Major blow against the right-wing extremist scene: Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser bans “COMPACT-Magazin GmbH”
press release
17 July 2024
339 law enforcement officers searched 14 premises in Branden-burg, Hesse, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt based on court orders / 10 persons targeted
Today, Federal Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faeser banned the right-wing extremist companies COMPACT-Magazin GmbH and CONSPECT FILM GmbH. Under certain circumstances, it is also possible to outlaw businesses by using the law to ban associations. The organisations’ activities are directed against the constitutional order within the meaning of Article 9 of the Basic Law and section 3 of the Act Governing Private Associations. Today’s order prohibits any further activities by the organisations. Acting against this ban constitutes a criminal offence.
Starting in the early morning, 339 law enforcement officers raided the properties of the organisations in Falkensee and Werder an der Havel (Brandenburg) and in Battenberg/Eder (Hesse), as well as the homes of ten high-profile figures in Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse. Based on court orders, a total of 14 premises were searched. The authorities seized magazines, smartphones, IT equipment, cash, gold, data storage media, documents, merchandising articles and other items for sale in the organisation’s online shop, sound and stage equipment, vehicles, office furniture, company bank accounts and bank account documents. Websites were blocked. The social media platforms used by the banned right-wing extremist organisations were contacted with an eye to shutting down their channels. Today’s measures were prepared and carried out by the police forces of the federal states concerned and by the state-level domestic intelligence agencies as well as the Federal Police, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser said: “Today I banned the right-wing extremist COMPACT magazine. The magazine is the mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene, inciting unspeakable hatred against Jews, people with an immigrant background and our parliamentary democracy. Our ban is a major blow to the right-wing extremist scene. It shows that we are also taking action against the intellectual arsonists who incite a climate of hatred and violence against refugees and migrants and seek to overthrow our democratic state. Our message is perfectly clear: We will not tolerate anybody using ethnicity to define who belongs to Germany and who does not. Our state based on the rule of law protects anyone exposed to hostility because of their religion, origin, skin colour or democratic stance.
My special thanks go to the security authorities involved at federal and state level for their closely coordinated, rigorous action. Above all, I wish to thank the law enforcement officers who carried out the comprehensive searches today.”
The multimedia company COMPACT-Magazin GmbH is run by Jürgen Elsässer, a right-wing extremist. Its main products are the monthly magazine COMPACT, with a circulation of 40,000 copies, and the online video channel COMPACT-TV. In addition, the company is active on various social media platforms and runs an online shop, selling its own print products along with books, audiobooks, CDs and DVDs, as well as merchandising items such as clothes, posters, stickers, mugs and medals.
Through its widely read products and publications, COMPACT-Magazin GmbH spreads antisemitic, racist, anti-minority and revisionist content and conspiracy theories. It agitates against a pluralist society which respects the individual’s human dignity and promotes the free and equal participation of all citizens in the political decision-making process. In its publications and online presence, COMPACT-Magazin GmbH propagates a racist and ethnic-nationalist concept of society which seeks to deny to everybody who, in its view, is an “ethnic stranger” the right to belong to the nation. It disregards the human dignity of anyone not fitting into their ethnic concept of society. COMPACT-Magazin GmbH uses the rhetoric of resistance and revolution as well as distorting and manipulative narratives, and deliberately crosses boundaries.
Furthermore, its content seeks to denigrate members of specific ethnic groups, particularly those of Arab descent, as second-class human beings, claiming for instance that all members of these population groups are prone to violence or criminal behaviour. This content aims to create a social and political climate of exclusion for these population groups.
In addition, COMPACT-Magazin GmbH spreads antisemitic content. It disseminates conspiracy narratives, for example, about an omnipotent Jewish financial elite, to stir up hatred against Jewish people.
There is a risk that the media products of COMPACT-Magazin GmbH, which openly propagate the overthrow of the political order, will incite and encourage recipients to take action against the constitutional order.
Through its many publications and events, COMPACT-Magazin GmbH plays a pivotal role in mainstreaming and widely disseminating the right-wing extremist ideas of the “New Right”.
It is a key player in creating “New Right” networks. The organisation has close ties to the right-wing extremist Identitarian Movement (IB) and to the political parties of the far right, as is reflected, among other things, by their participation in and support of each other’s events.
The ban is the result of intensive preparation and cooperation between Germany’s federal and state governments.
Originally published at https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/pressemitteilungen/EN/2024/07/exekutive2.html;jsessionid=B514C1CE9C580E27CDA08D23FC2151B7.live861
