History remembers Hitler for many things, a failed artist, his love for German Shepherds,
being a Nazi dickhead- yeah, it's mostly the Nazi dickhead thing.
But one thing you might be surprised to learn about Hitler is that he was actually one of
the wealthiest men of his time, and no, not just because of all that stolen Nazi gold
and loot gathered from all across Europe, but because of his own shrewd business skills.
Young Hitler lived a bohemian lifestyle before it was cool, making him the ultimate mass-murdering
hipster.
He rented a small apartment in Vienna with a friend and struggled to get by selling small
paintings and postcards to tourists.
After being rejected to art school twice, Hitler was soon out on the street, all of
his funds having run out.
After World War I Hitler became involved in German politics, and famously took part in
the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.
As a result, he was sentenced to prison for five years, and to help pay off his legal
fees he dictated what would become Mein Kampf to two of his cellmates.
Hitler imagined that the book would be popular amongst the National Socialist Party, and
had no big dreams of making it as a writer.
All he needed was a few thousand people to buy the book so that he could pay off his
legal fees, and in 1925, the first year of its publication, Mein Kampf sold 9,000 copies.
While this certainly helped pay for his legal fees, Hitler would see no royalties from these
meager sales.
However, as Hitler began to rise along the ranks of the National Socialist Party, so
did his exposure as an author.
More and more party members, and even some curious members of the public, wanted to know
what this mustachioed young man was all about, and copies of Mein Kampf began to slowly increase
in sales.
By 1930 Mein Kampf had managed to sell 55,000 copies in a single year, and by this time
Hitler was receiving decent, if not impressive, royalty checks from his publisher.
Once Hitler became Chancellor of Germany though, book sales of Mein Kampf exploded, and in
1933- the year he took power- sales skyrocketed to over 850,000.
Needless to say, Hitler was now pulling in rather large royalty checks.
Thanks to his massive personality cult, and the fact that he ruled Germany unchecked,
Hitler decided that the best way to boost sales of his book even further was to have
the government itself buy copies.
Therefore the Nazi government immediately bought 6 million copies of his book, and copies
were being provided to soldiers and government workers alike.
Even married couples received a free copy on their wedding day, as a very weird congratulatory
present from the Nazi government.
But as Hitler became more popular, or infamous, depending on your take, the world at large
grew curious about the Nazi author.
Internationally Hitler earned royalties on the sale of his book up until 1939, when he
was declared an enemy of the allies and had all international royalties cut off.
Granted, he was never earning nearly as much internationally as domestically, but he was
still pulling in $560,000 in royalties from sales in Britain, and about $50,000 in royalties
from sales in the US.
During the war his book would continue to sell in the US, though the US government seized
control of publishing royalties by invoking the Trading With The Enemy Act and ended up
giving $260,000 in royalties to war refugee charities.
While Hitler was trying to kill people, ironically his book was helping those same people.
At his height, Hitler was earning about $13.5 million a year from book sales in today's
dollars, which would be far more impressive if he wasn't basically forcing the Nazi government
to buy his book.
All those sales though had accumulated a $10 million tax bill, which Hitler simply ordered
one of his ministers to forgive.
We gotta admit, sometimes it pays to be on top.
Literally.
In total, Hitler would earn a whopping $170 million in today's dollars just from selling
copies of Mein Kampf.
All this money was used to buy several very expensive properties around Germany, though
Hitler also used a great deal of his own personal fortune to fund the Nazi party.
He even made one of his homes, the Berghof, into the main headquarters of the Nazi party.
Sadly when the British tried to bomb it back into the stone age, their bombs largely missed
and only managed to slightly damage it.
Hitler however also used his political power to enrich himself with one other cunning ploy-
he licensed his image to the German government, and then ordered that it be used basically
everywhere.
From posters to stamps to the covers of propaganda magazines and books, Hitler's face was everywhere
all across the German nation, and every time his face was printed on anything, Hitler got
his cut thanks to licensing fees.
Given that Hitler was the one ordering the creation of all this propaganda material,
we once more have to admit that this is a pretty pro super-villain move.
Taking over a country and ruling it like a dictator is one thing, but selling your image
to your own government and then forcing it to print it everywhere is on a whole other
level of villainy.
Then of course there is all the untold stolen wealth of Europe that the Nazis 'liberated'
as they invaded nations.
By the end of the war, the Nazis had stolen a whopping $21 billion in gold, and it was
this stolen gold that helped entirely fund the German war machine for five whole years.
As supreme ruler of Germany, whatever the state owned was basically Hitler's personal
wealth as well- though the Allies made sure that he spent every stolen cent on the war
effort lest his forces be defeated sooner than they eventually were.
Still, with the largest gold reserves in the world for a short while, Hitler was likely
one of history's richest rulers... if only briefly.
Today Mein Kampf continues to sell copies.
Physical copies of the book are understandably very rare, as most people don't want to be
caught in public reading Mein Kampf.
Yet thanks to digital readers like Kindle, digital sales of Mein Kampf have exploded
around the world.
Part of this is due to sheer curiosity, and in some parts of the world who have learned
very little about Hitler and his role in World War II, Mein Kampf and anything Hitler related
is actually seen as trendy, hip, and 'cool'.
This is especially true in southeast Asia, with Thailand in love with anything Hitler
related.
Again, this is mostly due to the fact that Thai citizens learn very little about Hitler's
role in World War II, and for them he's apparently nothing more than a snazzy dresser with a
funny mustache.
A rise in antisemitism and nationalism however has also seen sales of Mein Kampf increase
in the last few years, and that's rather unfortunate for the rest of us non-Nazi dickheads.
Ironically though, because no publisher wants to be associated with Hitler and his book
or seen as enriching themselves from Nazi trash, the vast majority of all money made
from sales of the book are funneled straight into various charities.
So while white supremacists are buying up Mein Kampf and hating on Jews and other minorities,
they are actually helping fund a ton of charities that help these groups of people, and others,
out!
Thanks, idiots.
After Hitler's death, what remained of his wealth and ongoing royalties from Mein Kampf
went to one of Hitler's surviving cousins- who flatly refused them and did not wish to
be associated with one of history's greatest villains.
Instead those funds were channeled to various charities and post-war reconstruction efforts.
The same goes for sales of his early artwork, with no dealers wanting to be associated with
Hitler, and sales largely taking place between private sellers and collectors.
In the end, Hitler may have been one of the most evil men to ever live, but ironically
he would end up defeating himself as his wealth continues to this day to be used for causes
that would likely make him turn over in his grave.
Should Mein Kampf simply be banned outright?
Let us know in the comments!
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