News earlier this week that Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi manifesto, is to be published in Germany for the first time in more than 70 years has once again prompted Germans to debate their shameful past; not that they ever really stop thinking about it.

It struck me while I was living in Berlin last year that young people in particular were keen to bring up and discuss the subject. This is perhaps understandable as each new generation recognises, then tries to grapple with, Germany’s terrible history. Older people have spent their entire lives doing this and still find it difficult to articulate their thoughts on the matter.

The new “academic” version of Mein Kampf from the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich will feature Hitler’s original text alongside voluminous historical notes. It came about after the book fell out of copyright; for the past 70 years it has been kept out of publication but not banned. It is still quite widely available in second hand bookshops in Germany in its original best-selling pre-war form. According to the institute, the new edition’s main function will be to provide historical context for Hitler’s hideous musings.

My social media feed revealed mixed views among my German friends, all of whom, regardless of upbringings in the West, East or the united Germany, were educated from an early age in the horrors of Nazism. In my experience Germans, because of their past, are the among the most critical – and self-critical – thinkers you could meet. Some worried that, in a political climate where the right-wing Pegida movement can win mainstream popularity and when hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria and elsewhere are newly arrived in Germany, a new edition of this book would encourage racism and extremism.

Those making these arguments often cited the recent film “Er Ist Weider Da” (“Look Who’s Back”), a comedy about Hitler waking up in modern Germany that blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality in a Borat-style way by having real people unwittingly interact with the dictator. Many ordinary Germans in the film chatted to the Hitler character happily and openly, displaying extreme opinions on topics such as race and immigration and sparking grave concern among fellow citizens.

So why rock the boat at this sensitive time with a new edition of arguably the most reviled book of the last 100 years?

Interestingly, other friends feel strongly that publication should go ahead and I can’t help but agree. Even in Germany, especially in Germany, Hitler remains the ultimate taboo. This surely allows him to retain a dark intellectual and social hold over the country and its people. And surely if you really want to read this horrible book – and I suspect most Germans won’t bother – it is better to do so within the critical framework of this new edition.

Ironically, it will not be until Germany starts breaking this taboo and takes Hitler less seriously (not his actions, but the man himself) that they will truly release themselves from his power. Books and films, even books written by the man himself, and the debate they spark all have a part to play.