Mario Roensch

Mario Rönsch (* 1984 in Erfurt ) is a German right-wing extremist . He was a member of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) until at least 2014 , from March 2014 he acted as a speaker and organizer of the “ vigils for peace ” and until May 2016 was an employee of the right-wing populist magazine Compact .

Rönsch is considered to be a likely operator of the German-language websites Anonymous.Kollektiv and Anonymousnews.ru , which spread racist hate speech against refugees , migrants and Muslims as well as anti-Semitic conspiracy theories until his arrest . He also ran the online shop Migrantenschreck ( patriot shop since July 2017 ) for illegal arms sales. The online shop's website called for shots to be fired at refugees with the aim of injuring them and risking killing them.

After a number of criminal charges, Rönsch was put out to be wanted in January 2016 and has lived in Budapest ever since . There he was arrested on March 28, 2018, later extradited to Germany and sentenced to imprisonment in December 2018 for illegal arms trade via his online shop. Another case of incitement to hatred , defamation and incitement to criminal offenses is ongoing.

Professions and criminal record

Rönsch is a trained banker and in 2012 sold false fan and follower growths to companies for a fee via his former websites Fandealer and Cyburios . He was the managing director of the Adfanyo company and was convicted several times of fraud, forgery and bankruptcy delay .

Vigil speaker and AfD member

On March 24, 2014 Rönsch appeared as the final speaker at the second “Monday vigil” in Berlin . He introduced himself as a former banker who was now a "full-time activist". To the applause of his audience, he polemicized against alleged crimes of the banks and the USA , for example in Ukraine , and spoke about the chances of a coming revolution like 1989 . At the end he announced that he would create a “broad public” for the vigil with the vigil founder Lars Mährholz and the keynote speaker Ken Jebsen .

In the following months, Rönsch organized a competing vigil in Erfurt, which defamed representatives of the Left Party and the Pirate Party in the previous organizational team as being controlled by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. As the new head of the Erfurt organization team, Rönsch then demonstratively invited Jürgen Elsässer, editor-in-chief of the new right magazine, Compact, as a speaker. On May 26, 2014, Rönsch appeared together with Elsässer at this Erfurt vigil.

At the end of March 2014, Rönsch asked the online magazine Motherboard.vice through his lawyer to refrain from disclosing that he was the administrator of the Anonymous.Kollektiv website and had published a video “Message to the German population” there. He submitted an affidavit to this effect. Lars Mährholz, who was summoned as a witness, only appeared in court in July 2015 and then declared that he knew about Rönsch's work at Anonymous - collectively only from hearsay. Because the other witnesses of the journalists wanted to remain anonymous, the court agreed with Rönsch. After that, other media initially issued similar declarations of cease and desist, revoked their statements and undertook not to repeat them.

The network Anonymous contradicted Rönsch publicly: After that, three real Anonymous members and Rönsch ran the Facebook page Anonymous.Kollektiv until 2012. After a dispute between them, he took over the side alone and tried to discredit the other three as informants and undercover Scientologists .

Rönsch was an AfD member in Erfurt until at least August 2014 and had contacts with the AfD parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament ( Corinna Herold ). In October 2015, reporter Dunja Hayali interviewed the participants of a rally with Björn Höcke , chairman of AfD Thuringia, for the ZDF morning magazine . At the beginning, Rönsch demanded in front of the camera: "Go home or stand on the street, you journalists, but stop reporting this crap!"

Employees at Compact

From 2015 Rönsch worked for the Islam, homosexual and xenophobic magazine Compact , which Jürgen Elsässer had made the mouthpiece of the New Right . Rönsch initially supported it as a freelancer and was later responsible for the magazine's online marketing. He is said to have received more than 1000 euros a month for this.

In November 2015, Rönsch demanded in a compact video entitled “ Merkel ? Arrest! ”Merkel must go to prison. He was presented as "our long-time reader and one of the initiators of the nationwide demonstrations of the so-called Monday vigils for peace".

