How was Mein Kampf so popular?

GlobalHumanism

Have you ever read Mein Kampf? I had to for a political theory class in my college days and I have to say, aside from the political nonsense extolled on the pages, the structure and narrative is quite abysmal.

Within the book there are zero sources for the wild claims Hitler makes and there are no referencable facts to any conclusions he draws. The narrative itself is broken at best and the vocabulary is intermittently unprofessional.

This is only a few of the structural problems in the book.

That being said, in country with a deep deep literary and academic history/tradition that Germany had up to that time, how the heck could such a piss poor piece of writing be so popular among all the different classes in Weimar Germany?

Why did the academic community, from which the likes of Hegel and Neitzche came from, embrace it?
 

Deleted member 1487

It wasn't. It became 'popular' when Hitler came to power. Prior his followers bought up a fair few copies, but then it became a requirement after he rose to power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf#Popularity
After Hitler rose to power, the book gained a large amount of popularity. During Hitler's years in power, the book was given free to every newlywed couple and every soldier fighting at the front .[11] By 1939 the book had sold 5.2 million copies in 11 languages.[12] By the end of the war, about 10 million copies of the book had been sold or distributed in Germany.
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Simon

Simon

And IIRC he, or more accurately Bormann, was making sure that he got the royalties for each and every copy. Likewise for the use of his likeness on all of those postal stamps.
 

zoomar

The same reason Mao's Little Red Book sold million of copies and not only just in China. I still probably have one myself from my student radical days. Once doesn't always buy books to read them. People often buy books written by politicians they identify with or support during campaigns or after they take power. Or sometimes just as "souvenirs". I can imagine millions of relatively apolitical Germans feeling somewhat obligated to own a copy of the Fuhrer's book, just like millions of Americans bought JFK's "Profiles in Courage" during and after the 1960 election.
 

MrHaakwood

It was never "popular", but widley given to anyone.

"Oh, you are a SS man getting maried? Here have a Mein Kampf."

Same thing with nearly evey little Nazi related organisation. Be it KdF, DAF, NSBO, NSBDT, NSDÄB, NSDDB, NSRB, RAD and and and.
 

oreocruncher

GlobalHumanism said:
Have you ever read Mein Kampf? I had to for a political theory class in my college days and I have to say, aside from the political nonsense extolled on the pages, the structure and narrative is quite abysmal.

Within the book there are zero sources for the wild claims Hitler makes and there are no referencable facts to any conclusions he draws. The narrative itself is broken at best and the vocabulary is intermittently unprofessional.

This is only a few of the structural problems in the book.

That being said, in country with a deep deep literary and academic history/tradition that Germany had up to that time, how the heck could such a piss poor piece of writing be so popular among all the different classes in Weimar Germany?

Why did the academic community, from which the likes of Hegel and Neitzche came from, embrace it?
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Well, the book was so bad that even Mussolini thought it sucked...:eek:
 

mlp

zoomar said:
The same reason Mao's Little Red Book sold million of copies and not only just in China. I still probably have one myself from my student radical days. Once doesn't always buy books to read them. People often buy books written by politicians they identify with or support during campaigns or after they take power. Or sometimes just as "souvenirs". I can imagine millions of relatively apolitical Germans feeling somewhat obligated to own a copy of the Fuhrer's book, just like millions of Americans bought JFK's "Profiles in Courage" during and after the 1960 election.
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Well, I don't think the Little Red Book is that bad.
Just vague and idealistic.

oreocruncher said:
Well, the book was so bad that even Mussolini thought it sucked...:eek:
Click to expand...

Well, Mussolini was a journalist, so I'd expect him to have better literary taste.
 

euromellows

I suspect the book was decent enough reading for those people whose minds were already made up: that is, confirmation bias that the only reason Germany lost is because of the Jews, trade unionists, communists, socialists, pacifists etc etc.
 

ObssesedNuker

I do believe there was some Nazi-era German joke about how the only one who had ever read Mein Kampf in its entirety was Hitler.
 

cra0422

I think the only ones who actually read the book were people who agreed with Hitler to begin with and wanted confirmation of their beliefs. Every one else either bought it because they felt obligated to, were required to, or were given one for some reason or another.
 

Matteo

MrHaakwood said:
It was never "popular", but widley given to anyone.

"Oh, you are a SS man getting maried? Here have a Mein Kampf."

Same thing with nearly evey little Nazi related organisation. Be it KdF, DAF, NSBO, NSBDT, NSDÄB, NSDDB, NSRB, RAD and and and.
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I am afraid you are wrong.

It is true that Mein kampf was not an overnight success. However, It became a best-seller from 1930 on. To put it in other words, the german public became interested in Hitler's writings when Germany was struck by the great depression, which means 3 years before Hitler was appointed chancellor by normal constitutional proceedings.

Hitler announced that he would renounce the wage normally paid to the chancellor because he could accord it.

So this leaves the question open : why so many german people were interested in Mein kampf ?

Because many of them were in a terrible situation. Many of them had a terrible feeling of humiliation, many of them considérée themselves to be the chosen/superiority people, the race of lords, and many of them prefered to put the blame on others for their own faults.
 

Look More Closely Later

And...

cra0422 said:
I think the only ones who actually read the book were people who agreed with Hitler to begin with and wanted confirmation of their beliefs. Every one else either bought it because they felt obligated to, were required to, or were given one for some reason or another.
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Winston Churchill apparently read it too...
 
mcdo

mcdo

I think a lot of party members did genuinely buy the book out of a desire to find out more about Hitler, although how many of them actually managed/bothered to slog through the whole thing is an open question. In addition to the gift factor that other people have mentioned above, I would add one more thing: safety. In a totalitarian government like Nazi Germany, having and being seen to have a copy of Mein Kampf on the coffee table was an easy way to seem politically trustworthy. I am sure many people bought it as a prop, to make themselves feel safer in the political climate of the time.
 

Kaiser K

As others have said, it was often given out free, and many party members bought it out of a genuine decision to learn more; while others may have used it to help their standing in society.
 

Marius

As others have said, it was probably out of a desire to learn more, as well as to be in 'with the crowd', like those who bought Kennedy's book when he became President.

Here in South Africa it's the same - probably every household has a copy of Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom somewhere. I haven't read all of it, but what I have read was actually pretty good.
 

aktarian

It was similar in communist regimes. A lot of work by our dear leaders (or about them) were bought because it was semi mandatory to do so. Maybe not by individual people but by libraries, various companies, schools etc.

As for Mein Kapmf I agree, it's badly written. I once tried slogging through english translation and gave up half way through.
 

GlobalHumanism

If it was given out freely, why have I read that Mein Kampf made Hitler and overnight reichsmark-air, thus briefly funding is short retirement from politics after being released from prison.
 
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