History of the book
The first volume of the book (“Eine Abrechnung”) was published on July 18. The second volume, “The National Socialist Movement” (“Die nationalsozialistische Bewegung”), was originally titled “4.5 years of struggle against lies, stupidity and deceit.” " Publisher Max Amann, finding the title too long, shortened it to "My Struggle".
Hitler dictated the text of the book to Emil Maurice during his imprisonment in Landsberg and, later, in July, to Rudolf Hess.
Main ideas presented in the book
The book reflects ideas that resulted in the Second World War. The author's anti-Semitism is noticeably visible. For example, it is claimed that the international language Esperanto is part of a Jewish conspiracy.
Hitler used the main theses of the “Jewish threat” ideology, popular at that time, which spoke of the monopoly seizure of world power by the Jews.
Also from the book you can learn the details of Hitler’s childhood and how his anti-Semitic and militaristic views were formed.
“My Struggle” clearly expresses the racist worldview that divides people based on their origin. Hitler argued that the Aryan race, with blond hair and blue eyes, stood at the pinnacle of human development. (Hitler himself had dark hair and blue eyes.) Jews, blacks and gypsies were considered “inferior races.” He called for the struggle for the purity of the Aryan race and discrimination against others.
Hitler speaks of the need to conquer “living space in the East”:
We National Socialists quite deliberately put an end to the entire German foreign policy of the pre-war period. We want to return to the point where our old development was interrupted 600 years ago. We want to put a stop to the eternal German drive towards the south and west of Europe, and we definitely point the finger towards the territories located in the east. We are finally breaking with the colonial and trade policies of the pre-war era and are consciously moving towards a policy of conquering new lands in Europe. When we talk about the conquest of new lands in Europe, we, of course, can primarily mean only Russia and those peripheral states that are subordinate to it. Fate itself points its finger at us. Having delivered Russia into the hands of Bolshevism, fate deprived the Russian people of that intelligentsia on which its state existence had hitherto rested and which alone served as a guarantee of a certain strength of the state. It was not the state talents of the Slavs that gave strength and strength to the Russian state. Russia owed all this to the Germanic elements - an excellent example of the enormous state role that Germanic elements are capable of playing when acting within a lower race. This is how many powerful states on earth were created. More than once in history we have seen how peoples of a lower culture, led by the Germans as organizers, turned into powerful states and then remained firmly on their feet while the racial core of the Germans remained. For centuries, Russia lived off the German core in its upper strata of the population. Now this core has been completely destroyed. Jews took the place of the Germans. But just as the Russians cannot throw off the yoke of the Jews on their own, so the Jews alone are not able to keep this huge state under their control for long. The Jews themselves are by no means an element of organization, but rather a ferment of disorganization. This giant eastern state is inevitably doomed to destruction. All the prerequisites for this have already matured. The end of Jewish rule in Russia will also be the end of Russia as a state. Fate has destined us to witness such a catastrophe, which, better than anything else, will unconditionally confirm the correctness of our racial theory.Popularity before World War II
French edition of My Struggle, 1934
The first edition of the book in Russia was published by the T-Oko publishing house in 1992. The book has been published several times recently:
- My struggle Translation from German, 1992, T-OKO publishing house
- My struggle Translation from German, 1998, With comments. editors / Adolf Hitler, 590, p. 23 cm, Moscow, Vityaz.
- My struggle Translation from German, 2002, Russian Pravda publishing house.
- My struggle Translation from German, 2003, 464, Moscow, Social Movement.
In accordance with the Russian law on countering extremist activities, the distribution of extremist materials on the territory of the Russian Federation is prohibited (they also include the works of the leaders of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, and therefore Adolf Hitler's book “My Struggle”), as well as their production or storage for distribution purposes.
Footnotes and sources
Links
- "My struggle" in Russian
- “My Struggle” in Russian in the Internet Archive
| Adolf Gitler | |
|---|---|
| Policy | Political beliefs · Speeches · My struggle · Second document Hitler's political testament |
| Events | Rise to Power · Third Reich · Holocaust · World War II · Death |
| Personal life | Home · Health · Religious Beliefs · Sexuality · Diet |
| Perception | Books · In popular culture · Victory of Faith · Triumph of the will · Empty mirror · Hitler: The Last Ten Days · Hitler's meaning · Max · Hitler: The Rise of Evil · Bunker |
| Family | Eva Braun (wife) Alois (father) |
Chapter 9. “Mein Kampf” – “The Bible of Nazism”
If the art of politics is truly the art of the possible, then the one who cares about the future belongs to those who are said to be liked by the gods because they want and achieve the impossible. They almost always refuse recognition in their time, but if their thoughts are immortal, they will earn fame among posterity.
A. Hitler
Of the five years determined by the court, Hitler spent only thirteen months in prison. While sitting in the Landsberg fortress, he dictated what would later become the book “Mein Kampf” and bring him fame and good money. At first these were autobiographical notes, and were called “Four and a half years of struggle against lies, stupidity and cowardice.” The first volume, published on July 18, 1925 in Munich with a circulation of 10,000 copies (sold at 12 marks), was followed in 1926 by a second, more philosophical and more programmatic. Published in 1930 as a single work “Mein Kampf” (the spelling “Main Kampf” is often found; the Svitovid publishing house, from which the quotations are printed, published a book with exactly this spelling). In his book, now banned for publication in some countries of the world, the future leader of the Third Reich substantiated the National Socialist concept of an ideal state in his opinion.
The success of the first printing (orders for the book had been coming to the publishing house of Franz Eger Jr. since the announcement of the upcoming publication, and back in July 1924 there were more than 3,000 orders from professional collectors, state libraries, bookstores and ordinary citizens) only strengthened Hitler’s ideas - the prisoner about his complete innocence. “A brilliant orator, as a rule, will also be a good writer, and a brilliant writer will never be an orator, unless he has specifically practiced this art,”– the author noted; in 1933, the book of the “not a bad writer” had already sold almost 5.5 million copies, enriching the writer with royalties and the masses of millions with poisonous fabrications. By 1943, almost 10 million people became owners of the book.
Previously published in two volumes, since 1930 the “one-volume people's edition” of Mein Kampf will begin to resemble the common edition of the Bible in appearance and format, competing in popularity and demand with the revelations of the prophets.
Until 1945, the Bible of Nazism, with its total circulation of 10 million copies and translations into 16 languages, was perhaps the most printed and translated book in the world. And this fact must not be forgotten. As well as the fact that in the early 30s the book had copies of many thousands and was published more than once in America, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Japan, etc. In 1933 it was published in England, and until 1938. the British bought almost 50,000 copies. It is very interesting that during the Second World War, the British government sent copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf to its soldiers along with Marx's Capital as part of the official book distribution service - to familiarize themselves with the ideology of the enemy. And perhaps it was the right decision.
Now in Russia this book is banned for publication, as it is banned in Germany (however, the last edition in Germany was published in 2004) and France. But the presence of its text on the Internet makes any prohibitions absurd. The printing and distribution of the book in the Russian Federation is prohibited by the law “On Combating Extremist Activities” as work of an extremist nature; however, this law also has loopholes that contradict each other and thereby allow such work to be published. In Azerbaijan, for example, in the fall of 2008, the Baku district court even considered a lawsuit against the editor-in-chief of the Khural newspaper, Avaz Zeynalli, who translated A. Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” into Azerbaijani. “The criminal case against Zeynala was initiated on the basis of appeals from the Israeli Embassy in Baku and the community of Mountain Jews, who believe that the translation of the book Mein Kampf from Turkish into Azerbaijani should be classified as sympathy for Hitler,” the court explained. True, experts have not been able to determine whether the translation of this book contains feelings of sympathy for Hitler. But the Ukrainians, having printed the edition, marked on the cover of “Mein Kampf” lines from Art. 34 of the Constitution of Ukraine that citizens of the country have the right: “Freely to collect, store, use and disseminate information orally, in writing or in any other way of their choice.” Of course, reckless reading of such books is fraught with danger, but if they are published with commentaries, then immature people, people with an unstable psyche and easily susceptible to the influence of others will not become adherents of extremist teachings. And to deprive historians and researchers of primary sources is completely inhumane; in this case, the authorities are forced to act according to the principle of the times of developed socialism: I haven’t read the book, but it is harmful, bad and dangerous.
