Joachim Herrmann told the Federal Constitutional Court on Tuesday that, at the time, there was universal agreement that the exchange of information between the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the police needed to be improved. The move had followed a series of murders by the neo-nazi National Socialist Underground (NSU).

Herrmann told the court that a constitutional protection service that is bound by the rule of law is not a threat, but a guarantor of freedom and security. This is more true today than ever before, he said.

The Society for Freedom Rights (GFF), which initiated the proceedings, complained of a “rampant confusion of competences,” in the Bavarian security system, with a wide zone of overlap in the powers of police and intelligence services.

GFF chairman Ulf Buermeyer said that the hurdles for the exchange of information between agencies have been continuously lowered, and asked for tighter constraints to be imposed on the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The GFF fears that the Bavarian state law sets a precedent that could be followed elsewhere in Germany. A judgement in the case is not expected until well into the new year.