The writings of Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday, shot to number one in Germany’s book charts on Wednesday, toppling the latest Harry Potter.
The German site of online retailer Amazon.com showed Ratzinger’s books in the top four spots and seven titles in the top 10.
Top of the pile was “Salz der Erde” (Salt of the Earth), the transcript of a mammoth interview the new Pope gave almost a decade ago. It had not been in the top 100 on Tuesday afternoon.
The latest adventures of J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard Harry Potter were a runaway best-seller even before release in July. But on Wednesday the book was consigned to fifth place in the charts, which track orders over the past 24 hours.
The two other titles in the German top 10 were novels by U.S. author Dan Brown, whose “The Da Vinci Code” has been denounced by the Vatican as an insult to the Christian faith.
Sales of the new Pope’s books in the United States also increased sharply on Wednesday, according to Amazon.com’s main site. Eight of the Pontiff’s works had climbed into the top 20, with Salt of the Earth at number seven.
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” remained top.
“Salz der Erde” publishers, Heyne, part of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, said they were printing more after a surge of interest in recent days.
“It’s a five-figure print run,” a spokeswoman said.
Ratzinger’s latest book, “Werte in Zeiten des Umbruchs” (Values in Times of Upheaval), was already sold out after its release a week ago. Publishers Herder plan a reprint of 20,000 after an initial 3,000 copies.
Bookstores in Berlin were running out of Ratzinger stock.
“There’s been a run in the last week as his name has gained prominence. People are wanting to find out about the man,” said the owner of a Christian bookshop in the German capital.