Despite the fact that Adolf Hitler sometimes spoke in the party press, he was still not a writer, and his style in the book is scattered, verbose, his presentation is often reckless, and sometimes even downright stupid. And yet, the book contains a lot of quite serious philosophical reflections, which, if they were printed separately, could make up a quite decent volume for reading about the life, history, worldview of an individual and the place of an individual in society. However, I’m being sarcastic as an author: humanity consumes a lot of much lower-quality literature. Without an anti-racist and anti-Semitic touch, the book “Mein Kampf” will do less harm than spiritless, frankly vulgar third-rate fiction published in mass editions, which corrupts and corrupts the souls of our young compatriots. And I’ll add: if you remove the verbosity from the works of the classic of Marxism V.I. Lenin, highlight the essence, then you can get a volume that, in terms of inhumanity and cruelty, is in no way inferior, and in many ways even superior to the work of Adolf Hitler. And if we don’t do this today by publishing the concentrated thoughts of the leader of socialism with comments, tomorrow we will get a generation of new revolutionaries-fanatics (by obvious analogy: in the world there is both a revival of the neo-communist movement in the person of fans of Che Guevara, and neo-fascists).
The Fuhrer in 1938 told the future Governor-General of Poland, Hans Frank:
- I'm not a writer. How beautifully Mussolini speaks and writes Italian. I can't do the same in German. Thoughts come to me while writing.
The quiet time spent in prison allowed Hitler to seriously take up reading philosophical and journalistic literature, which left a certain imprint on his work. According to his close friend Kubizek, Adolf studied in “captivity” the works of Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Dante, Schiller, Ephraim Lessing, Otto Ernst, Peter Rosegger. Another witness, General Hans Frank, executed in Nuremberg in 1946, managed to write an autobiographical book in prison, “In the Face of the Gallows,” in which he recalled that Hitler, who was in 1924-1925. in Landsberg, read the works of Bismarck, Chamberlain, Ranke, Nietzsche, Karl Marx and other philosophers and thinkers, as well as memoirs about the lives of generals and statesmen.
So it was not for nothing that Adolf Hitler called a one-year imprisonment his "a university at public expense."
Both V.I. Lenin and his fellow socialists also more than once called their stay in the tsarist prisons of the Russian Empire “universities at public expense.” And the books they loved to read there were almost the same ones that – years later – Adolf Hitler, who experienced the “hardships” of an imperial German prison. For example, the “Russian” revolutionary Osip (Joseph) Vasilievich Aptekman (1849–1926), While in prison - in the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress in the early 80s of the 19th century - I admired that the local library contained Karl Marx's "Capital", a book that contemporaries called the "Bible of Marxism". (Hitler will write about Marx and his Capital, read in prison, in Mein Kampf, assessing this work as a work in which “set forth the formal doctrine of Jewish thought.” “This work is studied mainly only by the intelligentsia and especially by Jews... Yes, this work was not written at all for the broad masses, but exclusively for Jewish leaders serving the machine of Jewish takeovers. As fuel for this whole machine, Marxists use a completely different material, namely, the daily press. The Marxist daily press... knows its flock perfectly.")
Many state criminals serving their short sentences in tsarist prisons noted the very good selection of books in the prison libraries (there was not only Marx, but also books on the topic of the French Revolution), where there were also magazines to choose from: Otechestvennye Zapiski, Znanie, “Historical Bulletin”, “Bulletin of Europe”, “New Word”, “Zvezda”, “Niva”, etc., and even foreign scientific journals. “The convict regime was entirely reduced to the complete isolation of the prisoner from the outside world,” points out M. Gernet, an expert on royal prisons and penitentiary institutions during the existence of the monarchy. And for yours correct By presenting to Soviet citizens the “horrors” of the tsarist prisons, the author of the “scientific works”, Soviet professor M. N. Gernet, will receive the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree and a substantial sum of money (in 1947). In the works of this author one can find the names of almost everyone who was involved in the revolutionary process in Russia and who received certain terms of imprisonment or exile for their activities. For example, mentioning the time of the same Aptekman’s stay in the Trubetskoy bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress, he will point out that his comrades in isolation in this fortress in the 80s were other obsessive desirers of early revolutions: Bukh, Kvyatkovsky, Zundelevich, Gondelberg (hanged himself with a towel ), Tsukerman, Fridenson, Langans, Savely Zlatopolsky, Trigoni, Aizik Aronchik, Drigo, Yakimova, Evgenia Figner, Vera Figner, Maria Gryaznova, Olovennikova (“showed signs of mental disorder and screamed a lot”; attempted suicide twice), Gesya Gelfman ( was sentenced to death for involvement in the murder of Alexander II, but turned out to be pregnant), Kogan-Bernstein, Lippoman, Tsitsianov, Shtromberg, Lyudmila Volkenstein, Gellis Meer, Vladimir Bubnov and others.
A large role in prisons was assigned to the Orthodox clergy; according to the instructions of Tsarist Russia, the prison priest was a member of the prison meeting under the head of the prison on internal regulations. He also taught the Law of God in the prison school; he was also one of the leaders of the prison library. As for foreigners or people of other faiths, clergy of other faiths were also invited for them. In those days, they tried to influence criminals using spiritual, moral and educational categories. Alas…
By the way, Gernet himself also paid for his revolutionary activities with a short stint in a tsarist prison, so he did not lie when he described the life of prisoners. (By the time of Adolf Hitler’s imprisonment in the “brotherly imperial prison,” little had changed, except that even more freedom and free-thinking had been added.) Let’s take a look at what prisons were like before the Bolsheviks seized power and before the Nazis came to power. I assure you, you won't regret it. After all, oddly enough, it is such conditions provoked the emergence of Bolshevik-fascist extremism among the leaders of these movements.
“Work in prison was mandatory only for certain groups of the prison population, namely, for those sentenced to hard labor, in the correctional department, and among those sentenced to prison, for those convicted of theft, embezzlement or embezzlement.”
“Nechaev received the writing materials and books he requested within a month. The works he needed in Russian and foreign languages were purchased for him in a bookstore. Writing instruments made it possible for Nechaev to make extracts from the books he read and engage in literary work. This went on for three years." (Nechaev S.G. (1847–1882), revolutionary-conspirator, organizer of the underground “People's Retribution”, murderer, handed over to the Russian authorities as a criminal; together with O. Aptekman, V. Zasulich and other accomplices, according to the Soviet encyclopedia, “tried to fight the abomination of the old world.”)
“Several paragraphs of the instructions defined the duties of the doctor... the doctor was obliged to visit the sick twice a day, visit the prison daily, visit healthy prisoners every other day, and visit prisoners in the punishment cell daily. He was given the right to protest the decisions of the committee, which, in his opinion, tended to cause harm to the health of employees or prisoners.”
“Tapping was used in prison not only for conversation, but also for playing chess.”
“The fans were in the corner of the cells above the toilet seat. This corner remained inaccessible to observation through the “peephole” of the door.”
