Defusing Mein Kampf

The German ban on Hitler's magnum opus, imposed under Allied occupation, is set to expire in 2015:

Most observers feel that Germans have long possessed the political sophistication to have Mein Kampf readily available in bookstores, and that the ban has outlived its purpose. "German society as a whole is now mature enough," says Bernd Wagner, an expert on right-wing extremism who runs a program for neo-Nazis opting to leave the scene. But the Bavarian authorities aren't taking any chances. At the cost of $700,000, they have opted to publish annotated editions, including English and audio-book versions, to go on sale on January 1, 2016. The hope is that these will precede the publication of private publishers' unannotated versions and will therefore steal their thunder.