Censorship in Germany: How books are banned in Germany

In the past, there have often been discussions about books that are now considered offensive or politically incorrect. It’s often quickly claimed that this amounts to censorship. Article 5 of the German Basic Law states that “Censorship shall not take place.” Nevertheless, books can indeed be banned in Germany—primarily through the Federal Agency for the Protection of Children and Young Persons in the Media (BzKJ), in the name of protecting our youth. This made me wonder: does state censorship really exist in Germany? Which books are on the list? Is youth protection perhaps just a pretext to remove undesirable literature from shelves? I contacted the BzKJ and was granted insight into the list of indexed books. Here’s what I discovered.

When it comes to censorship, one has to differentiate, and in this article I want to focus on state censorship—not on restrictions that media producers or publishers impose on themselves. If you look at the legal situation, despite Article 5 there are still several ways to restrict the distribution of written works. There’s, for example, the protection of personal rights—when a book violates an individual’s privacy—or cases of incitement to hatred. Unfortunately, there’s no structured list to show what and how much has been censored in this way. It would be interesting to know how many books have been banned or withdrawn from the market due to court rulings. The source for such cases would be court decisions, and one would likely need to invest quite a bit of time to find out which works have been prohibited in recent years.

A second, more structured way through which books are indexed is youth protection. This is carried out by the Federal Agency for the Protection of Children and Young Persons in the Media (BzKJ), which must first be triggered by another entity. Those entitled to file an application include youth welfare offices, voluntary self-regulation institutions, schools, and so on. Various committees within the BzKJ then decide whether to index a work. Once it is indexed, this means that the book can no longer be publicly advertised, may only be sold under strict conditions, and cannot be distributed via mail order. Of course, this also applies to other media, but here I’m focusing solely on books.

Once a book has been indexed, it is placed on a list. There’s a non-public list, apparently used only for online resources—since listing URLs would directly grant access to the banned content. A public list, however, is published every three months in the professional journal BzKJAKTUELL. It isn’t available online, which makes sense—otherwise it would basically serve as an advertisement list for questionable content. I managed to get hold of a copy of BzKJAKTUELL and browsed through the list.

In 2024, the most common reasons for indexing (across all media types) were:

• 364 cases of child, youth, violent, and animal pornography
• 94 cases of Nazi ideology
• 56 cases of simple pornography
• 55 cases of violence
• …

As of February this year, my issue listed 380 written works. These include not only books but also comics, brochures, pamphlets, leaflets, fanzines, and e-books. That’s really not a lot and can be browsed through quickly. Among them were ten issues of Stimme des Reiches, a far-right magazine, as well as about twenty different editions of Der Reichsbote. There are also many offensive comics on the list. Mein Kampf of course makes an appearance (though it’s now freely available online). Overall, the list includes a lot of low-quality Nazi pamphlets. One book for and by Salafists stands out, as well as several about pedophilia. Some of these can still easily be found online, and yes—you can understand why they’re indexed. One book even openly claims that sex with boys isn’t such a bad thing. It’s nauseating even to skim. Some entries, however, made me smile a little—like Sindbad der Seeräuber by Gerhard Konzelmann, originally published in 1995 by Ullstein Verlag for 19.90 DM. This little gem of the literary world can now be found for as little as €2.90 in online antiquarian bookshops and was apparently indexed in 2004. The official report on the decision itself is already quite entertaining.
The book is still available online, though its design looks so shabby that I wouldn’t even take it for free from a public book exchange. Another title on the list deals with the Rothschilds—clearly indexed for antisemitism—but is still available via Amazon Marketplace. The book also looks very cheap and trashy; there are plenty of equally sensationalist works still freely available elsewhere.

All in all, I have to say I’m somewhat skeptical about this whole thing. It just doesn’t make much sense. There are 380 works on the list—you could probably do without it. I’d even say that the list of indexed video games could likely be abolished if voluntary self-regulation were consistently applied. Titles like Wolfenstein 3D, Quake 4, and Unreal Tournament are still on it. I was a bit disappointed not to find Doom, but since the game now runs even on washing machines, they probably gave up on that one. Okay, I can somewhat understand games—but books? That’s nonsense. You can find far more radical and youth-endangering content online after a quick Google search. And that’s really the point: in the age of social media, the Internet, and the darknet, it simply makes no sense to index small-scale Nazi pamphlets or obscure flyers. It’s neither economical nor effective. No one would display such worthless publications in a bookstore, let alone buy them. And when you look at what’s available on social media, it makes even less sense. On X, there’s an account that posts videos of people dying—just one click and you can watch people die, with no filters, no age verification. I’d even say that in the age of TikTok short videos, even Sindbad der Seeräuber would be too inaccessible for young people—why read when they can find the same scenes online in seconds, as actual videos?

One thing became clear to me while studying the list: the BzKJ is certainly not practicing censorship here. Article 5 is more than fulfilled. Anyone searching for “Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz” on bundesanzeiger.de can find what’s newly added to the list. There really isn’t much. And if you take a look around, you’ll find very controversial books from publishers like Kopp or Antaios—titles that wouldn’t exist in a country with true censorship. You can think of them what you will, but the fact that this diversity of opinions exists is extremely valuable and important for any society. The fact that the new government plans to further restrict freedom of speech through legislation, however, is deeply concerning and alarming. I hope these indispensable values are upheld and that everyone remains free to read everything and express any opinion in a book. (It’s a different story, however, when it comes to the voluntary self-censorship of publishers.) Overall, a very positive conclusion for me—the state is clearly not intervening disproportionately here.

What do you think? Do you feel that you can access and inform yourself freely about all topics through contemporary literature? Do you think censorship is happening elsewhere? Is censorship an issue in Germany?