“Productive work began in 1886, when the 1 2 vegetable gardens separated from each other by high wooden fences. The prisoners were given iron shovels, seeds and provided with water tanks for irrigation. Most of the prisoners were not at all familiar with gardening... They began to go there from 8 a.m. to 6 a.m. 30 min. evenings."
“After the Shlisselburg residents planted their greenhouses and vegetable gardens, berry bushes and apple trees, their food began to differ in some variety. It was possible to further improve it by allocating for food part of the funds that the Shlisselburg residents began to earn through their labor. A significant influence on the improvement of nutrition... was made by the election by the prisoners of a comrade from among themselves, who took special care of compiling a menu for every day, taking into account the wishes of the prisoners and existing opportunities.”
“... one of the comrades was busy compiling lists of queues for walks in such a way that the prisoners could walk in pairs, compiled at their request.”
“Morozov informed his relatives about his activities in prison in gardening and floriculture, breeding rabbits and chickens... The intensity of scientific activities can be judged from his letter to his relatives with the message that he bound the materials he collected into 13 volumes, each containing 300–800 pages. Subsequently, he added 2 more volumes to them”; “So he reported on his use of extensive scientific literature, not excluding the latest in foreign languages, of which he studied Italian, Spanish and Polish while in prison.” (Morozov N.A. (1854–1946), revolutionary populist, member of the 1st International, knew K. Marx, served a sentence for revolutionary activities. After serving time in the “monstrous” royal dungeons... he taught chemistry and astronomy at the Lesgaft Higher Courses and at the Psychoneurological Institute. In 1911, he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for his anti-religious book of poetry “Star Songs”. Along with others, he subsequently wrote several books on the history of religion, “Prophets”, “Christ”, etc., in which he revised the history of Christianity.)
“The opening of the first workshop - a carpentry - followed in 1889... The next workshop was a shoemaker... then a bookbinding workshop, a lathe were opened and other crafts developed. A blacksmith shop was also opened in 1900.”
“An original and fascinating type of work for prisoners appeared in 1897, when... they began to produce various collections for the Mobile Museum of Teaching Aids in St. Petersburg.”
If you think that in the terrible tsarist penal servitude things were different than in the prison fortresses, let us turn to the same Stalinist laureate for evidence; The information we need can be extracted only by digging extensively into the multi-volume volume.
“According to the recollections of Deitch, who entered the Kari penal servitude in December 1885, the prison community by the time of his arrival on the Karya had already been completely restored, the cells were still not locked. There were intensive studies in various sciences, reading, singing, growing vegetable gardens and flower beds. We had fun playing chess, going to town, and in winter skiing down the mountains. Sometimes in the summer they would have tea in the courtyard at a common table. In the new prison, located... one mile from Nizhnyaya Kara, prisoners were distributed in four cells at their own request... The prisoners did not wear shackles and were not engaged in hard labor.” “The regime of the Kari penal servitude was described in the same tones... Felix Kohn... In the second half of the 80s, political convicts on the Kara could proudly point to their library, to the “workers’ academy” with scientific classes and lectures on various branches of knowledge, to their choir , who sang choral parts from operas, to preserve his human dignity." And Lev Deitch (1855–1941), and Felix Cohn (1864–1941), perhaps, partly due to their origin, they were fanatics of the Jewish teachings of “Marxism”, in the literal sense - fatalists.
“Socialism,” Cohn wrote in his book of memoirs, “for which many victims had already fallen, was for us not only a matter of conviction... It was everything for us according to the concepts of that time: faith, religion, the sacred martyrdom of those who died on the gallows. And therefore, retreat from the banner, stained with the martyr’s blood of the fighters, was a crime...” (In 1935, the Imperial Party Congress of Freedom was held in Nuremberg, at which the Nazis held a colorful ceremony of “blessing the banners”; in photographs of that event, Adolf Hitler stands under the “Banner Blood", with which the National Socialists marched on November 9, 1923)
Coming out of the dungeons after a forced stay at universities, some “victims” of tsarism successfully published their works. For example, Joseph Lukashevich published several volumes written in prison under the title “The Elementary Beginning of Scientific Philosophy,” and for the published study “Inorganic Life of the Earth” he even received a Gold Medal from the Russian Imperial Geographical Society and a prize from the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences. But the Polish Jew Joseph (Józef) Lukashevich (1863–1928) - one of the organizers of the “Terrorist faction of the Narodnaya Volya party” and for participation in the preparation of the assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander III was sentenced to death, commuted to indefinite hard labor. But already in 1905 he was released; truly, the liberalism of the tsarist penitentiary system had no equal in the whole world.
Another Bolshevik fanatic Vera Figner (1852–1942) called the prison “Parnassus” because many of those imprisoned there awakened poetic talents. By the way, this criminal learned the Italian language in captivity, and her comrades, who often spoke two foreign languages, learned new languages, “including those that were not widely known in Russia,” but which could be useful to these fanatics in the cause of the World Revolution . While some were studying in prison, others were translating monographs and works, including Marxist ones. One of the “victims” called 1 5 years of his stay in prison “quiet work in some cultural corner.” Another of the inmates recalled about himself and his comrades that “they read as much in prison as hardly many in freedom” (Hitler would say the same about himself).
People “taken out by tsarism for many years” were imprisoned in institutions that became “a kind of universities” (according to M. Gernet; see his works “History of the Tsar’s Prison” in 5 volumes).
This whole “lafa” is also described in the memoirs of V.I. Lenin and N.K. Krupskaya, as well as other pillars of Marxism-Leninism, who hated tsarism even because the entire system of punishments of this sovereign system was based “on the preservation of human dignity.”
If you look closely at the photographs of the Bolsheviks during their years in tsarist prisons or in exile, published in numerous Soviet sources, you will be amazed at how clean they look, how neatly dressed, the men in suits and often with ties. The photographs of the Fuhrer during his stay in Lansberg am Lech are identical. There is no anxiety or tension in their faces; those depicted in the photo are calm, sometimes thoughtful and meaningful. Here is Hitler surrounded by his comrades at a table covered with a tablecloth with a pot of flowers on it; here he is against the background of a laurel wreath; at the barred window (remember the angry association of the classic poem we memorized at school: “a young eagle raised in captivity...” and imagine the “prisoners” of “damned tsarism”); Here he is reading the latest press...
At an additional trial in the putschist case, about forty more people were convicted and sent to the same Landsberg prison. Among them were members of Hitler’s “Shock Squad” Haug, Moritz, Hess, Berchgold and others, after which the Fuhrer’s prison social circle expanded significantly. Witnesses said that at lunchtime the Fuhrer sat at the table under a banner with a swastika, did not take part in the work, and even his cell was cleaned by others. But all like-minded people who were imprisoned were obliged to immediately report themselves to the Fuhrer. Many of them attended the leader’s meeting, which took place every day at exactly ten o’clock. In the evening hours, when Hitler spoke at friendly meetings, fortress employees gathered behind the doors on the stairs to eagerly listen to the prophet of Nazism.
During the years of imprisonment, Landsberg am Lech turned into a place of pilgrimage; it is not for nothing that the prison would later be called “the first “Brown House”.
In such conditions of an almost sanatorium stay and leisurely studies, Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” was born. Her ideas were formalized into lines and paragraphs through reasoning and friendly conversations, through singing with friends, through receiving gifts and sweets from numerous admirers and admirers, over games with her beloved shepherd dog (which, with the permission of the prosecutor, was brought on dates by friends), over all the rest "behind" that strange prison system that gave people the freedom to feel like human beings. Which will later be taken into account by both the Bolsheviks and the Nazis.
Having come to power, short red-haired Ulyanov-Lenin, one of his first decrees, will create ideal Soviet concentration camps and prisons for millions of Russians and other former subjects of the former Russian Empire so hated by him.
