How well know was Mein Kampf outside Germany

[Rivet]

Hello all. I am curious if anyone has any insight into how well know Mein Kampf was known among people, both the governments and ordinary people, in the minor Axis states. I've read that it was translated into Italian and went into a third printing run within six months of being released in the Italian market. However, I haven't read how well it was know or received in the other nations (e.g., Hungary, Romania, Croatia, et al.). Also, tangentially, if anyone knows of its impact (if any) in Spain and Japan, that would be of interest too.

Thanks much.

[henriquecassis]

Well, as far as I known, the book was given to almost any german citizen. From children at school to public employed people. I knew that even Stalin hadnt any idea about the book even in the beggining of the war and that readers in other nation hadnt expect that those ideas would be serious one. The world thought that time the the german conditions at the inter war period was fear!

[Dr Eisvogel]

Hello all. I am curious if anyone has any insight into how well know Mein Kampf was known among people, both the governments and ordinary people, in the minor Axis states. I've read that it was translated into Italian and went into a third printing run within six months of being released in the Italian market. However, I haven't read how well it was know or received in the other nations (e.g., Hungary, Romania, Croatia, et al.). Also, tangentially, if anyone knows of its impact (if any) in Spain and Japan, that would be of interest too.

Thanks much.

Dear Rivet,

as far as I could check until 1945 no Croatian translation of "Mein Kampf" was published, only some of the Hitler's speeches were published as books in Croatian language by Deutsche Informationsstelle in Berlin and Hrvatski tiskarski zavod in Zagreb.

There are a few more details worth having in mind:

a) Cultured people in northern half of Croatia spoke German as their first foreign language, so they could have easily read "Mein Kampf" in original, if they were interested in it.

b) Until April of 1941, mainstream Croatian nationalism just wasn't inspired by Germany, but it took inspiration either from Corporativism as applied in Catholic countries such as Portugal and Austria (in the period 1932-1938) or from Western democracies like Switzerland etc.
Austria was the traditional reference point for Croats. Many Croat people studied there until 1918 and Vienna was the capital of Habsburg Monarchy, to which Croatia belonged for centuries.

c) Also, as much as the Spanish Civil War played important role in differentiating the sympathies of Croatian public towards the two sides (Republican and Nationalist), once Germany invaded Poland the Croatian public was overwhelmingly on Polish side - and it seems that even Slavko Kvaternik, who will become No. 2 in Ustashe-governed Croatia in 1941, wrote daily military analyses of the Polish Campaign for newspapers in 1939 under a pseudonym, sympathizing the Poles and not the Germans.

d) Even the Ustashe, who were dependent on Italy, didn't have any serious contact with Hitler's Germany before April 1941. Only, when German help proved crucial in creating and maintaining Independent State of Croatia did they start to copy intensively the German model on both the ideological and organizational level.

Best regards,
Eisvogel

[LWD]

There's some information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf ... on_history

[Seppo Jyrkinen]

Max Jakobson writes that in the end of 30's an American journalist asked in Geneva, if leading politicians of League of Nations were familiar with "Mein Kampf". Only SU's foreign minister Maxim Litvinov had read the book carefully.

In Finland a small Nazi-party SKJ offered ready made translation to one publisher 1934 (in Sweden the book was published on that year) but this rejected the idea. "Mein Kampf" was not published in Finland until 1941.

[Ironmachine]

In Spain the book was first published in 1935, but it was not a complete translation but an abridgment. There was a second edition in 1937, during the SCW. AFAIK, its impact was minimal.

[Rivet]

Thank you all for the insight. The information is most appreciated.

Would you know when Mein Kampf was translated into Hungarian (Magyar)? If during the war years, what influence did it have upon the Arrow Cross Party?

Thanks again.

[Dr Eisvogel]

Thank you all for the insight. The information is most appreciated.

Would you know when Mein Kampf was translated into Hungarian (Magyar)? If during the war years, what influence did it have upon the Arrow Cross Party?

Thanks again.

Here is the list of Hungarian translations, as listed in Hungarian National Library (National Széchényi Library) catalogue:

Title (and responsibility): Harcom / Adolf Hitler ; ford. Kolbay Pál, Lindtner Antal, Szakáts István.
Publication: Budapest : Centrum, 1935.
Physical description: VII, 504 p., 1 t. ; 18 cm
Name(s): Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945).

Title (and responsibility): Harcom / Adolf Hitler.
Edition: 2. kiad.
Publication: Budapest : Centrum, 1937.
Physical description: [2], IV, [2], 504 p. ; 21 cm
Name(s): Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945).

