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By Thomas Escritt

BERLIN, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Hans-Georg Maassen, who until five years ago was responsible for protecting Germany against violent and extremist threats to its democracy, is himself now being monitored by the security agency he ran, the bureaucrat-turned-politician said.

Maassen was dismissed as head of Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in 2018 after appearing to play down the threat of violence by right-wing extremists who at the time were rioting in an eastern German city.

Since, the lawyer has become known for his increasingly radical commentary on the supposed threat immigration poses to Germany, becoming a hero to far-right activists including some in the circles surrounding Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, the aristocrat who led a foiled coup attempt in 2022.

"Germany is clearly afraid of me," he said on X, adding the country was using the internal security agency to monitor him and the party he has founded.

Asked about surveillance of Maassen, the BfV said privacy law meant it could not comment on individual cases. But Maassen published on his website a letter from the BfV, sent in response to a Freedom of Information request by his lawyer, confirming that he featured extensively in their databases tracking extremists.

Maassen did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Tichys Einblick, a blog that supports him, quoted him as saying: "The allegations are without substance and unjustified."

Last month, Maassen announced he was setting up a party, one of several new launches aiming to capture voters who polls say are increasingly disenchanted with Germany's dominant parties of the centre left and right.

Maassen's post-BfV career as a far-right icon has been a growing embarrassment to Germany's security services as they contend with a burgeoning far-right scene that is profiting from a lacklustre economy and stretched public services.

As BfV chief, he was in effect Germany's chief hunter of Neo Drops Erfahrungsbericht-Nazis. The documents released to him by the BfV show him being repeatedly praised by far-right figures.

"The right-wing extremist Bernhard Schraub, in a letter to Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, described your client as an 'upstanding republican'," the BfV's first example reads. Only unclassified material features in freedom of information releases. (Reporting by Thomas Escritt Editing by Alexandra Hudson)