In January 2016, the Bundestag member Volker Beck filed a criminal complaint against the operator of Anonymous.Kollektiv for insulting, threatening and calling for criminal offenses. Beck gave the police information about Rönsch, who he thought was the operator. The public prosecutor's office in Erfurt then wrote out Rönsch for a search. As of May 2016, he was no longer registered in Erfurt. Since he could not be found, the proceedings were discontinued; no arrest warrant was issued against him.

At the beginning of May 2016, a Mario Roensch from Erfurt registered the domain migrantenschreck.net , which moved to other servers in the following weeks ( migrantenschreck.ru , migrantenschreck.com ). The Facebook page Anonymous.Kollektiv advertised this intensively. The magazine Focus reported on May 20, 2016 that it had written testimony that Rönsch operated both websites. Thereupon Anonymous.Kollektiv briefly published the private cell phone number of the Focus author, exposing him to telephone terror .

On May 21, 2016 Anonymous.Kollektiv was closed on Facebook. After further criminal charges, the public prosecutor's office in Erfurt said at the beginning of June 2016 that they were looking for an Erfurt native named Mario Rönsch on suspicion of fraud, sedition and calls for criminal offenses in connection with websites. Consider him the possible author of entries on that page.

In May 2016, Rönsch and Compact publisher Kai Homilius were guests of the right-wing extremist Hungarian party Jobbik in Hungary's parliament : This was reported by the Hungarian government newspaper Magyar Idök and a photograph showed it. However, until 2017, Hungarian authorities said they knew nothing about Rönsch's stay in Hungary. On June 2, 2016, Homilius conducted an interview with Rönsch and called him a “peace activist” because he organized Monday vigils and invited Elsässer to come to Erfurt. Rönsch said he had been abroad since January and had nothing to do with the two websites. Someone had abusively registered Migrantschreck in his name. After that, however, Elsässer ended its collaboration with Rönsch. As a reason, Elsässer claimed that he rejects "any form of violence in political disputes". Insiders assume that the real reason is personal conflicts between the two.

Suspected website operator

"Anonymous.Kollektiv"

The page belonged to the network movement Anonymous until 2012 and later presented itself as the German Facebook page of this network. Since 2014, however, typical issues such as freedom of information and censorship on the Internet have been receding. Since then, the site has called for the Monday vigils at the time and quickly developed into their mouthpiece and advertising platform. At the same time, she raised the mood against refugees, Muslims and the “Merkel regime”. At that time she collected 400,000, later up to two million likes. It was thus by far the strongest German Anonymous website. It had no imprint and used the famous Guy Fawkes mask .

At the end of March 2014, she advertised a video titled “Message to the German population”, the “dissolution of the BRD GmbH ”, the end of the “ masculinization of women ”, the “ multi-cultural madness”, the “ chemtrails ” and of "mental manipulation by [the] media," called and "Deumerika" powerful banking houses with Jewish names and the " climate lie spoke". In April 2014 the site called for a "war" against the "propaganda media". For days, page users flooded the comment columns and social media pages of all major daily newspapers and radio media with identical criticism, calling them corrupt and controlled. The prefabricated spam posts that were copied and repeatedly inserted claimed that media such as Deutschlandfunk , ARD , Wirtschaftswoche and Spiegel Online had “blood on their hands” because of their reporting on the Ukraine conflict that was too critical of Russia. They ignored "several thousand" weekly participants in the Monday vigil. In the spring of 2014 , Anonymous.Kollektiv established the blanket accusation of the “ lying press ” and presented itself as an alternative to the “mainstream media” that were “synchronized”. This went hand in hand with targeted attacks on journalists: shortly after Christian Stöckers had a phone call with Rönsch, the site published Stöcker's telephone number; his connection was blocked by constant calls. After the site slandered an MDR journalist, he received death threats.

