Customer Reviews

Mein Kampf(German Language Edition) (German Edition)

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This is a true collector's edition of Mein Kampf. This book, unlike the English translation by Ford, has a dust jacket. I personally find that adds a good deal of value to a book. It's printed on easy-on-the-eyes off-white paper. Reading Mein Kampf in German is a great experience. And the Ford Translation is certainly the people's translation --- it is written for the average person, not the scholar. That makes it more accessible to everyone.

Why should you read any translation of Mein Kampf? Sun Tzu said you must know your enemy. We read about those we regard as dangerous, or wrong or criminal in order to avoid that type of individual ever encroaching into power again. We also read to understand that person in relationship to the times in which he lived.

Just as Hitler knew his dreaded enemy, the Communist Party and Karl Marx, "the Jew", we should know Hitler, the Fascist dictator. Hitler didn't take on an issue or an enemy without knowing it inside-out. In that regard, he was brilliant. He knew what he was fighting. He knew the enemy.

If you read German, or if you'd like to simply have a copy of this unique book in its original language, I recommend this book to you. It's truly remarkable and well done.

- Susanna K. Hutcheson

According to the Preface, this book was not written for the purpose to make friends or influence people. The design from conception is to chronicle a movement, not create one.

As a whole one can have an opinion as to the results of the book. However with out reading it the opinion has no chance to be informed. Another flaw with not reading this work is that you are relying on others opinions and inferences. Taking most of the statements and conclusions from this book and displaying them separately you would be surprised as to how many you would agree with.

Just a sample of what is on the inside:
"I know people who `read' enormously, Book for book, letter for letter, yet whom I would not describe as `well-read.' True they possess a mass of `knowledge,' but their brain is unable to organize and register the material they have taken in... For reading is no end in itself, but a means to an end."
These are not platitudes but examples of observations of the time, which you can see are timeless.
Once in a while the reading may seem redundant but it is the nature of writing for the time and place. So again this book is a must read. I have no preference as to translation.

There are a number of English translations but I decided to brush up on my college German and tackle the German Language edition. I am glad I did. It not only helped me practice my German, I learned a lot that I simply never understood when I first read Manheim's translation. I was glad to see a German edition finally being reprinted. I looked several times before but could only find the original ww2 versions which were too expensive for me.

As for the work itself, I think there is a lot to be learned in Hitler's words. The anti-Semitism is obvious, but there is a lot more to the book and his ideas about the world. I do recommend that you read more than just this book if you want to truly understand it. There are a few analysis books out there which make this one much clearer.

I also recommend the Ford English translation of Mein Kampf along with this German edition and Dissecting The Hitler Mind which discusses Mein Kampf in many details and analyzes Hitler psychologically.

My husband wanted to read this book for a long time. He grew up in post-war Europe, and has always been interested in World War 2. He knows German, so he chose to buy the original German edition, not a translated version. Because of the way it is written, it is not an easy read. However, he is glad to have it and is enjoying it as much as one can enjoy this type of book.

This is the German language version of Mein Kampf. I am no scholar but I can read German. That said, this is tough to read. The way Hitler spoke is recorded(even if he dictated it). From my reading other books on Hitler I discovered that the reason the German is so hard to read is for two reasons. One, language was simply different in the 1920s and two, Hitler was a speaker, not a writer. The written word does not have his pauses or inflections which gave meaning and grouped things together and emphasized or connected ideas by the way he said it. All of the elements that entranced the German people are lost in a written work.

It is still a good reference. If you want a true to the original German edition then buy one published in Nazi Germany! This is obviously intended for researchers to compare texts with or for the student of history who simply wants a German version.

If you want an English version, go with the Ford translation(same publisher as this book). I believe if you speak German you may even find the Ford translation easier to digest than your native language because it has made many of Hitler's sayings clearer and included historical notes that help when reading a lot and i mean a LOOOOOOTTT!

This edition is no facsimile of the German original, but a cheaply reset plain text from some obscure source (maybe downloaded from the internet?), e.g., with headings in the same font as the rest of the book. Its page numbering (642 pages, including English advertisements!) does not correspond to the German original (781 pages) and can therefore not be used for scientific quotation. Also, this edition does not contain the table of contents and the index of the German original, which makes it difficult to find one's way.

I have returned my copy to Amazon for a refund. In my view, Amazon should not even offer this sloppy edition, because many serious readers will be disappointed.

I was disappointed that the cover did not match the one shown. Mine is black without any symbol. Not nearly as cool looking as the blue photo.

I noticed that there seems to be more than one version of the English translation so I figured since I am fluent in German I would get the original so I had the most accurate version but my bank refused the transaction. It was for a class.

Adolf Hitler does an credible job of providing the reading about the history of his life, philosophy, and nation before he peacefully took power in the 1930's. The very fact that Hitler was an artist(his specialty was oil-painting), becomes understandably apparent after reading "Mein Kampf." Simply put, this author creates a book that is a literary representation of art.

The literary stile that Adolf Hitler uses reads like a novel. Some have said that his book may drag at certain points, I would only argue that Hitler's artistic nature becomes translated into an immeasurable literary genius. But in the sense that Hitlers literary composition may "drag" for some readers, I recommend the book "Nature's Eternal Religion" by Ben Klassen. Klassen's book provides a more modern perspective for the reader that most people in the 21st century just can't understand with works such as "Mein Kampf."

I am not a nazi, and Im not a jew, Im the former of an anti-nazi militia unit. But in order to understand Hitler, you have to read this book, because it will help you understand all the facts of ww2, since the rising of Hitler, to the formation of death and concentration camps and the extermination of more than 6 million jews, by reading this book you will understand that only with the mentality of Hitler, and the discipline of German soldier was it possible to form such things as the Gestapo or the Waffen-SS, only a person with the mentality of Hitler would be able to write all the crimes he would comit in a book, and explain why the Nazi party passed to history as the most dreadful empire.