Mein Kampf
Abridged, Clarified and Annotated
Julian T. Rubin
BA, Social Sciences and Humanities, the Open University of Israel
julianrubin2000@yahoo.com
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Contents
Background – Julian T. Rubin
3
Volume One – A Retrospect
The Parental Home 5
The Vienna Experience 6
Lebensraum –
Living Space 10
The Word War 12
Why the Second Reich Collapsed 13
Race and People
16
The Establishment of the Nazi Party 21
Volume Two – The National Socialist Movement
The State 24
Citizens and Subjects of the State 26
The Trade Unions Question 26
The Leader and the Ideal of the People's State 27
World View, Organization
and Propaganda 27
German Alliance Policy
after the War 28
The Right to Self-Defence 30
Quotes from Across Mein
Kampf
Hitler on Jews and
Judaism 32
Hitler on the Masses 32
Hitler on Politics and
Politicians 33
Hitler on Religion 34
Beginnings of the
Holocaust Ideology 34
Miscellany 35
Anecdote 35
Notes 36
Background
Julian T. Rubin
Adolf Hitler wrote the first volume of Mein Kampf (German: my struggle) while imprisoned after being tried in 1923 due to an attempt to "resurrect the German people" – as he preferred to describe it instead of the less favorable "Beer Hall Putsch". Hitler wrote the second volume upon his release from prison.
In his book, Hitler elaborates on his political teachings, the aims and development of the National Socialist Movement and the Nazi party, as well as his future plans for Germany.
Hitler began writing his book at the Bavarian prison. But how did he get there and why? The answer to this question is important because the book discusses these circumstances which prompted him to write under the influence of a fierce storm of emotions that shook him as a result of the events of the period. Understanding these events is essential to properly judge the book.
In 11 November 1918, Germany signed an armistice agreement in a railroad car near Paris, which many Germans saw as "stab-in-the-back" by the "November criminals". In 1919, the humiliating Treaty of Versailles was signed under which Germany was required to pay heavy damages to the victorious Allied Powers (Entente Powers) and Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.
Germany reached its greatest humiliation point in its history when the French occupied the Ruhr region in January 1923 due to Germany's inability to pay war reparations under the Treaty of Versailles, with the aim of collecting the debts by utilizing the rich coal deposits of the region. In September 1923, the German government announced the resumption of reparation payments and the end of resistance activities in the Ruhr. This triggered great outrage in nationalist circles, which were particularly powerful in Bavaria.
Because of these events, there was a realistic fear that Bavaria would withdraw from the German unified state to establish a Catholic kingdom under French patronage. Since the occupation of Germany by Napoleon in 1806, many Germans, including Bismarck, aspired that Germany and Austria would be united and it was probable that if a Bavarian secession from Germany would materialize then a joint Catholic bloc of Bavaria and Austria would be created under French influence. And that would be de facto the end of Germany. Since the plans were materializing and the Bavaria separatists were on the verge of withdrawing from Germany, the path to the Beer Hall Putsch was inevitable and Hitler, along with other extreme nationalists, tried to prevent this with his storm squads, in November 1923, which led him to prison.
The Putsch was a failed coup attempt by Hitler against the central government of Germany in which he tried to take over Munich, the capital of Bavaria, and then Germany as did Benito Mussolini in Italy in the "Parade on Rome" a year before. The Putsch failed, and Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison but in practice served only nine months. Despite the failure, the Putsch raised Hitler to the position of a central figure in German politics. A byproduct of Hitler's Putsch was the frustration of the Bavarian separatist attempt.
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