The monthly magazine has a circulation of 40,000

Compact’s editor and CEO, Jürgen Elsässer, a former leftist who lurched to the right and now calls for the “toppling of the regime” in Germany, can appeal against the ban.

He called the raid an “attack on press freedom”, the daily Bild reported. “These are fascist measures by Nancy Faeser. Compact magazine’s funds are all being confiscated. I can no longer pay salaries,” he was quoted as saying.

The far-right AfD made strong gains in elections for the European parliament last month and is in the lead for polls in three east German states in September. Leading AfD officials in Thuringia and Brandenburg states, Stefan Möller and Hans-Christoph Berndt, strongly condemned the government’s Compact ban.