” of opposition to its content, it continued.

    McGee regards that as nonsense. “Mein Kampf is an extremely bad book, it is badly written, has awkward language and no internal logic,” he says. “The thoughts are strewn across the whole book.” But he adds that one can only recognize its insanity if one confronts the text.

    In McGee’s edition, each page contains a column of original text alongside critical commentary. “We’re aware of the dark power of this book but it stems from the fact that no one has read it. The aura of being forbidden accounts for its myth,” said the publisher.

    Double Provocation

    McGee wants to destroy the myth and plans to put the extracts on sale in Germany beginning next Thursday. It’s not just an ethical provocation, but a judicial one as well. A book copyright expires 70 years after the death of an author. In Hitler’s case, that won’t be until 2015.

    McGee’s publishing company Albertas didn’t even speak to the Bavarian finance ministry before going ahead with the project. “Given how they reacted last time, it didn’t seem to make much sense,” he said. But he has secured the services of Berlin lawyer Ulrich Michel, who regards the publication of excerpts as lawful.
    The Central Council of Jews, meanwhile, is taking a far more relaxed view of the publication than it did with the Nazi newspapers in 2009. Dieter Graumann, the president of the council, said he hoped that the reprints would “demystify” the book. “I’m an Internet junkie myself,” said Grauman. “Everyone can already find the book on the Web.”

    But Internet readers are left alone with the inhuman original text because Web versions of “Mein Kampf” are often just uploaded without any accompanying notes from historians.

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  2. shinichi

    毎日新聞
    2011年9月27日

    戦後、ドイツで禁書となってきた独裁者、ヒトラーの著書「わが闘争」の再出版をめぐり、 「極右のネオナチが喜ぶだけで出版は危険」「学術目的には必要」と同国で議論になっている。ユダヤ人虐殺につながった差別思想が色濃い本だけに、戦後70年近くたち、 著作権切れを前にしてなお賛否が割れている。【ベルリン篠田航一】

     「わが闘争」は1925年に上巻、27年に下巻が刊行された。反ユダヤ主義などヒトラーの持論に加え、大衆を扇動するノウハウについても記述されている。1933年にナチスが政権を取ってからは「聖典」化し、学校の授業で使われたほか、新婚家庭にも配布された。1945年の終戦まで1000万部以上が出版されている。

     著作権は現在、ヒトラーが生前に住民登録をしていたバイエルン州が保有。ドイツでは作者の死後70年間、著作権が保障されるため、45年に自殺したヒトラーの著書は2015年いっぱいで「期限切れ」を迎える。

     同州はナチスによる犠牲者らへの配慮や、本が極右勢力の「聖典」となることを懸念し、これまで出版を許可してこなかった。だが公立現代史研究所(ミュンヘン)は昨年2月、「重要な歴史資料」との理由で、著作権が切れた後に注釈付きの新刊を出版したい意向を表明した。

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