Having come to power, Hitler immediately opened the first concentration camps in Dachau and Oranienburg. Having sent there first of all the Jewish Bolsheviks so hated by him.
You have read the introductory fragment! If the book interests you, you can buy the full version of the book and continue your fascinating reading.
Hitler stayed in the Landsberg fortress only from November 1923 to December 1924. The regime in this prison not only did not resemble the regime in the dungeons, where the Nazis, after coming to power, threw their political opponents, but also had nothing in common with the order in all kinds of correctional and punitive institutions. Hitler and other prisoners enjoyed so many benefits that they, perhaps, did not enjoy at that time in freedom: they were well fed, there was an orchestra in the prison, a newspaper was published, especially important prisoners had their own orderlies who brought them breakfast straight to bed. The dinner was turned into a ceremonial ceremony: Hitler sat at the head of the table and conducted conversations on political topics. Thus, Hitler’s notorious “table conversations” began already in 1924 within the walls of the Landsberg fortress. It was allowed to send everything to the prison, from political pamphlets and letters to flowers and strong drinks. In this paradise, Hitler enjoyed special privileges. His cell with two windows and an excellent view was somewhat apart from the cells of the other putschists - the prison administration took care of the Fuhrer’s peace. Hitler was especially served by two of his like-minded people - the driver Emil Maurice and Hess, the future Deputy Fuhrer in the Nazi Party. After the court turned out to be so lenient towards the Nazis, Hess came to Bavaria from Austria, where he had fled after the putsch, to perform his secretarial duties in prison. In Lindsberg, Hitler's birthday and his thirty-fifth birthday were celebrated with great pomp. Even outwardly, Landsberg prison, as one of Hitler’s biographers writes, not without wit, became the first “brown house” of the Nazis. Nazi posters and pictures hung on the walls of the cells. In the common room there was a large flag with a swastika.
From Landsberg, the Fuhrer could well lead the “movement.” However, he did not want this. At first, Hitler simply rested and, so to speak, gained strength, and in the early spring of 1924 he began writing the book Mein Kampf.
The year was 1924. Despite the fact that the reaction turned the trial of Hitler and his accomplices into a farce, despite the fact that the Bavarian prison turned into a “brown house,” Hitler had a defeat behind him and very difficult years ahead. The failure of the putsch showed the weakness of the Nazi party, and beer regulars only wanted to be on the winning side. And the rich patrons of fascism were not interested in the overthrown Nazis. Meanwhile, the movement needed a continuous influx of money - it was necessary to treat stormtroopers for free, dress them in appropriate uniforms, rent halls for meetings, pay bouncers and clackers, support typesetters and artists, buy paper for leaflets and newspapers... And in this situation The fascist Fuhrer took up his pen.
Some fundamental works about Hitler say that this seemingly strange step of the Fuhrer was explained by his irrepressible ambition, the desire to dominate in everything. In turn, this version is associated with a very common interpretation of Hitler as a person with... an inferiority complex. It seems, however, that an inferiority complex (if Hitler had one!) has nothing to do with this case *. Having sat down with Mein Kampf in 1924, the Fuhrer fulfilled an important social order of the reaction.
* If we talk about Hitler’s subjective motives, then it was not a matter of a feeling of inferiority, but of the Fuhrer’s political instincts.
In the years of confusion and weakness, fascism especially needed its own “ideology,” its own fascist “theory,” or rather, some kind of demagogic doctrine on which the further activities of the party could be based, a political platform for recruiting supporters. The German burghers had to be armed “theoretically.” Only in this case could the Nazis stand out from the huge mass of reactionary groups that arose and disappeared in Germany in the twenties,
Hitler’s calculation was very cunning; he understood that in the 20th century, when all non-science, including social science, became endlessly complex and specialized, the average person was less able than ever to understand on his own economic, sociological, aesthetic and other systems. And that he longs to receive some kind of “gospel”, having studied which, he will consider himself “at the level” of our time. And so Hitler decided to create this kind of “gospel”, accessible to every shopkeeper and at the same time scientific. Hitler’s book was rude flattery towards the German inhabitants; he acted in it not as a popularizer, but as the founder of a “philosophical system” addressed directly to the crowd, to the masses, presenting them with supposedly the latest achievements of all sciences...
Hitler's inner circle was disappointed with the first volume of Mein Kampf, written in Landsberg prison *. The Fuhrer's henchmen, not without reason, said (in whispers, of course) that Hitler's book was boring, indigestible and that it was written in poor language. Some modern historians also claim that Mein Kampf did not achieve its goal, because even after the Nazis came to power, this book was read under pressure. These historians are wrong; “Mein Kampf” was by no means a failure, despite the fact that it is a boring, indigestible book that can only be overcome under a stick. Millions of Germans still read Mein Kampf, and millions more kept it in their homes. And this was often their only book. Many have learned something from this work. Thus, the book did its dirty work, helping to hammer into the heads of most Germans a number of reactionary ideas, without which the twelve-year rule of the Nazis would have been impossible, for the Nazi total dictatorship had to be based on some kind of theory, even the most chaotic one.
* So, Aman, the treasurer and publisher of the Nazi party, expected that Hitler would write a sensational book, and with which he would settle accounts with all his “enemies,” including Bavarian politicians. Aman was waiting for scandalous revelations of specific individuals. But Hitler did not take this path.
Much later, in connection with the appearance of the book Mein Kampf, such a funny and sad anecdote was told in Germany. The popular German publisher Korf, the soul of Ulstein-Verlag, the largest and most famous publishing house in the Weimar Republic, allegedly stood up at the next meeting of the management and said: “Gentlemen, I am retiring and leaving Germany.” To bewildered questions about what caused such an unexpected decision, Korf replied: “I read a book.” - “Which book?” “Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf,” Korf began, but could not continue because of the Homeric laughter of those present.
Nevertheless, Korf fulfilled his intention - he retired and left Germany. He was one of the few major publishing figures of the Weimar Republic who escaped Nazi repression...
Whether this episode actually happened or was invented is difficult to say. In any case, he quite accurately conveyed the mindset of the liberal intelligentsia in Weimar Germany and its more than careless attitude towards Hitler himself and his “theoretical” work...
Hitler initially called his book “Four and a half years of struggle against lies, stupidity and cowardice”, then he gave it a shorter and at the same time more capacious title - “My Struggle”.
In Landsberg, 400 pages were written, i.e. the first part of Mein Kampf. In 1926, Hitler completed the second volume, and the book became 782 pages. In prison he dictated his work to Hess. Many researchers consider Hess either a co-author or the author of Mein Kampf. This opinion is based on the fact that Hess was a more educated person than Hitler. He studied at the university and was personally acquainted with some reactionary theorists of the twenties, including the geopolitician Haushofer, who, by the way, gave him the “Political Geography” of Ratzel, one of the founders of geopolitics, to the Landsberg prison. However, Hess’s “intelligence” should not be exaggerated either. He believed in astrologers, in black magic, his actions were devoid of common sense, and he turned out to be a layman in politics. All this, of course, does not exclude the possibility that Hess contributed to Mein Kampf. At one time, a certain prelate Stempfle, a music critic in the newspaper Miesbach Herald, was also considered a co-author of Hitler (Stempfle was subsequently killed on Hitler's orders). He allegedly rewrote Mein Kampf, giving the book a more or less acceptable appearance for printing.
In recent historical works, in particular in the book of Joachim Fest, this version is rejected. On the contrary, analyzing Mein Kampf, Fest convincingly proves the identity of the book with the personality of its author. It seems that Fest is right - “Mein Kampf” was composed by Hitler.
