Compact
Editor-in-ChiefJürgen Elsässer
EditorDaniell Pföhringer
FrequencyMonthly
PublisherCompact-Magazin GmbH
FounderJürgen Elsässer, Kai Homilius, Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger
Founded2010
Based inFalkensee, Germany
LanguageGerman
Websitecompact-online.de
OCLC724419039

Compact (stylized COMPACT, published with the subtitle "Magazine for Sovereignty" (German: Magazin für Souveränität) since October 2013) is a German magazine. Compact is the most important popular magazine of the extreme far-right in Germany. It unites different political milieus through strategic topic setting.[1]

Editor-in-chief of Compact is Jürgen Elsässer, CEO of Compact-Magazin GmbH, the company which publishes Compact Kai Homilius. The editorial office is based in a family home in Falkensee in Brandenburg, at the western border of Berlin. Compact is a proved far-right extremist publication according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (German: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz) due to consistent antisemitism, Islamophobia and contempt for the democratic principles of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since 2015, Compact has presented itself as a mouthpiece of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Islamophobic Pegida movement.[2][3]

History and business

In 2008, the editorial Kai Homilius Verlag began publishing a book series called Compact, which was edited by Elsässer. The following year, it began publishing DVDs in cooperation with Schild Verlag. In December 2010, the "zeroth" (Nullnummer) issue of the Compact magazine was published. Since August 2011, the magazine has been published by Compact-Magazin GmbH, which is located in Werder (Havel). Compact-Magazin GmbH was founded by Jürgen Elsässer, Kai Homilius, and the German Muslim convert Andreas Abu Bakr Rieger; each owns one third of the company.

The magazine's domain was temporarily seized by a German court in January 2018 after Compact failed to pay litigation fees. The journalist Richard Gutjahr had obtained a preliminary injunction against the vile suspicions about him that had been spread via Compact. The magazine suggested that the journalist had known about terrorist attacks in advance.[4][5]

Since mid-2013, Compact magazine has advertised under the motto "Courage to the Truth" (German: Mut zur Wahrheit), which the AfD has also used as a slogan. Elsässer distributed the magazine initially on AfD political conventions. In spring of 2015, he decided to make the magazine an election campaign for the AfD. Especially since the 2015 migrant crisis in Europe, Compact advertises regularly with front pages and theme books for AfD politicians and their positions. Three days before the regional election in Saxony-Anhalt in 2016, Elsässer hosted a live conference with leading AfD candidate André Poggenburg, giving him space to present the AfD goals. He presented Compact as the voice of the "silent majority" and the AfD as their party. On election night Poggenburg did not answer questions from the public broadcasters, but instead only spoke to Compact. Thus Compact has positioned itself as the mouthpiece of the kind of AfD and Pegida supporters who completely reject the mainstream media, calling it the "lying press" (German: Lügenpresse).

In the Russian-Ukrain war, compact is advicating for russian positions and blaming NATO to provoke a world war.[6] The stories also echo in the positions of many AfD politicians.

Crossmedia presence

In addition to the print magazine “Compact”, other Compact formats are published several times a year. In the “Compact Special” series, dossiers with background information on topics such as “Corona lies”, “Russia as an enemy” and “Deep State” are published.

The “Compact History” series offers revisionist representations of German history. Speeches and quotes from people who are politically close to Compact are published as a “Compact Edition”. Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Björn Höcke and Xavier Naidoo, and others have their say in "Compact Edition".[7]

Compact cleverly combines different forms of publication and cross-media communication strategies. The print offerings are supplemented by the online news program “Compact. Der Tag” (Compact. The day.). The “Compact Shop” also offers conspiracy ideology and esoteric books and merchandise.[7]

Consumer target groups

Compact claims to want to address the broad masses of the German population. Editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer is experienced in writing for different target groups and adapting his content and language accordingly. At demonstrations he usually begins speeches with the sentence: “My name is Jürgen Elsässer and my target group is the people ("das Volk").”[7]

In some articles, the use of relevant codes and hidden messages (“dog whistling”) also specifically addresses New Right, conspiracy ideologies or so-called Reich citizens.

Since the success of Pegida, Compact has placed a focus on the eastern German states. This is demonstrated on the one hand by specifically addressing East German experiences of collective devaluation in texts and images, and on the other hand by regional advertising campaigns and events.

According to the publisher, the majority of readers are over 40 years old. Another target group are Russian-German communities, which Compact serves both through pro-Russian perspectives and through the spread of Russian disinformation campaigns. Compact's homepage was also temporarily available in Russian.[7]

Impact and reception

The media journalist Benjamin Friedrich wrote in 2016: "The journalistic performance of the magazine is low. Elsässer paraphrases or copies articles from the "mainstream press" and at the end adds to them the toughest possible opinion." According to Friedrich, Elsässer has copied and rephrased passages from the renowned Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung without attribution.[8] He wrote that the right-wing scene in Germany could probably give more readers to Compact and Junge Freiheit, but he assumed that right-wing sympathizers mistrust printed newspapers in general and tend to use more online media.