Since the Ukraine crisis in 2014, the site has been spreading conspiracy -based anti-Americanism , portraying the established media as state-controlled and only linking the Russian broadcaster RT Deutsch and the magazine Compact . The makers committed themselves to Russia under President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin , described Ukraine as a " fascist state", the German government as a puppet of international finance capital and accused the German media of warmongering . They fueled fear of a third world war , described the admission of refugees as a long-term plan to abolish Germany and as a "re- population ".

Until September 2014, the site supported the Monday vigils and Ken Jebsen, but then turned against the vigil founder Lars Mährholz for no apparent reason. From December 2014 she supported Pegida , but later claimed that this movement had been infiltrated by secret services and supported the cross-front groups Pegada and Endgame .

On December 16, 2014, the operators uploaded a video that lined up allegedly world-dominating conspiracies ( Rothschild - Zionism , vaccination, police state, chemtrails, Club of Rome , Big Pharma , Satanism ) in collage form and successful hacking actions such as the one in support of WikiLeaks and issued LulzSec as a personal contribution. To this end, they announced that they would shut down the site because their “mission ended” and the “Germans awakened”. However, the site stayed online.

In 2015 the site also advertised Compact and now Björn Höcke as well. Anonymous declared the attack on Charlie Hebdo (January 7, 2015), collectively, on the following day as an alleged act by intelligence services in the interests of the United States. The operators presented the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 onwards as a “US-controlled refugee invasion in Europe”, spread hateful comments against left-wing politicians and refugees and described them as “human rubbish” and “horny, pedo-criminal migrant gang”. They stirred up hatred against foreigners and portrayed them as systematic brutal rapists of German women and children. They described Chancellor Angela Merkel as a “zone owl” and “queen of the smugglers”. They blamed Great Britain for the Second World War ( historical revisionism ) and propagated the first stanza of the Deutschlandlied with the claim to the former eastern territories of the German Empire .

At the end of August 2015, the operators claimed that a state-financed “ Antifa travel group ” had staged the xenophobic riots in Heidenau (August 21, 2015) in order to blame them for their rights. Many other “left-wing extremist groups were chauffeured to the demonstration with taxpayers money”. As alleged evidence, they falsified media reports and quotations from them.

As a result of the call by the Anonymous movement against the Islamic State in November 2015, Anonymous.Collectively quickly gained 500,000 new followers, many of whom thought this Facebook page was a real Anonymous group. Thereupon the Anonymous network distanced itself and clarified with its own website (anonymouskollektiv.tumblr.com) about the forgery, its background and the alleged operator. These distant refutations of false claims and criticism. Newspapers like Der Spiegel and news blogs like the Netzwerk gegen Nazis reported about it and showed the differences to the Anonymous network. Since then, several user initiatives on Facebook and Twitter ( hashtag #fakeanonymous ; We Watch Fake Anonymous ) have pointed out the change in course and the website's non-affiliation with the Anonymous network. Due to many complaints about illegal content with the Facebook administration, the site operators remained inactive in February 2016.

In January 2016, the site spread the Russian hoax about the Lisa case , alleging that an Arab-looking man kidnapped a girl and raped her with two foreign accomplices for 30 hours. On January 27, 2016, the day of commemoration of the victims of National Socialism , the site linked a clip in which the Holocaust was played down.

In March 2016 it was claimed on the site without any receipt that the Bad Aibling railway accident was a terrorist attack by the “red-green Antifa”. A train driver killed in the accident belonged to a left-wing extremist party and committed a suicide bombing . Thousands of followers shared the post.

In May 2016 Anonymous.Kollektiv advertised the newly registered online shop Migrantenschreck . In an alleged test video, a man behind a Guy Fawkes mask shot a gun from the offer at a target with the photographs of high-ranking German politicians ( Heiko Maas , Cem Özdemir , Claudia Roth , Angela Merkel and Joachim Gauck ). In order to prevent blocking, the video was only accessible or linked for a short time on the German Facebook page, whereas it was constantly on the Russian network vk.com .

The Mimikama association often reported critically about the site. On May 21, 2016 Anonymous.Kollektiv displayed an account statement that was supposed to prove transfers from Spiegel , ARD and VICE Germany to Mimikama . The excerpt turned out to be falsified due to an error in the address.