This book is written in the first person. It consists of purely biographical passages, that is, of stories about the author’s childhood, youth and mature years, and of endless discussions about everything: about foreign and domestic policies, about races, about Jews and Germans, about capitalists and workers, about history and the future, about architecture and propaganda, about theatre, cinema, literature, about syphilis and prostitution, about the church and raising children, etc., etc. The book is categorical and aggressive - all dissidents are declared “enemies” and exterminated. Links to sources, quotes, figures, facts and scientific controversy are completely absent. Hitler, as they say, pours out his soul, talking with the reader on various topics as if no sciences existed before him: no history, no political economy, no sociology, no philosophy, no pedagogy. He presents the reader with the ultimate truth. The absence of any evidentiary material in the Nazi “bible” was explained not only by Hitler’s inability to find and present this material, even if manipulated, but also by the basic dogma of Nazism that true ideology is based not on logic, not on reason, but on blind faith, In the theses developed by the highest political school of the Nazi Party after Hitler came to power, this dogma was formulated as follows: “National Socialism cannot be proven and does not need proof. He justifies himself by his activities that ensure the life of society. Anyone who tries to come to National Socialism only with the help of student evidence does not feel the unknowable spiritual meaning of truth, that is, National Socialist policy.” The dogma of infallibility and unknowability gave Hitler a free hand from the very beginning: in Mein Kampf, he not only did not care about the minimal logic of his revelations, but even that his statements on one page did not contradict statements on another. Many provisions of the fascist book were as mutually exclusive as were many points of the Nazi Party program. But this is exactly what the Nazis needed, since Mein Kampf was designed for a variety of layers of German society. The Nazis, who fancied themselves aristocrats, enjoyed reading praises of aristocracy; the Nazis from the workers saw something completely different in this book - Hitler’s scraping before the “salt of society - the people of labor”; German nationalists were imbued with the idea of their national exclusivity, the Italians (Mein Kampf was published in fascist Italy and in other countries allied to Germany) quoted lines dedicated to the supranational community of fascism; respectable bourgeois noted with satisfaction the Fuhrer’s praise of “creative capital.” Over the years, the Nazis quoted Mein Kampf on various occasions. And every time the appropriate quote was found.
Briefly, the content of Mein Kampf, if it is possible to retell the content of such a confused and illogical book, boils down to the fact that Germany, humiliated and desecrated by numerous “blood enemies,” will rise from the ruins of Versailles, form a new healthy hierarchical state based on racial theory, and then will begin to expand: first to include all Germans outside the German borders, and ultimately to conquer other peoples. Hitler's foreign policy ambitions, set out in Mein Kampf, will be discussed below. Let's just say that, basing his claims to increase German territories, the Fuhrer referred to the practice of the German emperors of the Middle Ages. “Now we are returning,” he wrote, “to what was six centuries ago.” Of course, it was difficult for the German average person in the twenties to verify what exactly happened in those distant times. It was even more difficult for him to verify the central point of Mein Kampf - the assertion that the true Aryans (read: Germans) always brought with them the highest culture, subjugating other peoples and turning them into servants. The Aryan, Hitler wrote, is “the prototype of what we understand by the word ‘man’.” The first cultures, he further said, arose where the Aryans met “inferior peoples, conquered them and subjugated them to their will.”
Hitler himself explains the meaning of these pseudo-historical excursions, although in a more veiled form: in the name of culture, the Aryans (Germans) again need to “meet” with the “inferior” peoples and enslave them.
The Fuhrer writes little about the coming ideal state. He only says that there will be no “democratic garbage” in it. As for the economic foundations of this state, Hitler only declares that he will free the working people from “interest slavery.” Very little is said about economics in Mein Kampf, since its author argued that ideas, strength of spirit, heroism and unity of the people are much more important than the laws of economics, which in general, according to the Fuhrer, were “an invention of intellectuals.” “It is not material properties, but exclusively ideal qualities,” he wrote, “that lead to the creation of a state.” And then even more frankly: “The state is not ... an economic organization. The internal strength of the state only in rare cases coincides with the so-called economic prosperity.”
Here is what Hitler wrote about Bismarck's empire: “Prussia, the heart of the empire, arose through shining heroism, and not through financial transactions or trade deals. And the empire itself was, again, a most wonderful reward for the policy of force pursued by its leaders and for the soldiers’ contempt for death.”
The highest goal of an Aryan is to maintain the purity of blood. “People,” Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “perish not because of lost wars, but because of a loss of resistance. …Everything that is not a full-fledged race on this earth is tares.”
One of the central provisions of Hitler’s book was the proclamation of the “idea of the Fuhrer” and Fuhrerism. To substantiate this idea, Hitler likened human society to a biological organism that should have a head, a brain. The brain of a nation is its Fuhrer. He contrasted the select circle of Fuhrers with “absolute authority” and “absolute responsibility” with the “irresponsible” democratic parliamentary system. Instead of freedom and equality, Hitler offered the Germans unquestioning submission “in the name of the common good” and iron discipline.
Did the theory of fascism and Mein Kampf in particular have any historical “roots” in the field of philosophy?
Answering this question is not as easy as it seems at first glance. The Nazis themselves declared themselves the heirs of almost the entire previous civilization. Goebbels solemnly assured at the grave of Horst Wessel that this hero died “for Goethe, for Schiller, for Kant, for Bach, for the Cologne Cathedral...” And further stated that “we (the Nazis. - Author) are forced to fight for Goethe’s beer halls mugs and chair legs, but when the hour of victory comes, we will open our arms again and press spiritual values to our hearts.” These assurances were, of course, pure bluff. The ideology of fascism had nothing in common with the views of the great representatives of humanistic culture; moreover, ultimately, it distorted the teachings of such reactionary philosophers as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Spengler, who in all monographs on fascism are called the forerunners of Hitler’s “philosophy” and on which all the Nazis were constantly exiled.
Hitler's “philosophy” is complete plagiarism: individual provisions are taken from a variety of sources. However, it was not about mastering any specific systems or method of knowledge of this or that scientist, even the most reactionary one. It was about individual theses, sometimes phrases, that were picked up by the Nazis. Moreover, the process of borrowing did not occur in the way it usually occurs, i.e. Hitler did not communicate to the average person thoughts drawn, say, from Nietzsche or Spengler. The Fuhrer, as mentioned above, drew his ideology from second hand, not from the works of philosophers, but from popular presentations of these works. By the time Hitler appeared on the political scene, the reactionary theorists had, so to speak, been torn to shreds. Every average person has already heard something about the “master race”, about the “decline of Europe”, about the “blond beast” - the superman Nietzsche, about the fact that everything is allowed to the strong, about war as the driving force of society. These fragments of thoughts, gleaned from various political, social and philosophical reactionary systems, have become small change in the Western tradesman. And Hitler took advantage of these bargaining chips, collecting them in one “pocket” and supplementing them with his own reasoning on the topic of the day. In a word, reactionary, anti-humanistic philosophers, historians, geographers not so much created the ideology of National Socialism as prepared the ground for its creation and for its assimilation by poorly educated and socially unstable elements of German society.
