Today, the state of Bavaria owns the copyright of all editions of Mein Kampf except the English, the Dutch, and the Swedish. The Dutch government claims[5] to have seized copyright after World War II. The copyright is scheduled to end on December 31, 2015. Historian Werner Maser, in an interview with Bild am Sonntag has stated that Peter Raubal, son of Hitler’s nephew, Leo Raubal, would have a strong legal case for winning the copyright from Bavaria if he pursued it. Leo Raubal, an Austrian engineer, has stated he wants no part of the rights to the book, even though it could be worth millions of euros.[6] The government of Bavaria, in agreement with the federal government of Germany, does not allow any copying or printing of the book in Germany and opposes it also in other countries but with less success. Owning and buying the book is legal. Trading in old copies is legal as well unless it is done in such a fashion as to “promote hatred or war”, which is, under anti-revisionist laws, generally illegal. In particular, the unmodified edition is not covered by §86 StGB that forbids dissemination of means of propaganda of unconstitutional organizations, since it is a “pre-constitutional work” and as such cannot be opposed to the free and democratic basic order, according to a 1979 decision of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany.[7] Most German libraries carry heavily commented and excerpted versions of Mein Kampf.