On the same day, the page was blocked by the Facebook administration or deleted by the operator himself. Shortly afterwards, a similar page appeared on Facebook under the same name. Their operators explained: "After we were defamed by the system press that feeds on lies [...] in the form of FOCUS Online and pelted innocent civil rights activists with dirt, we moved". However, on May 23, they said they had no connection with the original site.

"Anonymousnews.ru"

After Anonymous.Kollektiv was blocked or deleted , the domain anonymousnews.de was initially registered under a fictitious name ( Dana Kamrad ), incorrect address and telephone number . Other Facebook pages that spread hate speech against foreigners linked to it. Rönsch was suspected to be the operator of these pages. Shortly afterwards anonymousnews.de went offline and moved to the Russian network vk.com . There the operator (s) threatened: “Anyone who thinks that we are being impressed by blocking Facebook or even being prevented from publishing critical content is wrong. (...) Our war chest is full thanks to countless supporters. We can do that without Facebook and for a very, very, very long time. Ideas and ideals, dear block attendants and renters of the lying press, are bulletproof. "

On May 23, 2016, the Anonymousnews.ru website appeared on vk.com . Their operators confirmed their connection to the previous page with a screenshot of the Facebook shutdown message to their administrators. The word “Maro” in the source code of the new site is interpreted as a presumed acronym for “Mario Rönsch”. Like the previous page, Anonymousnews initially promoted Compact magazine, shared articles with it and called for subscribers to Compact . The page later displayed an email from Homilius to Rönsch on May 26, 2016, after which the sender wrote: “The deletion of your Facebook page in the meantime is of course the worst for us, also with regard to the subscription sales. "

The new site sees itself as "a sharp sword against systematic manipulation, propaganda and the dumbing down of the people by the (...) political-media complex", grew rapidly and established itself in the right-wing scene. Like the previous page, it spreads fake news , racism and conspiracy theories, regularly incites against “criminal refugees”, warns of “rape hordes of migrants” and advertises the online shop “Migrant Schreck” online and via a newsletter. Some of the texts were copied from other media and some were written carelessly.

On August 12, 2016, however, an author wrote on Anonymousnews that after he had leaked "explosive information", Elsässer and his publisher Kai Homilius had passed on indications of unpleasant people to law enforcement authorities. Compact is a “conglomerate of informers” who “deliberately deliver to the knife” in the opposition. That was the only reason why the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA Berlin) was able to start “investigations against opposition members”: “Due to the political persecution in Germany, I have been living abroad for some time. The information sent to the LKA Berlin by COMPACT, which also concerned my place of residence in particular, forced me to organize a move with my wife and toddler at short notice. ”Elsässer has been a“ mole of the FRG regime ”for a long time: This shows his closeness to Pegida Boss Lutz Bachmann , who has already been called an undercover agent. He also had a homosexual written in Compact and, despite several calls for a military coup in Germany, did not disappear into solitary confinement. - The contribution confirmed the presumed previous cooperation with Compact and raised the suspicion that the operators of Migrantenschreck wanted by the police could be identical to those of Anonymousnews and both with Mario Rönsch.

On September 17, 2016, the Compact subscribers received an email with Elsässer and Homilius as senders, entitled “Important note: Your family is in danger! Protect yourself now! ”For the purchase of migrant scare weapons. A second email announced the cancellation of the Compact annual conference. On September 18, Anonymousnews published a bogus interview with Rönsch, who now introduced himself by name as a supplier of “insider” information. He managed the PR department of Compact for a while and ensured the survival of the indebted magazine. It was only through his help that the paper developed from a “right dirty magazine” with a “sad” edition to a “hip premium brand”. Anonymousnews showed screenshots of an account statement and an “Agreement between COMPACT and Mario” for 2,000 euros per month plus bonuses to prove Rönsch's commitment. At some point he realized that “something is wrong with Elsässer” and threatened to found his own print magazine. As a result, Alsatian told the police Rönsch's residence abroad and even a numerical code that was necessary to open the door. So he wanted to get rid of a "potentially dangerous competitor and confidant". Alsatian is a cowardly demagogue, an official spy and a "great danger to the patriotic movement". He is just an opportunist with no political goals of his own, who only uses the Pegida protests to sell his magazine. To this end, he would also make common with “20,000 left-wing radicals, as long as they offer him a platform”. He also beats his wife unobserved. Rönsch called on Compact readers to cancel their subscription.

