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, businesses can also be subject to association bans. The organisations direct their activities against the constitutional order within the meaning of Article 9 of the Basic Law and section 3 of the Act Governing Private Associations.

In the early hours of the morning, officers in Brandenburg, Hesse, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt began to search the premises of the two organisations and the flats of leading contributors, managers and main shareholders in order to confiscate assets and gather further evidence. Today’s order prohibits any further activities on the part of the organisations. Acting against this ban constitutes a criminal offence.

Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser said: “Today I have banned the right-wing extremist COMPACT-Magazin GmbH. This magazine is a key mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene. It incites hatred against Jews, people with an immigrant background and our parliamentary democracy in appalling ways.

Our ban is a major blow to the right-wing extremist scene. It shows that we are also taking action against the people who are inciting hatred, encouraging the use of violence against refugees and migrants and seeking to overthrow our democratic state. The message we are sending is perfectly clear: We will not tolerate any efforts made to define who belongs in Germany or not based on ethnicity. Our state is based on the rule of law and protects anyone experiencing hostility on account of their religion, origin, skin colour or democratic attitude.

I would like to thank the security authorities at federal level and in the federal states concerned for their closely coordinated and rigorous measures. My special thanks go to the officers who have been searching various objects since the early morning hours.”

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 COMPACT-TV, an online video channel. Furthermore, it 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 merchandise such as clothes, posters, stickers, cups and medals.

The company uses its popular products and publications to spread antisemitic, racist, anti-minority and revisionist content and conspiracy theories. It loudly opposes a pluralist social system which respects the dignity of individuals and promotes the free and equal participation of all citizens in forming the political will of the people. COMPACT-Magazin GmbH propagates a racist and nationalist social order that seeks to exclude from the German nation anyone who they see as people of other ethnicities. They disrespect the dignity of anyone not fitting into their view of ethnicity. COMPACT-Magazin GmbH harnesses resistance and revolutionary rhetoric and uses transgressive, distorting and manipulative narratives to promote its messages.

 Furthermore, its content seeks to degrade members of specific ethnic groups, particularly Arabs, as second-class human beings, claiming for instance that all members of these population groups are prone to violence or criminal behaviour. They want to create a social and political climate which marginalises these groups.

In addition, COMPACT-Magazin GmbH spreads antisemitic content. Their conspiracy narratives include one of an omnipotent elite of Jewish financiers, with the aim of inciting hatred against members of the Jewish community.

There is a risk that their media products will incite and encourage recipients to act against the constitutional order, as their publications blatantly spread propaganda to promote the collapse of the political order.

The key role of COMPACT-Magazin GmbH is harnessing numerous publications and events to promote and spread the right-wing extremist ideology of the Neue Rechte (New Right).

It plays a major role in connecting those in the new right-wing movement. The association has close ties with the right-wing extremist Identitäre Bewegung (Identitarian movement) and to the political parties of the far right, as reflected by the fact that they mutually take part in and support each other’s events.

The ban is the result of intensive preparation and cooperation between Germany’s federal and state governments.