A censorship case in Germany which started in 1995 finally came to end in April 2001. The trial against the three managers of the publisher Edition Kunst der Comics at the Landgericht Meiningen was discontinued temporarly. They were ordered to pay 5000 DM each to the state treasury within the next six months. When that has happened this long and singular case, based on the accusation of propagation of comics which glorify violence and pornographic comics, finally closes. The managers also must waiver any action for damages against the state of thuringia.
The investigations against the publisher started in 1995 after an information by the organization MUT, which tried similar actions against comics all over Germany, but only was succesful with district attorney Hönninger in the district Meiningen, Thuringia. 40 policemen searched the rooms of the small publisher and confiscated hundreds of comics. Due to the finding of a 'Maus'-poster by Art Spiegelman and the comic 'Schrei des Lebens', a comic story of a Holocaust survivor which actually was used for public education in schools, the accusation of the propagation of Nazi-propaganda was added. This accusation was dropped rather soon.
A request of the district attorney resulted in searches in a few hundert German bookshops for violent and pornographic comics, but mostly only rather harmless comics like 'Condom of horror' by Ralf König were confiscated. These raids resulted in big protest from the book trade organization and other respectable organizations. Only a few cases went to trial and all were dismissed, sometimes embarrasingly fast for the participating local district attorney. But the publisher Edition Kunst der Comics went almost bankcrupt due to insecure shopkeepers who stopped their business with them. A lot of commentators believed this one of the goals of MUT and district attorney Hönninger.
The court in Meinigen opened the first process in 1999 only after a superior court in thuringia ordered them to do so. During the process the charge against three titles, including Hard Boiled by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow, were discontinued. Only in the case of one of the remaining four titles, Alkovengeheimnisse, a verdict was passed for of the presentation of violent pornography. The managers were ordered to pay a fine of 2500 DM each.
District attorney Hönninger lodged an appeal because of an error of protocoll at the federal Bundesgerichtshof. To the surprise of observers this state court ruled in his favor and therefore the whole case had to be restarted.
On the six day of this new trial the court told that it only considered one comic, again Alkovengeheimnis, critical. Presiding judge Schäfer proposed the discontinuation of the procedings. The district attorney accepted this and so did, with concerns about the resulting unclear position in regard to censorship, the defendants.