WED JAN 04 01:14:59 EST 2017


PHOTO The new edition is annotated to highlight the propoganda and mistakes in the original Mein Kampf.
REUTERS: MICHAEL DALDER

An annotated edition of Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler's notorious manifesto, has become a non-fiction best seller in Germany.

News agency dpa reported on Tuesday that 85,000 copies of the book have been sold since it was first published one year ago.

The 1,948-page book is titled Hitler, Mein Kampf: A Critical Edition.

It was published by the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History, which spent years adding comments to Hitler's original text in an effort to highlight his propaganda and mistakes.

Some bookshops in Germany refused to sell the new edition, while others displayed it without fanfare.

Hitler wrote Mein Kampf — or My Struggle— after being imprisoned for "political crimes" after his failed coup attempt in 1923.

Under German law, copyright expires at the end of the year 70 years after the author's death — in this case April 30, 1945.

Before it expired at the end of 2015, Bavaria's state finance ministry had used its copyright on the book to prevent the publication of new editions in Germany.

Despite its incendiary and anti-Semitic content, the book was not banned in Germany and could be found online, in second-hand bookshops and in libraries.