Lawsuit
After Gründgens' death, his adopted son Peter Gorski sued the Nymphenburger Verlagsbuchhandlung, then the publisher of Mephisto in West Germany, and obtained the prohibition of publication, confirmed by the appeal judges of the Federal Court of Justice in 1968.
On 24 February 1971 the constitutional complaint was rejected by an equally divided Federal Constitutional Court, which ruled that the freedom of art (Article 5 Section 3 of the Basic Law) must be balanced against late Gründgens' personal dignity (Article 1 Section 1). The case, in which two judges wrote dissenting opinions, is considered a milestone in Germany's juridical history.
The novel was however still available (and importable) from the East German Aufbau-Verlag. In 1981 Rowohlt republished it in West Germany. Since the 1968 verdict concerned only Nymphenburger and Gorski never took legal action against Rowohlt, its Mephisto is still available.
Read more about this topic: Mephisto (novel)