Germany bans ‘rightwing extremist’ Compact magazine

The German government has banned the rightwing extremist magazine Compact, accusing it of whipping up “unspeakable” hatred of Jews, Muslims and foreigners while undermining the country’s constitutional democracy.

In what she called a “hard blow” against the far right, the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, ordered dawn raids in four German states at properties linked to the publication, which is ideologically close to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and promotes its drive for power.

Faeser said her ban against a “key mouthpiece for the rightwing extremist scene” was proof that the government was “taking action against the intellectual arsonists who want to incite a climate of hatred and violence against refugees and migrants and defeat our democratic state”.

Faeser added: “Our message is very clear – we will not allow ethnicity to define who belongs to Germany and who does not.”

The ministry outlawed Compact, which was founded in 2010, as well as the company that publishes it, Compact-Magazin GmbH, and an affiliated media production company, Conspect Film.

By late Tuesday morning Compact’s website was down but its X account was still accessible. Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms removed Compact’s accounts in 2020 for using hate speech.

The sudden move came as a surprise given that the magazine was already classed as “extremist” by the domestic security watchdog in 2021 but was still widely available at newsagents across the country, prominently displayed in the racks next to mainstream publications.

The monthly magazine, with a circulation of about 40,000, calls itself the “voice of resistance”. It feeds racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim and far-right nationalist conspiracy theories while spinning Reichsbürger -like fantasies about overthrowing the state.

The most recent issue featured the cover tagline “Germany for the Germans”, an old Nazi slogan sung in May by a group of well-heeled partygoers on the island of Sylt, captured in a video that went viral online and sparked outrage.

Compact’s editor and CEO, Jürgen Elsässer, a former leftist who lurched to the right and now calls for the “toppling of the regime” in Germany, can appeal against the ban.

Media photographs showed the white-haired executive, who is also a vocal supporter of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in his bathrobe opening his door to several police officers at his home early on Tuesday morning.

He called the raid an “attack on press freedom”, the daily Bild reported. “These are fascist measures by Nancy Faeser. Compact magazine’s funds are all being confiscated. I can no longer pay salaries,” he was quoted as saying.

Elsässer built a small but influential media empire with the brand including an internet video channel with nearly 350,000 subscribers and an online shop selling Compact publications as well as books, CDs, DVDs and merchandise such as T-shirts, bumper stickers and coffee mugs with far-right slogans.

Due to free speech protections, media bans are rare in Germany but Faeser said Compact represented a clear threat to the state.

“It must be feared that recipients of [Compact’s] media products will be agitated by the publications, which also aggressively propagate the overthrow of the political order, and incited to act against the constitutional order,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

It called Compact “a principal actor creating networks in the new right” scene which used “alternative media” and social networks to penetrate the mainstream with racist and revisionist propaganda. It is also seen as closely linked to the ethno-nationalist Identitarian Movement , whose leader, Martin Sellner, was a Compact contributor.

The German government has long called rightwing extremism the biggest domestic challenge to security.

The far-right AfD made strong gains in elections for the European parliament last month and is in the lead for polls in three east German states in September. Leading AfD officials in Thuringia and Brandenburg states, Stefan Möller and Hans-Christoph Berndt, strongly condemned the government’s Compact ban.