Literature

5416 readers

1 users here now

Pretty straightforward: books and literature of all stripes can be discussed here.

If you're interested in posting your own writing, formal or informal, check out the Writing community!

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Standard Ebooks - A curated and entirely free repository of public domain ebooks, carefully converted by volunteers to be the best digital version possible (standardebooks.org)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

This book is far more easily available than you might think. I don't know of a single jurisdiction (including Germany) where it's outlawed. Reprints and both commented and uncommented versions are readily available in many languages. This was the case even before the copyright had expired.

Once you get over the (nonexisting) thrill of having something forbidden and the novelty of reading a book written by one of the worst human beings in history, you'll quickly discover that it's meandering, confused, extremely poorly written and simply boring. Even most Nazis back then didn't actually read it.

If you want a more illuminating insight into the minds of the Nazi leadership, Goebbels' diaries are a much better read. These are far more coherent, better edited and generally easier to get into. Keep in mind however that Goebbels intended these to be published, so read them with a critical eye. Just like Mein Kampf, Goebbels' diaries are not illegal, but there are fewer complete translations available, if you don't speak German.