BERLIN (AP) – A court ruled Thursday that Nazi symbols may be used to protest extremism, overturning a verdict against a man who sold paraphernalia with crossed-out and smashed swastikas – a decision hailed as a victory in the fight against the far right.

Juergen Kamm’s mail-order company, Nix Gut, did not violate the spirit of a law banning the distribution of symbols used by Adolf Hitler’s party by producing and selling anti-Nazi stickers, buttons and T-shirts over the Internet, the Federal Court of Justice said.

Presiding Judge Walter Winkler rejected a ruling by a lower court in Stuttgart that Mr. Kamm’s productions could be misused by neo-Nazis.

“The court is convinced of the fact that members of extreme-right organizations would never make use of items that make a mockery of their ‘holy’ symbols,” he said in his written opinion. He added, however, that for the symbols to be legal, the anti-Nazi meaning has to be immediately apparent.

Mr. Kamm, 32, was convicted in September of violating laws enacted after World War II that make it illegal to display or distribute symbols used by the Nazis, unless for scientific or educational purposes. He was fined $4,750.

The lower court said that there was a “basic taboo” against reproducing the symbols.

However, the crossed-out swastika has long been a mainstay of anti-Nazi groups in Germany, and the ruling set off a maelstrom of protest.

Several lawmakers, including a leader of the opposition Greens, Claudia Roth, showed their solidarity with Mr. Kamm by reporting themselves to investigators for having worn anti-Nazi T-shirts and buttons that included the banned symbols.

Mr. Kamm’s attorneys and federal prosecutors had urged the federal court in Karlsruhe to overturn the verdict.

In anticipation of the ruling, Berlin’s left-leaning Tageszeitung on Thursday printed anti-Nazi material under the headline “an idiotic trial.”

Images that could be clipped out of the newspaper included a swastika with a line through it, and another showing a person throwing the swastika into a garbage can with the slogan “keep our environment clean.”

The far right is a marginal force in German national politics, but fringe far-right parties have won seats in several state parliaments over recent years.

Social Democratic lawmaker Niels Annen applauded the ruling, saying that people are now free again to “actively and openly work against right-extremism.”

Leading Greens lawmaker Volker Beck said it was a signal that protest of neo-Nazis was not only permissible, but encouraged by the state.

“It’s good that this foolish act of the Stuttgart court is now off the books,” Mr. Beck said.

The court ordered that Mr. Kamm be compensated for his legal costs and for the value of goods that were confiscated.

“It’s sad that you have to end up at the Federal Court of Justice before ‘justice’ is done,” said a statement posted on Mr. Kamm’s Web site after the verdict. “For now, we’re off to celebrate.”

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On the Net:

http://www.nix-gut.de