Hitler: Now in Manga Format!

[Savonarola]

Lebensraum can only be achieved via giant robots:

Hitler: Now in Manga Format!
September 9, 2009 in Vertical by Maya | No comments

Japanese publisher East Press has sold 45,000 copies of a manga adaptation of Hitler's infamous manifesto Mein Kampf (in Japanese: waga tousou). The original German version has ben banned in Germany since the end of WWII.



Anime News Network reports:

"Since the German state of Bavaria inherited the printing rights upon Hitler's suicide towards the end of World War II, the copyright holder (which is currently the Bavarian Finance Ministry) can prevent others from publishing the book in Germany. However, since the copyrights are set to expire in 2015 (the 70th anniversary of Hitler's death), some government and Jewish figures have called for publication under controlled conditions.

German Jewish author Rafael Seligmann called for its publication as early as 2004. In June, the Bavarian minister of science and research advocated a "decently prepared and well-grounded critical edition" to counter "charlatans and neo-Nazis" who "could seize this disgraceful work when Bavaria's rights run out." Stephan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany endorsed the possibility of an annotated edition on August 5 "to prevent neo-Nazis from profiting from it" and to "remove many of its false, persistent myths."

On the separate matter of the manga version, the ministry told the Asahi Shimbun paper, "We have trouble considering manga as an appropriate medium for critically presenting this problematic material.""



Other manga adaptations of controversial or difficult works include Marx's Das Kapital (Amazon Japan recommends buying Das Kapital along with Mein Kampf! Strange bedfellows, methinks!), Dante's Divine Comedy, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, Tolstoy's War and Peace, and others.

It's not a mega-bestseller as far as manga titles go, but the numbers are interesting. I'm wondering why people are buying, and what the public's reaction is, despite the brush-off from the Bavarian Finance Ministry

In manga Das Kapital the state doesn't die, it's raped by tentacle monsters.

[Josquius]

I wonder how such books work in manga form.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Anime News Network? 

Edit:  The Internet's MOST TRUSTED Anime News Source.

[Savonarola]

Edit:  The Internet's MOST TRUSTED Anime News Source.

[jimmy olsen]

More manga is published in Japan than traditional style books, you can get anything in manga form there even textbooks.

[Ed Anger]

Goddammit, my headache is back.

[citizen k]

(Amazon Japan recommends buying Das Kapital along with Mein Kampf! Strange bedfellows, methinks!),

Not really. Authoritarianism has many masks.

[Jaron]

I may need to pick this up. I'm not a big manga fan but I am a big Hitler fan and I enjoy reading his works and ideas in any form I can get them.

[dps]

(Amazon Japan recommends buying Das Kapital along with Mein Kampf! Strange bedfellows, methinks!),

Not really. Authoritarianism has many masks.

My stepfather bought a copy of each of them at the same time.  He looked at them as a sort of a "Great Errors in Political/Social Thinking" duology.

[Viking]

I'm changing side on the "Manga proves two bombs wasn't enough" debate.