Title (and responsibility): Harcom / Adolf Hitler ; ford. Kolbai Pál, Lintner Antal, Szakáts István.
Edition: 3. kiad.
Publication: Budapest : Centrum, 1941.
Physical description: 1 db ; 23 cm
Name(s): Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945).

Title (and responsibility): Harcom / Adolf Hitler ; ford. Kolbai Pál, Lintner Antal, Szakáts István.
Edition: 7. kiad.
Publication: Budapest : Centrum, 1942.
Physical description: 476 p., 1 t. ; 23 cm
Name(s): Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945).

Title (and responsibility): Harcom / Hitler Adolf ; ford. Kolbai Pál [et al.].
Edition: 8. kiad.
Publication: Budapest : Centrum, 1943.
Physical description: 476 p., 1 t. : ill. ; 23 cm
Name(s): Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945).

Title (and responsibility): Harcom : két kötet egybekötve / Hitler Adolf ; [ford. Kolbai Pál, Lintner Antal, Szakáts István].
Edition: 9. kiad.
Publication: Budapest : Centrum, 1944.
Physical description: 476 p., [1] t.fol. : ill. ; 23 cm
Name(s): Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945).

It seems the first translation was published in 1935 and by 1944 the 9th edition of Mein Kampf translated into Hungarian was published. The publisher was Centrum from Budapest.

"Harcom" is the Hungarian title of "Mein Kampf".

[Rivet]

Thank you, Dr Eisvogel, for all the details.

[gebhk]

I understand there was a Japanese translation which 'delicately' omitted the leader's views on the Japanese race.

[Gamle Lode]

Just today I happened to see a review of Mein Kampf in Helsingin Sanomat on March 18, 1941. The review is written by author and translator Eino Palola, who takes an objective and critical stance on Hitler's book.

Palola says that the most interesting part of the book is the biographical part in which Hitler tells how his view of the world has been formed. Otherwise Palola presents the book mostly as strong and fascinating propaganda but with no academic value. Palola also points out that "hän ei ryhdy selvittelemään asioita tieteellisesti, yksityiskohtaisesti, korostaa eräitä yksityisiä totuuksia, kertaa niitä kertaamistaan, kunnes ne ovat syöpyneet mieliin ja tulevat hyväksytyksi kuin itsestään/[Hitler] does not care to investigate matters academically, in a detailed manner, he stresses some singular truths repeatedly, until those become coined as if they were some universally approved truths."

Palola calls the book "strange" but he gives the book a "remanent value", which in my opinion became ominously true.

[ghp95134]

I have a copy in Japanese that was captured on Attu Island.

This copy of "Waga Tōsō" [Our Struggle] is spelled 吾が闘争. It is normally written as 我が闘争 or わが闘争 (these two meaning "MY Struggle") -- all three writings have the same sound: "Waga Tōsō"

My copy is
真鍋良一訳『吾が闘争』（興風館、1942年）
Waga Tōsō [Our Struggle], Manabe Ryoichi (Kōfū-Kan, 1942).





More HERE; Posts 31~42


--Guy

[Rivet]

Thank you ghp95134, that is a fascinating find. The pictures don't appear to be rendering. Could the be uploaded to a site like Imgur or some such? Thank you.

[OpanaPointer]

FDR read a first edition in the original German. He was bothered by the editing done to the US edition.

[Germanicus Nero]

It is said that German citizens showed their loyalty by prominent display of a copy of 'Mein Kampf' on their bookshelves, and displayed their intelligence by failing to read it.
'Mein Kampf' tops the list of bestsellers that were not read by the greater majority of purchasers. Adolf's book was compared to Stephen Hawking's 'A Brief History of Time' for the same reason, the sheer number of people that possessed a copy and then, for one reason or another, failed to read it.

I'm told it's a plodding read, anyway, almost as longwinded and pretentious as Marx & Engel's 'Communist Manifesto'. It rambles on about "irrepressible will" (I'm sure G. Gordon Liddy has a well thumbed copy) and seeks to convince it's readers the gravity of it's convictions based on nothing more than Hitler's say-so. For all that, there must have been something in it to appeal to contemporaries; I don't know. I've only ever borrowed a copy and found it such heavy going that I was unable to raise the interest to read more than the first few chapters.

So, thats why I believe the gossip about ordinary Germans doing something similar. 'Mein Kampf' joins Chairman Mao's "Little Red Book" as the must have for the discerning member of the political movement of the day.

Just try to avoid a conference or other such gatherings where knowledge of the text is required. :roll: