exclusive
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is monitoring Hans-Georg Maaßen and has registered him as a right-wing extremist. This is what research by ARD political magazine Contrasts and the news portal “t-online”.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has stored its former president Hans-Georg Maaßen in the intelligence information system of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the area of right-wing extremism.
Maaßen is therefore also an object of observation for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This is the result of joint research by the ARD political magazine Contrasts and the news portal “t-online”.
Extensive material on measurements
According to the research, the BfV has an extensive collection of material on Maaßen. Their evaluation led to him being stored in the area of right-wing extremism. The BfV did not want to comment on this, citing personal rights.
Shortly after an inquiry with relevant questions from “t-online” and Contrasts At Maaßen this apparently went public itself. A blogger close to him quoted from a letter from the office to Maaßen. On 20 pages, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution quotes, among other things, statements made by Maaßen. Maaßen has now published the letter himself on his homepage.
He told “Tichys Insight” that the allegations were without substance and unjustified. This is an attack on the free democratic basic order by the Federal Minister of the Interior. A request from “t-online” and Contrasts Maaßen initially left unanswered.
Parliamentarians are also informed
According to research by Contrasts and “t-online” recently informed the responsible members of the German Bundestag in a secret meeting. Maaßen himself is said to have known about the incident for several days. He had previously submitted a request for information to the BfV about data stored about him by the domestic intelligence service.
In August last year, Maaßen had already suspected in an interview with the newspaper “Die Welt” that the BfV had created a case about him. At that time it became known that the authority had submitted a so-called inquiry about Maaßen to the state security department of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Such requests serve to exchange information between authorities.
Dismissed in a dispute
The lawyer Maaßen headed the BfV from 2012 to 2018. He was then put into temporary retirement in a dispute over statements about “hunting” in Chemnitz and the federal government’s asylum policy. Since then, the former top official has repeatedly attracted attention with conspiracy ideology and radical right-wing statements.
distribution more anti-Semitic Stereotypes
As early as June 2021, Stephan Kramer, the President of the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, accused Maaßen of using “anti-Semitic stereotypes to attract votes”.
At that time, Maaßen was a direct candidate for the CDU in the federal election in Thuringia. During the election campaign, he denounced “economic globalists” who would try to concentrate global wealth in a few thousand families and destroy people’s national cultures. The term globalists is often used in right-wing extremist circles as an anti-Semitic cipher.
Maaßen compares migrants with Cancer disease
It was only in November 2023 that Maaßen spoke in an interview with the right-wing Swiss magazine “Weltwoche” about an “uncontrolled, millions of foreigners settling in from culturally alien regions” and metaphorically equated this with cancer.
Under the heading “Chemotherapy for Germany” he called for “painful operations” to reverse this settlement: “We have to be clear that this is no longer possible with powders and mistletoe therapy.” The right-wing extremist “Compact-Magazin” then praised Maaßen, saying he had “struck a tone that not even AfD politicians would dare to use “.
Separation from the CDU
Because of Maaßen’s persistent border crossings, the CDU leadership initiated party expulsion proceedings almost a year ago. The justification was that Maaßen repeatedly used “language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologists, including folkish expressions”.
Maaßen himself resigned from the CDU in January. The right-wing conservative association “Value Union” that he leads is currently forming as an independent party.
Maaßen is threatened with dismissal from civil service
The observation and classification by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution could now have significant personal consequences for the 61-year-old Maaßen. Only recently have the requirements for constitutional loyalty of temporarily retired political officials been tightened.
However, the law does not come into force until April 1st. It provides for disciplinary consequences if political officials do not commit themselves to the free-democratic basic order through their entire behavior.
Maaßen’s employer, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, would have to conduct such disciplinary proceedings. “If the employer considers the anti-constitutional attitude to be proven, this usually results in removal from the employment relationship,” says constitutional lawyer Professor Ulrich Battis. “And this is accompanied by the loss of pension rights as a civil servant.”