Right-wing extremist “Compact” magazine is flying out of numerous train station bookstores

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»Compact« editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer in front of the magazine's stand at the Leipzig Book Fair 2018

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Sebastian Willnow/DPA

In the publications you can find anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, as well as "ethnic-nationalist" positions: With this reason, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the "Compact" magazine as definitely extremist more than two years ago. The paper was and is still available at numerous sales points in Germany.

However, this number is falling rapidly in one fell swoop: the company Valora, which operates numerous train station bookstores in Germany, is withdrawing “Compact” from sale with immediate effect. Valora confirmed this to SPIEGEL. The research network “Correctiv” first reported.

»For Valora, freedom of the press is the top priority. However, we do not want to offer a platform to those who despise Germany's free-democratic basic order - and thus also freedom of the press and freedom of expression - and aim to overcome it," the company said in response to a query from SPIEGEL. After “intensive consideration,” the conclusion was reached that publications from publishers that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had classified as “definitely extremist” should no longer be stocked. The magazine will no longer be offered for sale “immediately.”

Martin Sellner is one of the authors of the “Compact” magazine under editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer. According to “Correctiv” research, the Austrian presented plans for large-scale “remigration,” i.e. the deportation or displacement of millions of immigrants, including Germans with a migration background, at a meeting of right-wing extremists, right-wing conservatives and AfD officials in a villa in Potsdam in November . In the past, “Compact” interviewees included AfD politicians Björn Höcke and Alice Weidel.

Petition called on other retailers to stop sales

According to its own information, Valora operates a total of 157 sales outlets at German train stations - most of them under the name "Press & Books". This makes the company a large, but not the only, player in the German market.

A campaign organization currently has a petition with around 100,000 signatures online. The signatories' demand: a stop to sales of the right-wing extremist magazine at all major German station booksellers. Facebook and Instagram took the “Compact” pages offline more than three years ago.

Sol