As an assistant to an AfD MP, Mario Müller fights German anti-fascists at home and abroad. He boasted about his alleged successes at the „Düsseldorf Forum“, where influential right-wingers met in secret. Accordingly, Müller also played a role in the Antifa-East case.
On Wednesday, Correctiv presented the results of its research into the so-called “Düsseldorf Forum” in a theatre reading at the Berliner Ensemble. The research centre first reported on this secret discussion group of AfD politicians and right-wing extremists a week ago. According to the report, the “Düsseldorf Forum” met for the fifth time on 25 November in Potsdam and discussed the mass expulsion of migrants as “remigration”.
During the presentation on Wednesday, Correctiv revealed some previously unpublished details about the secret meeting. They concern Mario Müller and his possible involvement in the so-called Antifa-East case.
Müller works in the office of AfD member of parliament Jan Wenzel Schmidt and was a leading figure in the Identitarian movement for many years. As a reporter, he also wrote for the far-right magazine “Compact”. Müller has several convictions for assault.
According to Correctiv, Müller claimed at the “Düsseldorf Forum” that he was partly responsible for a violent assault on the former left-wing activist Johannes Domhöver. Domhöver was outed as sexually and psychologically violent by two victims in 2021; the Public Prosecutor’s Office then opened criminal proceedings for rape, which were later discontinued. Domhöver then moved to Warsaw, probably because of the outing in Berlin, and worked there as an educator in a children’s daycare centre.
At this time, Domhöver was also one of the defendants in the German Antifa-East trial. He and the leftists who were later convicted were accused of deliberately hunting down neo-Nazis since 2018. During the trial, however, Domhöver switched sides and testified extensively as a key witness against Lina E. and other co-defendants. He got off with a suspended sentence for this and now benefits from a witness protection programme run by the Federal Criminal Police Office.
In a Thuringian committee of enquiry into political violence, the Antifa-East key witness Domhöver stated that personal reasons and his ostracism in the left-wing scene had been the decisive factor in his co-operation with the authorities. At the “Düsseldorf Forum”, the AfD assistant Müller, on the other hand, stated that he was the one who caused Domhöver to switch sides. Accordingly, Müller had found out Domhöver’s whereabouts in November 2021 and passed them on to “Polish adventure-oriented football circles”. As a result, Domhöver was beaten up by a gang and suffered a nervous breakdown, Müller is said to have boasted at the “Düsseldorf Forum”. The fact that Domhöver was actually injured is documented on social media.
The incident allegedly took place on the fringes of the Polish National Day on 11 November 2021, when right-wing extremists marched in the Polish capital as they do every year. Domhöver is said to have taken part in a counter-demonstration on that day.
At the secret meeting in Potsdam, according to Correctiv’s research, Müller is also said to have stated that he and another right-wing activist were running a “political manhunt platform”. This refers to the high-reach account “Dokumentation Linksextremismus” on X (formerly Twitter), which currently has around 14,000 followers. The account has disseminated details about left-wing actors, politicians and journalists with real names or photos for years. On several occasions, internal information was also posted that could have originated from the authorities, which was subsequently reported on by right-wing media and the Springer press.
In one case, Correctiv was able to trace the flow of information: On 18 October 2023, a document from the Dessau public Prosecutor’s Ooffice was published on “Dokumentation Linksextremismus”, according to which the defendant in the Antifa -East case Lina E. was also being investigated for attempted murder. This information was picked up two days later by the German newspaper “Bild”, among others. A scoop for Müller, who has dedicated himself to “violence and media work”, writes Correctiv.
But that’s over for now: on Wednesday, the “Dokumentation Linksextremismus” account was blocked from the public by its operators on X. This means that postings about anti-fascists who are wanted in Budapest for attacks on Nazis at the “Day of Honour” in February 2023 ,or who are already in custody, are also offline. About them, “Dokumentation Linksextremismus” had also published details and photos that came from unknown, possibly official sources. In this case too, “Bild” then outed the people concerned in the newspaper and labelled them a “hammer gang”.
Warsaw and Budapest were not the only places where Müller was active in other European countries. In 2020, the Identitarian travelled to Lesbos with several dozen European neo-Nazis and right-wing influencers to impede the arrival of boats carrying refugees. In photos, they staged themselves as “defenders” of the Greek border. Martin Sellner, a keynote speaker at the Düsseldorf Forum, also took part in the far-right excursion to the EU’s external border. However, the right-wing extremists did not remain undisturbed: the travelling group was attacked by anti-fascists, as photos from various accounts on X show.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Mario Müller’s bubble before being approached by Antifa activists on Lesbos (NoBorders/ Twitter).
