The first volume of Mein Kampf appeared on 18 July 1925, but it would be a while before the second volume was published. It was not until the autumn of 1926 that Hitler once again withdrew to the Obersalzberg to dictate the final parts to one of his secretaries.74 Hess, who had in the meantime become Hitler’s private secretary, did the final editing.75 On 11 December of that year, the second volume appeared in the bookshops. Hess had prophesied that it would unleash a “wave of astonishment, anger and admiration…throughout the German lands,” but sales were initially sluggish, which may have
...more