The Nazis borrowed the most individual provisions from Nietzsche, Spengler and Schopenhauer. Hitler elevated Nietzsche to the rank of the greatest scientist, the forerunner of the National Socialist worldview. Much later, he more than once visited the Nietzsche archive in Weimar and often posed for photographers, gazing with admiration at the philosopher’s plaster face (a bust of Nietzsche stood in his apartment). Nietzsche's tirades against democracy and parliamentarism were more than once quoted in Nazi literature. “Society has never understood virtue as anything other than the desire for strength, power, and order.” “The state is organized immorality... It manifests the will to power, to war, to conquest, to revenge.” The Nazis were very impressed by Nietzsche’s aristocracy and his contempt for the “little man.” “No one has the right,” Nietzsche wrote, “neither to exist, nor to work, nor to happiness. The individual is nothing more than a miserable worm." Nietzsche considered the people “a pedestal for selected natures” who rise upward in order to fulfill some “higher task.” The theory of the “blond beast,” “magnificent, greedily striving for prey,” was also very useful to the fascists. In his most famous work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche praised war as the highest manifestation of the human spirit. He said: “You must love peace as a means to new wars, and a short peace is greater than a long one. My advice to you is not to work, but to fight. My advice to you is not peace, but war... You say - is it good to sanctify war? I tell you: A good war sanctifies everything. War and courage have accomplished more great deeds than love of neighbor.” And finally, Nietzsche predicted the emergence of a certain elite that would conquer the world and give birth to a superman. In “The Will to Power” he wrote: “A brave master race is being created.” He directly stated that the future belongs to the “rocpods of the earth.” Hitler often used the expression “lords of the earth” in Mein Kampf.
However, Nietzsche did not at all consider the German man in the street to be the future ruler of the globe. On the contrary, in his writings he repeatedly stated that the Germans were “vulgar”, that “Germany spoils culture as soon as it comes into contact with it.” Nietzsche was not an anti-Semite, did not admire Prussianism, and towards the end of his life he even began to preach the ideas of a pan-European union and world government. But these aspects of his philosophy were simply ignored by Hitler and other Nazi “theorists” in full confidence that none of the readers of Mein Kampf would look at the original source.
The earlier 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer also had some influence on Nazi “philosophy”. Schopenhauer's denial of the knowability of the world, all scientific analysis and the glorification of a certain mystical will, his decisive anti-materialism helped the Nazis in their idealistic ahistorical speculations. However, Schopenhauer came to extremely pessimistic conclusions in his writings, which the Nazis did not share at all. On the contrary, pessimism and “unbelief” in Hitler’s Germany were considered one of the mortal sins. For this very reason, another German philosopher Oswald Spengler fell out of favor, who also contributed to the anti-humanistic and anti-democratic education of the German man in the street. Spengler's book "The Decline of Europe" enjoyed great success. The reactionary intelligentsia, the Junkers, and the educated bourgeois were keen on Spengler's criticism of democratic civilization. Spengler's Nazi followers modified his thesis about the inevitable decline of the West, declaring that only racially inferior peoples are dying, while the German people are on the eve of unprecedented prosperity and are fulfilling a historical mission, pouring life-giving blood into the decrepit, decaying organism of Europe. Spengler himself, of course, does not have all this. But Hitler and the Nazis dissected in their own way everything that was popular in the circles of extreme reaction and appealed to ordinary people. In addition, Spengler pleased the reaction with his hatred of Marxism and his preaching of a special, bureaucratic “socialism”, the “socialism” of the bureaucracy. He proposed to “liberate German socialism from Marx” and assured that with true socialism, both the worker and the entrepreneur would acquire “the status of an official.” And finally, Spengler, if not directly, then indirectly advocated for the Prussian barracks and the Prussian sergeant major.
However, the mentality of the representatives of extreme reaction in Germany, especially the most aggressive circles of the monopoly bourgeoisie, was formed not only under the influence of such prominent philosophers as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Spengler, but to a much greater extent under the influence of the books of such authors as Treitschke or the creators of racial theory, the Frenchman Gobineau and the Englishman Houston Stuart Chamberlain.
It was said about Heinrich von Treitschke, a native of Saxony, that he was more Prussian than the Prussians themselves. Treitschke was a professor at the University of Berlin and was very popular among chauvinist circles. His lectures were attended not only by crowds of enthusiastic* students, but also by officers of the General Staff and high-ranking officials. Treitschke was the theoretical pillar of the aggressive state of Wilhelm II. With his characteristic straightforwardness, he advocated the strong power of the emperor. According to his concept, subjects should be slaves. Obedience is the only human virtue; war is “the highest expression of manhood.” Treitschke was an extreme nationalist, praising Prussian militarism, arguing that “the concept of the state includes the concept of war, because the essence of the state is power.” “The hope that war can be banished from the life of society,” he wrote, “is not only absurd, but also deeply immoral.” War, according to Treitschka, awakens the noblest forces in the human soul.” The world leads to the “degradation of the people.”
The cult of force and war, preached by Treitschke, became one of the important components of all reactionary theories of aggressive German imperialism, and then migrated to Nazi works, and above all, Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Ironically, the forerunner of the Nazi racial theory, which led to the extermination of millions of people of different nationalities, including the French, as “inferior”, was... the Frenchman Count Joseph Gobineau. In his work “On the Inequality of Human Races,” Gobineau argued that the racial question dominates all other historical categories and the inequality of races explains the movement of history and the fate of certain peoples. Gobineau also argued that culture was created by the white race and that without the superiority of this race no civilization is possible. Finally, this French sociologist, Orientalist and writer introduced the concept of the "Aryan family of nations", which, according to him, is the most "chosen and noble". Gobineau complained that Aryans were mixing with non-Aryans. Among the purest Aryans he counted part of the French, all the English and Irish, the Dutch, the German population between the Weser and the Rhine and the Scandinavians. Gobineau proclaimed the Germans who lived west of the Rhine to be the purest Aryans. “An Aryan German,” said Gobineau, “is a healthy being... Therefore, everything that he thinks, says and does is of great importance.”
Gobineau's theory was not only unscientific, but also contrary to all common sense. One must think that no one in our century would have remembered Count Gobineau and his attempts to create something completely original if at the beginning of the 20th century he had not had zealous propagandists and successors in Germany, who even created special “Gobino circles.”
One of the followers of the Frenchman Gobineau was Houston Stewart Chamberlain, a scion of an English aristocratic family. Chamberlain married the daughter of the composer Wagner, Eva Wagner, lived in Germany for many years and became an ardent German chauvinist. Like Gobineau, he studied a little of everything: literature, music, geology, botany, history, politics, religion. It is difficult to say who Chamberlain was - an unbalanced, enthusiastic, mentally unstable person or a conscious charlatan. In any case, he claimed that “demons” came to him and ordered him to take on his next task. Having become a convinced German chauvinist, Chamberlain first turned out to be the closest confidant of Wilhelm II, and then of Hitler. Until his death in 1927, Chamberlain corresponded with Wilhelm; he sent him 43 loyal and flattering letters and received 23 reply messages. And before his death he still managed to bless Corporal Hitler. The already paralyzed pseudo-philosopher wrote to Adolf Hitler that great things were ahead of him (Hitler) and that the fact that Germany gave birth to Hitler in a time of “severe disasters” is proof of its vitality. Chamberlain, in his works, generally repeated Gobineau, but with some additions. So, for example, he declared that Christ was an Aryan and that the most purebred Aryans are Germans (already all Germans!), for they inherited the best qualities of the Greeks (?) and ancient Germans. Based on this, Chamberlain (here he sang not from the voice of Gobineau, but from the voice of German nationalists) proposed that the Germans become “masters of the world.” Chamberlain had another, to put it mildly, strange idea - he welcomed the Middle Ages and the German barbarians, who saved the world from “racial chaos” and “eternal night.”
It was not far from this theoretical obscurantism to Nazi practice, which was carried out not by philosophers, but by the Reichsführer SS himself, the almighty Heinrich Himmler.
The reactionary philosophers Hartmann and Naumann, the preachers of aggression Rohrbach, Winning, Habermann and General Bernhardi, the founders of eugenics and apologists of racial theory Van den Broek and Littgart, the geopopist Ratzel, the ideologists of pan-Germanism Kjellen and Gaushofer, who formulated the theory of " a people without living space,” and another fascist geopolitician Banze, who glorified territorial conquests *.
