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"Guidelines for the Administration of Censorship and for the Behavior of the Censors" (1810)

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§ 3. The academic works are divided again into two classes. In the first class belong those works that are distinguished by new discoveries, by a colorful and enlightening portrayal, by the documentation of new views, and so on; in the second class [are] the dry and lifeless compilations and repetitions of what has been said a hundred times, and the same.

§ 4. Works of the first class should be handled with the greatest leniency, and not be forbidden without reasons of the most extreme importance. If a restriction is necessary, then one should not let it be publicly announced.

§ 5. Works of the second class deserve no leniency, because they bring no advantage, and their content can be taken from better sources. Therefore they are to be handled according to the existing censorship laws.

§ 6. Brochures, youth literature, popular literature, and entertaining books must be handled according to the full strictness of the existing censorship laws. Not only must everything be removed that is either directly or more furtively against religion, decency, respect and adherence to the ruling house, the existing form of government, etc., but also all writings are to be removed that positively affect neither the mind nor the heart, and whose only tendency is to sway sensuousness. Therefore it should be seriously attempted to make an end of the harmful novels. It is thereby taken for granted that those few good novels, which serve to enlighten the mind and ennoble the heart, cannot be meant, but the never-ending mass of novels that only revolve around romance as their eternal axis or that fill the imagination with pipe dreams.

§ 7. The bulk of the products of the writers can be counted as humor, and they cannot be separated from the category of popular literature. If the classical works of this kind are not to be handled according to the principles provided in § 6, then they also cannot be handled with the leniency indicated in § 4; and even less so, because they are not suited to promote the true well-being of the individual or the whole, which is where the actual tendency of the books described in § 4 goes.

§ 8. Works in which the government administration in its entirety or in individual branches is appreciated, in which mistakes or errors are uncovered, in which improvements are suggested, in which means or ways to achieve a benefit are indicated, in which past events are illuminated, etc., should not be banned without sufficient reason, even if the principles and views of the author are not those of the government administration. Writings of this kind must be composed with dignity and modesty, avoiding actual or frivolous persons, and contain nothing against religion, morals, or anything detrimental to the state.

§ 9. No work is exempt from the censor, and the compliance department [Revisionsamt] is responsible if a work is given to the book sellers without the assessment of the specific censor.

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