Why is Nazism illegal - doesn't this violate freedom of speech?

Since that point sometimes seems to bring up confusion across the Atlantic, as someone from a concerned country, I will try to explain. There are historical reasons why Nazism became a crime in some European countries, and there are reasons why it still remains one.

After WWII, Germany had a bit of a problem. Admittedly, it had more than one problem. But among short food supplies, and an infrastructure that consisted mainly of rubble and craters loomed the question: What do we do with all the leftover Nazis?

The leading brass, the war criminals and mass murderers, went to Nürnberg. They were not a problem. But they were only the tip of a big Nazi iceberg. You had several levels of administration in all fields that had been part of the regime, been associated with the Nazi party, and had been functioning as well oiled cogs in the Reich.

And beyond that, in the totalitarian state that was Nazi Germany, nearly everyone had collaborated with the regime in some way, often more out of fear, necessity, or for career advancement, than because of a belief in Nazi ideals. Imprison every collaborator, and you would have had to imprison everyone.

Who was how much of a Nazi was a pretty hard question to answer. This was complicated further; as my grandmother put it: "When the Allies came, there had never been any Nazis, only resistance fighters who cleverly had pretended to be Nazis"

Long story short: Instead of cleaning up the Nazi mess, purging, imprisoning, and investigating, Nazism was made illegal from now on. With that the problem was considered solved. Nazis remained in high positions everywhere in Germany and Austria, they just couldn't make their views public. Since nobody wanted to talk about the war, remember the war, or stir up any trouble, that was seen as a good solution (until the late 60s).

That's how the criminalization of Nazism came to be. So why is it still there?

Because currently there are few good arguments for abolishing it. The only good reason is referring to the basic principle "freedom of speech": "Everyone simply should be allowed to express his opinion"

But Nazism has left its mark in some European legal systems (and European thought) here. Many people here don't subscribe to freedom of speech the same way Americans do. A more (central) European definition of freedom of speech would be: "Everyone should be allowed to express his opinion, unless he does it in a way that disturbs public peace, by degradation or defamation of a group"

Many people here agree that freedom of speech should end when you become literally Hitler. "We don't want it. We don't need it. It doesn't contribute anything useful. It can be damned dangerous. Let's keep it illegal."

There is also a political dimension: The people who want to abolish those laws, are almost exclusively on the far right. Usually they don't particularly care about freedom of speech, unless in this special case where they are hindered in what they want to say.

And those who do care about freedom of speech, and are subsequently not on the far right, generally don't dare to touch those laws, since they might be labelled as Nazi sympathizers...

tl;dr: First some states thought it was a good idea to forbid Nazism. They haven't yet found good reasons to abolish those laws.

by Wollff