BERLIN – A court battle over the ban of a noxious far-right magazine is pitting Germany’s struggle to contain rising extremism against the limits of free speech.

The magazine, Compact, has published some of the most notorious figures on Germany’s far-right fringe. It was banned last year for being “a key mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene”, undermining democracy and allegedly inciting hatred of Jews, immigrants, and other minorities.

Germany’s dark history looms large over the legal fight, which has been playing out inside the neo-Baroque walls of the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. The building once housed Nazi Germany’s highest civil and criminal court.

The magazine has remained in circulation as the case unfolds. The result could be a landmark decision for how German handles the intellectual heirs of the Third Reich in the future.

‘Toppling the regime’
Even in a country with Germany’s past, an outright ban for a publication is a rare step.

Compact gained infamy by unabashedly peddling some of the most twisted right-wing conspiracy theories, and has invited high-profile extremists like Austrian neo-Nazi Martin Sellner to defend the concept of “remigration”, a dog-whistle term for deporting ethnic minorities. The May issue featured Ursula von der Leyen clad in camouflage on its glossy cover with the headline “The Dictator”.

With a circulation of around 40,000, hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube, and a substantial social-media following, Compact has gained influence beyond the hardcore far-right scene. The magazine’s founder and editor-in-chief, Jürgen Elsässer, has made a point of trying to reach general audiences.

That reach was cited by Germany’s then-interior minister, Social Democrat Nancy Faeser, when she moved to ban Compact last July. She branded the magazine “central” to the popularisation of conspiracy theories and hatred against minorities and accused it of pushing for “the overthrow of the political order”.

Elsässer, a journalist with a colourful employment history at far-left publications, previously said that Compact’s “goal is to topple the regime”. 

Yet he was evidently taken by surprise when police arrived at his doorstep to confiscate assets, greeting the cops still wearing his bathrobe.

Defiant democracy?
The country’s postwar constitution, adopted by West Germany in 1949, was shaped by the experience under fascist dictatorship.

Its framers aimed for a defiant democracy, entrusting the government with the power to ban Holocaust denial, outlaw extremist parties, and punish those who agitate against minorities – balanced against otherwise fundamental rights to free expression.

But there are no explicit provisions allowing the government to ban publications, while the freedom of the press is enshrined in the constitution. 

Germany has previously resorted to technicalities to shut outlets viewed as dangerous. Russian propaganda outlet RT Germany, for example, was shut down in 2022 because the broadcaster lacked the required state licence.

In the case of Compact, the interior ministry officially outlawed the organisation which publishes the magazine instead of banning the publication itself. A similar trick was used in 2017, when the government shut down the far-left platform linksunten.indymedia. 

Buy Weidel coin
But the Compact decision is more controversial than those other cases. It’s far more widely read than linksunten.indymedia, and is not part of the propaganda arm of a hostile foreign power.

The court could issue a ruling as soon as Thursday.

A decision upholding the ban would likely bolster those seeking to use governmental powers to suppress the insurgent far right.

There is an ongoing debate, for instance, about whether to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), a political party that Compact openly champions. 

Elsässer and his omnipresent wife, Stephanie, expressed cautious optimism that the ban would be reversed after the first day of proceedings.

But they are hedging their bets by scrambling to squeeze money out of Compact while they still can. The magazine’s merchandise shop now sells a bathrobe identical to the one worn by Elsässer during the police raid on his home, alongside audience favourites like silver coins engrained with the face of AfD leader Alice Weidel. 

A recent Compact article urged readers to buy silver coins fast to “protect” them “from state seizure” – just in case the magazine gets shuttered and the silver is “probably melted down”. 

(bts)