For the first time since Adolf Hitler's death, Germany is publishing the Nazi leader's political treatise "Mein Kampf," unleashing a highly charged row over whether the text is an inflammatory racist diatribe or a useful educational tool.
The 70-year copyright on the text, written by Hitler between 1924 and 1926 and banned by the Allies at the end of World War II, expires at the end of the year, opening the way for a critical edition with explanatory sections and some 3,500 annotations.
In January the 2,000 page, two-volume work will go on sale after about three years of labor by scholars at Munich's Institute for Contemporary History.