The German state of Bavaria announced on Wednesday it had scrapped plans to publish a new academic reprint of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf with critical commentary when its legal power to ban the book expires in 2015.

The southern German state owns the copyright and has banned any republication. But the copyright expires at the end of 2015, 70 years after the author’s death. Bavaria had been planning to then publish a new edition with critical commentary from the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History.

“Many conversations with Holocaust victims and their families have shown us that any sort of reprint of the disgraceful writings would cause enormous pain,” said Bavarian science minister Ludwig Spaenle.

That is why, he said, the Bavaria state government unexpectedly agreed at a Cabinet meeting late on Tuesday to scrap plans for the edition with commentary from IfZ historians two years after handing the assignment to the Munich institute.

Spaenle said in a statement on the state government website that Bavaria would continue to take legal action against anyone who tries to publish even excerpts of Mein Kampf.

The state had invested some €500,000 in preparing the academic reprint, officials from the IfZ were quoted as saying in German media reports. The institute would nevertheless continue working on the edition with critical commentary.

Hitler’s sorry effort is full of hatred and contempt for humanity

Germany’s Jewish community welcomed the decision to scrap the reprint. “Hitler’s sorry effort is full of hatred and contempt for humanity,” said Charlotte Knobloch, a former leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.