Compact is described as „Querfront-Magazin“ („Querfront“ literally meaning "cross-front", a term whose use in modern times mostly describes attempts at forming an alliance of left- and right-wing groups against globalism and in favour of populism).[9][10][11][12]

According to Mathias Brodkorb, an anti-right-wing extremism activist and Social Democratic Party of Germany politician, Compact has an anti-American and anti-imperialistic veneer.[13] These traditionally left-wing positions are employed by Compact to reach pro-Russian and nationalistic conclusions.

Andre Haller showed in a study from 2018, based on empiric observations undertaken in the U.S. and Germany, that populist politicians and right-wing alternative media are drawing ever closer to each other and that mutual dependencies are arising. He identified Compact as one of the main right-wing media outlets in Germany.[14]

In 2016, the magazine won a negative prize Goldener Aluhut ("Golden Tin Foil Hat") in the category "media and blogs" for its receptivity towards conspiracy theories.[15][16]

In August 2020, the magazine's Facebook and Instagram accounts were banned. Facebook said: "[We] prohibit organizations and individuals from using our services if they systematically attack people based on characteristics such as origin, gender and nationality. Therefore, we have removed Compact magazine from Facebook and Instagram."[17]

State institutions

In December 2021, the magazine was designated as a proven far-right extremist publication by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.[18]

The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution describes "Compact" as an “ideological superspreader that offers conspiracy theories a cross-milieu platform, bundles them, strengthens them and spreads them in a targeted manner.”[7]

Literature

  • Schilk, Felix; Gegenfurtner, Gregor (2022): Visuelles Framing im Compact-Magazin. Ergebnisse einer quantitativen Bildtypenanalyse. Zeitschrift für Rechtsextremismusforschung. Verlag Barbara Budrich

Citations

  1. ↑ Schilk, Felix; Gegenfurtner, Gregor (20 October 2022). "Visuelles Framing im Compact-Magazin. Ergebnisse einer quantitativen Bildtypenanalyse". ZRex – Zeitschrift für Rechtsextremismusforschung. 2 (2–2022): 287–312. doi:10.3224/zrex.v2i2.07.
  2. ↑ Patricia Anne Simpson (1 December 2016). "Mobilizing Meanings: Translocal Identities of the Far Right Web". German Politics and Society. Berghahn Books. 34 (4): 34–53. doi:10.3167/gps.2016.340403. ISSN 1045-0300.
  3. ↑ tagesschau.de. "Verfassungsschutz: "Compact" gesichert extremistisches Beobachtungsobjekt". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 12 December 2021.
  4. ↑ Marvin Schade (23 January 2018). ""Ich hab dann mal die Domain gepfändet": Wie sich Richard Gutjahr gegen das umstrittene Compact Magazin wehrt". MEEDIA (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  5. ↑ Markus Reuter (23 January 2018). "Richard Gutjahr lässt Domain von rechtsradikalem Magazin Compact pfänden". netzpolitik.org (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  6. ↑ Werner, Ana Lena (2016). "Antiamerikanismus in Aktion: Linke, Rechte und "Querfront" zur Ukraine". Osteuropa. 66 (3): 129–138. ISSN 0030-6428. JSTOR 44937117.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Maica (19 May 2022). "10 Fakten über Compact". Aktionsbündnis Brandenburg (in German). Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  8. ↑ "Die Medien der neuen Rechten: "Mut zur Wahrheit"". Katapult Magazin. 11 October 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  9. ↑ "Q wie Querfront: Über die Allianz der Populisten - mit Volker Weiß" (in German). Heinrich Böll Foundation. 25 January 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  10. ↑ Thomas Vitzthum (1 September 2015). "Anti-Kapitalismus: Linker Publizist von der NPD für "Volksfront" gelobt". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  11. ↑ "Reichsbürger, Neonazis und Antisemiten - Querfront kapert Friedensdemonstrationen". Störungsmelder (in German). 16 April 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  12. ↑ Erik Peter (16 April 2014). "Neurechte "Friedensbewegung": Im Kampf gegen die Medien-Mafia". Die Tageszeitung (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  13. ↑ "Jürgen Elsässer und sein Magazin "Compact"". Endstation Rechts (in German). 25 April 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  14. ↑ André Haller (2018). "Symbiotische Interdependenzen. Rechtspopulismus und politische Alternativpublizistik". Communicatio Socialis. 51 (2): 143–153. doi:10.5771/0010-3497-2018-2-143. ISSN 0010-3497.
  15. ↑ "Der goldene Aluhut 2016 – Sieger und Siegerehrung". Archived from the original on 30 June 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  16. ↑ Viola Ulrich (1 November 2016). "Conspiracy: Das sind die Preisträger des Goldenen Aluhuts 2016". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  17. ↑ "Facebook removes German far-right magazine Compact". Deutsche Welle. 28 August 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  18. ↑ "Verfassungsschutz stuft »Compact«-Magazin als gesichert extremistisch ein". Der Spiegel. 10 December 2021.
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