New Data on Rightwing Boss Martin Sellner After “Düsseldorfer Forum”
He became his own brand and figurehead of the right-wing scene. He is an author and charismatic video blogger. Behind the curtains, he became an extremely aggressive right-wing extremist. He was in touch with the powerful, the rich, and, at least in once instance, with a terrorist. Now he socialized with German AfD politicians. New #OSINT data on the man behind the dangerous Identitarian Movement.
He is the face of the Identitarian Movement, a group of young neo-na_zis, with extreme right-wing views, spreading their toxic ideologies across the internet and via protests offline. Late last year, in November, journalists documented how Sellner met with powerful guests at a venue in Potsdam. What became later known as the “Düsseldorfer Forum”, and by some deemed reminiscent of the “Wannsee Conference”, according to German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (because it took place not far away from the place that planned the execution of the holocaust) was meant to collect funding and to make plans around “reimigration”.
High-ranking AfD politicians, neo-Nazis and wealthy entrepreneurs came together in a hotel to “plan nothing less than the expulsion of millions of people from Germany”, so the investigative media outlet Correctiv.
The media reported that the 35-year-old presented an outrageous concept of deporting people without German roots, a plan to basically kick out anyone who isn't from Germany or with German roots. Although present, it is needless to say: Sellner himself is not German. His wife, he married in 2019, is a right-wing influencer (Vlogger), Brittany Pettibone, from the US.
The media reporting in January triggered a broad outcry among the population and caused debate on how, if at all possible, the AfD could be sanctioned or even prohibited to continue. The AfD has a long history of ties to right-wing individuals and entities. The party’s German Wikipedia article, on the subject of “extreme right-wing connections” and problems with “protection of the constitution” spans no less than 2500 words or about seven pages.
Particularly irksome for many critics: How the AFD allowed its members to attend the Düsseldorfer Forum, when it was clear that neo-na_zis like Sellner attended? Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people in Germany set foot outside in freezing temperatures, to protest against right-wing ideologies. Their anger, broadly directed against the AfD and in favor of a protecting democracy, were taken to the streets in all major cities, including Cologne, Munich, Berlin.
But who is this man who caused so much protest and fear? What do we know about Martin Sellner? And how much can the dark net fill in the gabs on what we already know?
How big is Sellner ATM?
In 2022 and 2023, it became rather quiet around Sellner. IB was now officially banned. 2019 the Austrian intelligence service (Verfassungsschutz) declared Sellner as “dringend tatverdächtig“ or, an imminent threat. Google Trends data showed several spikes in the past years when Sellner did make the headlines. 2019 he attended a number of large protest marches — at least once as a speaker at right-wing populist Pegida demonstrations in Dresden.
Back then, he also built a considerable followingship, with more than 100,000 followers on YouTube. That was until his account was blocked. The spike itself came when the media reported that Sellner, together with like-minded others, hung up posters with a swastika and the inscription “legalize it” on the outer wall of the synagogue in Baden, Lower Austria.
The data correlates with entries around Sellner’s organization IB. The phrase “remigrtion”, that Sellner also mentioned at the Düsseldorfer Forum, has, until then, not been widely used. In 2024, the word received suddenly a push, when it became the taboo-word of 2023.
Why Breachdata?
Martin Sellner, like many of us, is an avid user of the internet. That gives him power and clout, and may also help him to finance his lifestyle — Sellner relies on donations from companies and individuals, including the Australian Christchurch terrorists.
He uses various online platforms as a mouthpiece to spread toxic right-wing content. From breach data, we can see many of the platforms he uses or used in the past. In the best case, this may trigger a reaction by social media companies. Among right-wing extremists, music streaming services seem particularly interesting. The ADL Center on Extremism identified dozens of white supremacist artists with a presence on Swedish audio streaming platform Spotify. In the case of Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform, Sellner kept an account, which breach data also confirmed.
After being notified, Sellner profile was banned from Spotify. A representative said it does not allow content that promotes or supports terrorism or violent extremism. Sellner’s content was removed after it was reviewed, so the Spotify spokeswoman.
Over the years, western social media and video streaming platforms, as well as banks and online payment platforms, repeatedly dismissed Sellner’s presence and kicked him off their platforms. To dodge mainstream social media, Sellner took his business elsewhere.
Especially underground platforms, which are badly monitored and particularly friendly to the right-wing extremists, became Sellner’s alternative go-to social media — including Telegram, Gab.com and other similar platforms, that are less well curated. This migration behavior by Sellber also becomes visible in breach data.
Sellner keeps accounts on the Russian social media website VK (which allows finding established connections), on dlive.tv, Parler, Bitchute and also donation accounts, that he publicizes on various social media — one in Hungary and one in France.
Connections to other family members, who also use social media accounts, show that Sellner’s siblings may, in part or in full, also share his right-wing mindset.
Sellner’s Websites
WHOIS analysis with breach data tells a story that Sellner over the years aggressively opened up new Websites with right-wing content. Analysis of Sellners email addresses shows how a good dozen website domains were registered, many of them not available any longer, but still available on Webarchiv. Among them:
“aufschrei.info”
“120db.info”
“fama-labs.org”
“martin-sellner.info” or https://martinsellner.info/
“brittany-pettibone.com”
“rechte-fakten.com”
“brittany-pettibone.com”
“Grenzhelfer.in” …
One central email address connected is XXXXX.sellner@gmail.com (redacted), which links to the domain “defendeurope.net”, a central medium for IB’s and Sellner’s ill right-wing thoughts that also maintained its own podcast. In several instances, Sellner’s domain registration was supported by German companies, including one based in the Bavarian city of Munich, the data shows.
Locations
To expose a person's address is doxxing and constitutes a crime. Since, according to reporting by the media outlet T-online, the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) is considering imposing an entry ban on Sellner (after the UK and the US have already issued such corresponding bans against him) — his geographical presence remains of interest. The data reveal addresses in Austria but also in other countries.
The one in Vienna links also to other organizations, including the website “die-oesterreicher.at” (web archive entry), which Sellner runs together with Jakob Gunacker. The 27-year-old right-wing extremist Gunacker is a certified coach of the teaching of the “instinct-based medical system” and founder of pseudomedic medicine, which representatives claim could “heal cancer” by miracle cure. According to research by Christian Fuchs, Sellner’s own dad was a homeopath.
Thanks for the breach data collection by Constella Intelligence: External Threat Intelligence Services