Shortly thereafter, Elsässer wrote to his customers that the emails did not come from himself. He would never call for weapons. The action comes "obviously from the secret service swamp." Someone is waging an "information war" against Compact . After speaking to “5,000 enthusiastic people” at Pegida, they are now trying to damage the “spokesman for the extra-parliamentary resistance”. Compact is under “heavy fire” and needs support, if possible in the form of new subscriptions. The exact reasons for the rift between Alsatian and Rönsch remained unclear.

Shortly before the 2017 federal election , the site announced that the then AfD chairwoman Frauke Petry was preparing a split in the AfD. From this, close contacts between Rönsch and the right-wing AfD are inferred. The site occasionally advertised products from Kopp Verlag and received part of the sales proceeds achieved through them. These advertising links later disappeared. The operators claimed that publisher Jochen Kopp had ended their payment; he denied having ever financed any newsletters.

On November 11, 2017, the site falsely portrayed a Syrian journalist, who initiated the Hamburg magazine refugee , as a sex offender and animal abuser and threatened him in this way. The article was redistributed ten thousand times.

According to the company, the content was viewed more than 13 million times in 2017; almost 4.5 million people are said to have visited the site. In February 2018, the page achieved more Facebook interactions than Tagesschau.de or today . For March 2018, the analysis service SimilarWeb expects more than 1.4 million visits. The site is currently linking xenophobic agitation against refugees with anti-Semitism . Their newsletter claims that refugees are given “luxury homes” and that “the Jews ” are taking over power in the Chancellery. The latest report praises bodily harm against the prominent leftist Jutta Ditfurth as "civil courage against left-wing extremism ". The site stayed online until after Rönsch was arrested on March 28, 2018.

Arms dealer

At the beginning of May 2016, a Mario Roensch registered the online shop “Migrantenschreck” and gave the address of Mario Rönsch in Erfurt. According to the company register, the operating company was called Deutsch-Ungarische Handels- und Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH (Hungarian: Német-Magyar Kereskedelmi és Értékesítési Kft ) and its business was called “Security System Services” with “goods not classified elsewhere”. It was founded with equity of around 10,000 euros. In the register of residents, Mario Rönsch was listed as the sole owner and managing director authorized to sign as well as his Hungarian tax number, company and private address. His company delivered the weapons by post, probably by land to bypass customs controls . The transport companies were not advised of the dangerous goods as prescribed. The arms manufacturer, the company Keserű Művek Fegyvergyár Kft , pointed out in several languages that every exporter must inform himself about the legal situation in the importing country.

The offer had migrants shock first three pistols, a rifle, their ammunition and silicone gel with package prices from 299 to 749 euros (about three times as expensive as the purchased products). The names (“Migrantenschreck MS60 Professional”, “Antifaschreck AS125”) and product descriptions were aimed specifically at “concerned citizens” and, with accompanying texts, called on them to violence against leftists, refugees and foreigners: “You will be dragged into the mud in public because yours Opinion is not system conform enough? Do not allow yourself to be offered such cheek any longer! Let your anger vent and use the anti-fear AS125 as an opinion booster ”. "Whether you are a fucki-fucki specialist or hobby thief - the MS55 Lady gives every villain a real scare! ... "A" discreet "purchase" without annoying bureaucratic hurdles "was promised. However, it was not possible to order anonymously. The additional name "Bautzen Edition" for the double-barreled rifle "Migrantenschreck DP120" alluded to violence against refugees in Bautzen . The product description promised "up to 3 solid hard rubber bullets with a brutal 120 joule muzzle energy". The shop openly promoted the use of these weapons against refugees (“60 joules of muzzle energy struck down every asylum seeker”) and called on its customers: “If you do not want your city to become a lawless playground for asylum seekers, if you do If you want to protect your women and keep your pedestrian zones accessible - then act now! ”The advertising text for the“ Deluxe Precision Rifle ”read:“ Brute 140 joules of muzzle energy convey the 19.3 mm hard rubber bullets straight to the target and make every attacker look old ”. In this way, possible fatal injuries were accepted or welcomed. Customers from twelve countries, including hundreds of Germans, ordered rifles, pistols, revolvers and ammunition through this online shop.

