Mein Kampf enters public domain – but will publishers print it?

On New Year's Day, the 70-year copyright on Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf expired and the book entered the public domain. Some publishers have already announced plans to release a new edition of the infamous manifesto, out of print since the end of the Second World War – but Jewish communities are expressing fears that widespread access to the hate-filled text could spark a rise in anti-Semitism.

To print or not to print?

Written in 1924, Mein Kampf ('My Struggle') was translated into 18 languages and sold over 12 million copies between 1933 and 1945. Since the end of the Second World War, the copyright has been held by the German state of Bavaria, which refused to reprint the book for fear of disseminating its anti-Semitic ideas and out of respect for victims for the holocaust.

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In the intervening years, old and unauthorised copies have become valuable collectors' items and have sold for large sums at auctions and on the black market. In March 2015, a copy of the book signed by Hitler was purchased for $43,750.

Now that the copyright has expired and the book is in the public domain it can be reprinted without permission.

Is this likely to happen?

According to AFP, French publisher Fayard has announced plans to translate the book into French and sell it. In Germany, the impending deadline sparked a national debate on whether and in what context the book should be made available to a new audience.

The Institute of Contemporary History of Munich (IZF) has created a 2,000-page annotated version of the book which it is hoped will challenge thinking about its legacy, discredit its ideas, and show that it is poorly written and incoherently expressed.

The International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem has supported this "scholarly approach". Speaking to the Financial Times, the institute's Dan Michman said that "in this era of rampant Holocaust denial and distortion, it is important for the public at large to possess the necessary knowledge previously only held by researchers and historians".

Will it spark a wave of anti-Semitic violence?

Charlotte Knobloch, one of the most prominent leaders of the German Jewish community, has criticised the IZF's decisions to reprint the book, telling AFP that printing the original text plays to the "interests of right wing militants and Islamists to spread these ideas".

According to the BBC, German officials have said they will limit public access to the text amid fears it could generate neo-Nazi sentiment.