I wonder what his family makes off sales of Mein Kampf? I still see it in just about every book store I go to.
I know he had a niece who was his heir. But that was back in the 60’s.
Can you imagine getting that check every quarter?
The rights to the Mein Kampf are owned by Israel I believe.
or something similar.
Answered my own question:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/58783/who-gets-royalties-mein-kampf
The copyright expires next January 1st. I guess those copies on the shelves will be in the remainder bin.
Actually I saw a program on TV about Hitler’s relatives. He actually had a large number of nieces and nephews some of whom lived in the U.S. Most notable was Patrick Hitler.
Nothing. In Germany the book rights are owned by the government of Bavaria and they have refused to print or sell any copies. However, the German copywrite runs out next year and the book goes into the public domain. So in 2016 any publisher can print it, sell it, and keep all the profits.
That's what the U.S. publisher did. Houghton Mifflin had the rights to the book before World War 2. But there was a legal wrangle with two other publishers who released versions, and by the time that was sorted out in the courts the war had started and all financial dealings with Germany were frozen. Legal rights to the book were then the property of the U.S. government and between 1939 and 1979 the government made about $160,000 in royalties, all of which were turned over to the War Claims Fund which paid damages to, among other people, U.S. POWs. In 1979 Houghton Mifflin bought the rights back from the government and then could sell the book and keep everything. Their profits by 2000 could have been as high as $750,000 but in that year U.S. News and World Report wrote a story on how much Houghton Mifflin had made and the publisher said they were donating all past and future profits from the book to charity.
There's descendants from his half-brother Alois living in the U.S.