Headlines
German court overturns ban on far-right magazine
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 24, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 24, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
A German court overturned the ban on far-right magazine Compact, citing insufficient evidence of unconstitutionality, boosting the Alternative for Germany party.
By Thomas Escritt
BERLIN (Reuters) -A German court has overturned a ban on far-right magazine Compact that was accused of inciting hatred against Jews and foreigners, with a judge deciding on Tuesday that the publication was not extreme enough to justify it.
The Federal Administrative Court's ruling dealt a blow to attempts to contain the nativist Alternative for Germany party, the second-largest in parliament after February's election, and its range of online and print outriders.
Former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser banned the magazine, which had a circulation of 40,000 and a deep social media footprint, last July, labelling it a "mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene".
In his ruling, however, Ingo Kraft said that although Compact contained many extreme statements, including voicing support for expelling German citizens of migrant background, they did not amount to proof that the organisation behind the magazine was "intrinsically" unconstitutional.
"The Basic Law allows even its enemies freedom of opinion and of the press," Kraft wrote.
The magazine's chief editor Juergen Elsaesser, who has said Compact wants to overthrow Germany's "regime" and describes himself as a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, retweeted a picture of himself captioned with the single word: "Sieg!", or "Victory".
For the AfD, which has long pursued a strategy of peppering the state with complicated lawsuits and parliamentary questions that slow its working and discredit them, the ruling is a morale boost after it underperformed polls in the election.
Bjoern Hoecke, leader of the party's most radical wing, cast his party and the magazine as defenders of democratic norms against the previous Social Democrat interior minister's authoritarian instincts.
"Instead of prosecuting Islamists, she hunted down harmless critics of the government," he wrote on social media. "She caused great harm to democracy."
The Interior Ministry, now led by the conservative Alexander Dobrindt, did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt, editing by Ed Osmond)
The magazine was accused of inciting hatred against Jews and foreigners.
The ruling was made by Judge Ingo Kraft of the Federal Administrative Court.
The ruling was a morale boost for the AfD, which has been trying to challenge the government's authority.
Compact magazine had a circulation of 40,000 and a significant presence on social media.
The magazine was banned by former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
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