| Mein Kampf | |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Erwin Leiser |
| Producer: | Tore Sjoberg |
| Editing: | Erwin Leiser |
| Studio: | Minerva |
| Distributor: | Columbia (US) |
| Runtime: | 117 minutes |
| Country: | Sweden |
| Language: | German Swedish |
Mein Kampf is a 1960 Swedish documentary film about the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler, directed by Erwin Leiser. Distribution of the film began in 1959, and the film was a commercial success.
It was admired by George Seaton and William Perlberg, who saw it in Copenhagen, and they suggested Paramount buy it. The studio refused; the film was instead bought by Columbia for distribution in the United States for $50,000.[1] It grossed an estimated $1.45million in the United States.[2]
The film used footage from Triumph of the Will. It was seen in a Munich cinema by Leni Riefenstahl, who recalled she was "rendered speechless by what I saw on the screen" and considered it "a gross infringement of copyright and also intellectual theft." She sued for copyright infringement and accepted a financial settlement.[3] Another company took over the case on Riefenstahl's behalf but lost in what was known as the "Minerva decision" which ruled that copyright in Triumph of the Will was not owned by Riefenstahl.[4]