Pope Books Sold Out in Germany

Books by and about German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the new Pope Benedict XVI, sold out in his home country within hours of his election, publishers said on Wednesday. Ratzinger's own latest volume, whose title translates from the German as "Values at a Time of Upheaval," was only published this month but the initial German print run of 3,000 copies has already sold out, a spokeswoman for the Herder publishing house said. The company is now having 20,000 copies printed to meet the surging demand. The entire remaining stocks of the biography of Ratzinger written by veteran Vatican journalist John L. Allen, were sold out overnight Tuesday, its German publisher Patmos said. Patmos spokeswoman Ute Mueller said around 5,000 advance orders had been received from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The book, entitled simply "Cardinal Ratzinger," will be available again from April 29. A book of Ratzinger's lengthy interview with German journalist Peter Seewald, called "Salt of the Earth: Christianity and the Catholic Church at the End of the Millennium" was also in short supply. "We have orders running into tens of thousands," Gabriele Beusker, a spokeswoman for Munich-based publishers Heyne told AFP.