The Federal Constitutional Court has rejected a West German government application to strip right-wing extremist Gerhard Frey, publisher and chief editor of the “Deutsche National-Zeitung,” of his basic civil rights. The request was first made in 1969 against great internal government resistance by the former Interior Minister, Ernst Benda, who is now President of the Federal Constitutional Court. The court decided the grounds for the government application were inadequate.
The government at that time based its application on Frey’s nationalist, anti-Semitic and racist publications. Frey, It claimed, had tried to revive anti-Semitism, hinder international understanding, and attack the country’s democratic system. However, successive Bonn governments took little interest in the case, leaving an impression in the court that it no longer considered Frey a danger.
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