{"id":10481,"date":"2025-04-21T10:44:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T08:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=10481"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:47:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:47:26","slug":"zensur-in-deutschland-wie-in-deutschland-buecher-verboten-werden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2025\/04\/censorship-in-germany-how-books-are-banned-in-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Censorship in Germany: How books are banned in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

In the past, there have often been discussions about books that are now considered offensive or politically incorrect<\/a>. It\u2019s often quickly claimed that this amounts to censorship. Article 5 of the German Basic Law states that \u201cCensorship shall not take place.\u201d Nevertheless, books can indeed be banned in Germany\u2014primarily 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\u2019s what I discovered.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

When it comes to censorship, one has to differentiate, and in this article I want to focus on state censorship\u2014not on restrictions that media producers or publishers impose on themselves<\/a>. If you look at the legal situation, despite Article 5 there are still several ways to restrict the distribution of written works. There\u2019s, for example, the protection of personal rights\u2014when a book violates an individual\u2019s privacy\u2014or cases of incitement to hatred. Unfortunately, there\u2019s 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 It would be interesting to know how many books have been banned or withdrawn from the market due to court rulings.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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u2019m focusing solely on books.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Once a book has been indexed, it is placed on a list. There\u2019s a non-public list, apparently used only for online resources\u2014since listing URLs would directly grant access to the banned content. A public list, however, is published every three months in the professional journal BzKJAKTUELL<\/a>. It isn\u2019t available online, which makes sense\u2014otherwise 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.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In 2024, the most common reasons for indexing (across all media types) were:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n