* The re-examination of German and non-German authors who apparently had a strong influence on the Nazi Fuhrer could be continued. Each biography of Hitler, including the latest ones, in the books of Fest and Maser, offers its own “clip” of individuals whose theories Hitler borrowed to one degree or another.
Their works became the breeding ground in which the ideology of fascism grew. Roepke, a well-known bourgeois researcher of German fascism, rightly said once that they all carried out “subversive activities,” shaking the concepts of good and evil, morality and immorality in the minds of the Germans...
After 1933, the eclectic brew fabricated by Hitler from various reactionary ideas was proclaimed a new religion of a multimillion people, a kind of holy dogma that illuminated humanity with its light. And all dissenters were declared not only illiterate ignoramuses, but also enemies of the German people and the German Empire, fully ripe for the hands of the executioner. Here is what a certain Stapel, one of the Fuhrers of German “science” of those years, wrote about this: “In our state there is no longer a free competition of thought. There are simply right thoughts, wrong thoughts and thoughts that need to be eradicated...”
After the Nazis came to power, they no longer had anyone to “compete” with - all the forces of “scientific thought” were aimed at interpreting, or rather, praising the works of the Fuhrer, at adjusting various actions and speeches of the Fuhrer to the canons of the “science” he created. (For this purpose, people with professorial and other academic titles sat throughout Germany and provided a “philosophical basis” for every exclamation of Hitler). And finally, to the attempt to “introduce” the ideology of fascism into the exact sciences.
Naturally, under these conditions the role of fascist “science” also changed. But here we are clearly getting ahead of ourselves. At the time in question, people on the banks of the Rhine, Oder and Elbe had not yet confused politics with geopolitics, biology with racial theory, and mathematicians were assessed not by the shape of their skulls, but by the knowledge that was contained in these skulls!
(“Mein Kampf” - “My Struggle”), a book by Hitler in which he outlined his political program in detail. In Hitler's Germany, Mein Kampf was considered the bible of National Socialism; it gained fame even before its publication, and many Germans believed that the Nazi leader was able to bring to life everything that he outlined on the pages of his book. Hitler wrote the first part of “Mein Kampf” in Landsberg prison, where he was serving a sentence for an attempted coup (see “Beer Hall Putsch” 1923). Many of his associates, including Goebbels, Gottfried Feder and Alfred Rosenberg, had already published pamphlets or books, and Hitler was eager to prove that, despite his lack of education, he was also capable of making his contribution to political philosophy. Since the stay of almost 40 Nazis in prison was easy and comfortable, Hitler spent many hours dictating the first part of the book to Emile Maurice and Rudolf Hess. The second part was written by him in 1925-27, after the re-establishment of the Nazi party.
Hitler originally entitled his book "Four and a half years of struggle against lies, stupidity and cowardice." However, publisher Max Aman, not satisfied with such a long title, shortened it to “My Struggle.” Loud, raw, pompous in style, the first version of the book was oversaturated with length, verbosity, indigestible phrases, and constant repetitions, which clearly revealed Hitler as a half-educated man. The German writer Lion Feuchtwanger noted thousands of grammatical errors in the original edition. Although many stylistic corrections were made in subsequent editions, the overall picture remained the same. Nevertheless, the book was a huge success and turned out to be very profitable. By 1932, 5.2 million copies were sold; it has been translated into 11 languages. When registering their marriage, all newlyweds in Germany were forced to purchase one copy of Mein Kampf. Huge circulations made Hitler a millionaire.
The main theme of the book was Hitler's racial doctrine. The Germans, he wrote, must recognize the superiority of the Aryan race and maintain racial purity. Their duty is to increase the size of the nation in order to fulfill their destiny - to achieve world domination. Despite the defeat in World War I, it is necessary to regain strength. Only in this way will the German nation be able to take its place as leader of humanity in the future.
Hitler described the Weimar Republic as “the greatest mistake of the 20th century,” “a monstrosity of life.” He outlined three main ideas about government. First of all, these are those who understand the state as simply a more or less voluntary community of people with the government at its head. This idea comes from the largest group - the “crazy”, who personify “state power” (StaatsautoritIt) and force the people to serve them, instead of serving the people themselves. An example is the Bavarian People's Party. The second, not so numerous group recognizes state power subject to certain conditions, such as “freedom”, “independence” and other human rights. These people expect that such a state will be able to function in such a way that everyone's wallet will be filled to capacity. This group is replenished mainly from among the German bourgeoisie, from liberal democrats. The third, weakest group places its hopes on the unity of all people speaking the same language. They hope to achieve national unity through language. The position of this group, controlled by the Nationalist Party, is the most precarious due to the obvious false manipulation. Some peoples of Austria, for example, will never be Germanized. A Negro or a Chinese can never become a German just because he speaks German fluently. “Germanization can only happen on land, not in language.” Nationality and race, Hitler continued, are in the blood, not in the language. The mixing of blood in the German state can be stopped only by removing from it everything inferior. Nothing good happened in the eastern regions of Germany, where Polish elements, as a result of mixing, polluted German blood. Germany found itself in a stupid position when it became widely believed in America that immigrants from Germany were all Germans. In fact, it was a “Jewish fake of the Germans.” Title of the original edition of Hitler's book, submitted to the Eher publishing house under the title "Four and a half years of struggle against lies, stupidity and cowardice" Title of the original edition of Hitler's book, submitted to the Eher publishing house under the title "Four and a half years of struggle against lies, stupidity and cowardice"
All three of these views on government are fundamentally false, Hitler wrote. They do not recognize the key factor that artificially created state power is based ultimately on racial foundations. The primary duty of the state is to preserve and maintain its racial foundations. “The fundamental concept is that the State has no boundaries, but implies them. This is precisely the precondition for the development of higher Kultur, but not the reason for it.
The reason lies solely in the existence of a race capable of perfecting its own Kultur." Hitler formulated seven points of “duties of the state”: 1. The concept of “race” must be placed in the center of attention. 2. It is necessary to maintain racial purity. 3. Introduce the practice of modern birth control as a priority. Those who are sick or weak should be prohibited from having children. The German nation must be prepared for future leadership. 4. Youth should be encouraged to take up sports to unprecedented levels of fitness. 5. It is necessary to make army service the final and highest school. 6. Special emphasis should be placed on teaching race in schools. 7. It is necessary to awaken patriotism and national pride among citizens.
Hitler never tired of preaching his ideology of racial nationalism. Echoing Huston Chamberlain, he wrote that the Aryan or Indo-European race and, above all, the Germanic or Teutonic race, are exactly the “chosen people” that the Jews spoke about, and on which the very existence of man on the planet depends. “Everything that we admire on this earth, be it achievements in science or technology, is the creation of the hands of a few nations and, probably, most likely, of one single race. All the achievements of our Kultur are the merit of this nation.” In his opinion, this only race is the Aryan. “History shows with utmost clarity that any mixing of Aryan blood with the blood of lower races leads to the degradation of the Kultur bearer. North America, whose vast population is composed of Germanic elements, and which is only in a small degree mixed with the lower, colored races, represents a model of civilization and Kultur, in contrast to Central or South America, where the Roman immigrants were largely assimilated with the native population. Germanized North America, by contrast, managed to remain “racially pure and unmixed.” Some country boy who doesn't understand racial laws can get himself into trouble. Hitler encouraged Germans to join the victory parade (Siegeszug) of the “chosen races.” It is enough to destroy the Aryan race on earth, and humanity will plunge into yawning darkness comparable to the Middle Ages.
Hitler divided all of humanity into three categories: the creators of civilization (Kulturbegr?nder), the bearers of civilization (KulturtrIger) and the destroyers of civilization (Kulturzerstirer). To the first group he included the Aryan race, that is, the Germanic and North American civilizations, as being of paramount importance. The gradual worldwide spread of the Aryan civilization up to the Japanese and other “morally dependent races” led to the creation of the second category - the bearers of civilization. Hitler included mainly the peoples of the East in this group. Only in appearance do the Japanese and other carriers of civilization remain Asians; in their inner essence they are Aryans. Hitler included Jews in the third category of destroyers of civilization.
Hitler repeated again that as soon as geniuses appear in the world, humanity will immediately classify among them the “race of geniuses” - the Aryans. Genius is an innate quality, since “it originates in the brain of a child.” By coming into contact with lower races, the Aryan subjugates them to his will. However, instead of keeping his blood pure, he began to mingle with the natives until he began to take on the spiritual and physical qualities of the lower race. The continuation of this mixing of blood would mean the destruction of the old civilization and the loss of the will to resist (Widerstandskraft), which belongs exclusively to those of pure blood. The Aryan race occupied its high place in civilization because it was aware of its destiny; the Aryan was always ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of other people. This fact shows who is the crown of the future of humanity and what is the “essence of sacrifice.”
Many pages of the book are devoted to Hitler's contemptuous attitude towards the Jews. “The sharp opposite of the Aryan is the Jew. Hardly any nation on earth possessed the instinct of self-preservation to the extent to which it was developed by the so-called. "chosen people" The Jews never had their own Kultur, they always borrowed it from others and developed their intellect by coming into contact with other peoples. Unlike the Aryans, the Jewish desire for self-preservation does not go beyond the personal.” The Jewish sense of “belonging” (Zusammengehirigkeitsgef?hl) is based on “a very primitive herd instinct.” The Jewish race was "downright selfish" and possessed only an imaginary Kultur. You don't have to be an idealist to be convinced of this. The Jews were not even a race of nomads, because the nomads at least had an idea of the word “labor.”
In addition to hatred of Jews, Hitler did not ignore Marxism. He blamed the Marxists for the ongoing decomposition of national blood and the loss of national ideals in Germany. Marxism will suppress German nationalism until he, Hitler, takes on the role of savior.
Hitler attributed the diabolical influence of Marxism to Jews who would like to uproot “the bearers of the national intellect and make them slaves in their own country.” The most gruesome example of such efforts is Russia, where, as Hitler wrote, “thirty millions were allowed to starve to death in terrible agony, while educated Jews and stock market swindlers sought dominance over a great people.”
A racially pure people, Hitler wrote, could never be enslaved by Jews. Everything on earth can be corrected, any defeat can be turned into victory in the future. The revival of the German spirit will come if the blood of the German people is kept pure. Hitler explained the defeat of Germany in 1918 by racial reasons: 1914 was the last attempt of those interested in the national preservation of forces to resist the impending pacifist-Marxist deformation of the national state. What Germany needed was a “Teutonic state of the German nation.”
Hitler's economic theories set out in Mein Kampf completely repeat the doctrines of Gottfried Feder. National self-sufficiency and economic independence must replace international trade. The principle of autarky was based on the assumption that economic interests and the activities of economic leaders should be entirely subordinated to racial and national considerations. All countries of the world constantly raised tariff barriers to reduce imports to a minimum. Hitler recommended much more radical measures. Germany must cut itself off from the rest of Europe and achieve complete self-sufficiency. A sufficient amount of food for the existence of the Reich can be produced within its own borders or on the territory of the agricultural countries of Eastern Europe. Terrible economic upheaval would have occurred if Germany had not already been under extreme stress and had not become accustomed to it. The fight against international finance capital and loans became the main point of the program to achieve independence and freedom for Germany. The hard line of the National Socialists eliminated the need for forced labor (Zinsknechtschaft). Peasants, workers, bourgeoisie, large industrialists - the entire people were dependent on foreign capital. It is necessary to free the state and people from this dependence and create national state capitalism. The Reichsbank must be brought under government control. Money for all government programs such as hydropower development and road construction must be raised through the issuance of government interest-free bonds (Staatskassengutscheine). It is necessary to create construction companies and industrial banks that will provide interest-free loans. Any fortunes accumulated during the 1st World War should be considered acquired through criminal means. Profits received from military orders are subject to confiscation. Trade credits should be under government control. The entire system of industrial enterprises must be restructured in such a way as to ensure the participation of workers and employees in profits.
Old age pensions must be introduced. Large department stores such as Tietz, Karstadt and Wertheim should be converted into cooperatives and leased to small traders.
In general, the arguments presented in Mein Kampf were negative in nature and were aimed at all dissatisfied elements in Germany. Hitler's views were strongly nationalistic, openly socialist and anti-democratic. In addition, he preached ardent anti-Semitism and attacked parliamentarism, Catholicism and Marxism.
“They wanted to replace the Bible,” this muffled whisper sounds in one of the halls of the Bavarian State Library. Rare books expert Stefan Kellner describes how the Nazis turned the rambling, largely unreadable manuscript - part memoir, part propaganda - into a central part of the ideology of the Third Reich.
Why is the book dangerous?
According to the producer of the program Publish or Burn, which first appeared on screen in January 2015, this text remains quite dangerous. Hitler's history is proof that he was underestimated in his time. Now people underestimate his book.
There is good reason to take this book seriously because it is open to misinterpretation. Despite the fact that Hitler wrote it in the 20s of the 20th century, he fulfilled much of what it says. If more attention had been paid to him at that time, it is quite possible that they would have been able to consider the threat.
Hitler wrote Mein Kampf while in prison, where he was sent for treason after the failed Beer Hall Putsch. The book outlines his racist and anti-Semitic views. When he came to power 10 years later, the book became one of the key Nazi texts. It was even given to newlyweds by the state, and gilded editions were kept in the homes of senior officials.
Publication rights
At the end of World War II, when the US Army took over the Eher Verlag publishing house, the rights to publish the book were transferred to the Bavarian authorities. They ensured that the book could only be reprinted in Germany and under special circumstances. However, the expiration of copyright at the end of December last year has sparked fierce debate over whether publishing can be kept free for all. 
The Bavarians used copyright to control the reprinting of Mein Kampf. But what happens next? This book is still dangerous. The problem with neo-Nazis has not gone away, and there is a danger that the book will be misrepresented if used in context.
The question arises whether anyone will want to publish it. Hitler's work is full of stilted sentences, historical minutiae, and confusing ideological threads that neo-Nazis and serious historians alike tend to avoid.
However, the book became very popular in India among politicians who have Hindu nationalist leanings. It is considered a very important book for self-development. If we miss the point of anti-Semitism, then it is about a little man who, while in prison, dreamed of conquering the world.
Will comments help?
The result of the first publication of this book was that millions of people were killed, millions were abused, and entire countries were engulfed in war. It is important to keep this in mind if you are reading brief passages with relevant critical historical commentary. 
Since the copyright has expired, the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich is about to release a new edition, which will contain the original text and current comments pointing out omissions and distortions of the truth. Orders for 15 thousand copies have already been received, although the circulation was supposed to be only 4 thousand copies. A new publication exposes Hitler's false claims. Some Nazi victims oppose this approach, so the Bavarian government withdrew its support for the project after criticism from Holocaust survivors.
Is a publication ban necessary?
However, banning a book may not be the best tactic. The way to inoculate young people against the Nazi bacillus is to use open confrontation with Hitler's words, rather than trying to make the book illegal. Moreover, it is not only a historical source, but also a symbol that is important to dismantle.
In any case, a global ban on the book is impossible. Therefore, it is important to develop a position rather than try to control its spread. After all, in the modern world, nothing will prevent people from gaining access to it.
The state plans to prosecute and use the law against incitement to racial hatred. Hitler's ideology falls under the definition of incitement. This is definitely a dangerous book in the wrong hands.