The hard rubber ammunition can cause serious to fatal injuries at just 7.5 joules of muzzle energy. In Germany, the acquisition and possession of such airsoft weapons with a muzzle energy of more than 7.5 joules without a weapon possession card are prohibited. There was no permission to trade in arms on the Migrant Schreck page . The Association of German Gunsmiths and Weapons Dealers (VDB) had a pistol from their range tested and found that the plastic bullets would penetrate a few centimeters into human skin and cause serious injuries. That is why the lawyer Jürgen Kasek filed a criminal complaint against the operator of the online shop on June 1, 2016; he suspected Mario Rönsch.

The website included a blog that caught or invented crimes committed by refugees, citing the Epoch Times or Junge Freiheit . He summarized statements by the then AfD boss Frauke Petry for a defused gun law: "The state has lost the monopoly of violence - citizens should arm themselves". The blog promoted Kopp Verlag and Elsässer's Compact magazine. The Hoaxmap page contradicted claims made by the blog about refugee crimes .

On June 11th and 12th, 2016 Migrantenschreck sent out e-mails to customers of Compact , who recommended the purchase of a weapon for hard rubber bullets, which is banned in Germany, in order to arm themselves against “experiences of the oriental kind” and to prepare for “social unrest”. One of the emails referred to anonymousnews.ru and repeated their threat: “Thanks to countless supporters, our war chest is full. We can do that without Facebook and for a very, very, very long time. Ideas and ideals, dear block attendants and renters of the lying press, are bulletproof. Expect us! "

In August 2016, the legal notice of Migrantenschreck named Mimikama's address . Its employees and their families then received numerous threats and considered closing their website. The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons classified migrants terror on September 29, 2016 as "manifestly" harmful to minors and inciting one: there will be "made the group of refugees sweeping contempt and implicitly called for violence against this group." The BpjM indexed the site and filed a criminal complaint. Prosecutors who could not identify any site operator passed the case on. The Berlin public prosecutor's office primarily investigated illegal arms trade, while the Konstanz public prosecutor's office investigated alleged customers of the online shop. Despite being indexed, the page remained accessible by popular search engines.

In October 2016, an activist discovered the database of orders, buyers and sales from Migrantenschreck , which Rönsch had put online in unencrypted form. The discoverer passed them on to the state security department of the LKA Berlin and some media. In response, anonymousnews.ru portrayed the customs investigation as a “ pogrom against migrant fright customers”, claimed that two representatives of Mimikama were responsible as hackers and informers, and published their addresses. The site indirectly called on its supporters and arms buyers to take revenge.

The weekly newspaper Die Zeit received the data from 198 customers of the shop. Among them were mostly German citizens who had not been criminally and politically unrecognized (doctors, car dealers, bank account managers, computer specialists, doctoral students, educators, family entrepreneurs, surveyors, local politicians, physicists, tax advisors, ornamental fish breeders) as well as four AfD local politicians, a "Reichsbürger" , a member the right-wing extremist citizens' movement pro Germany and a retired Hamburg judge. They each invested between 350 and 4000 euros. When asked, some of them named fear of foreigners as reasons for buying. Rönsch told Die Zeit that he was not doing anything illegal. As a further product, his shop now advertised a crossbow as an “absolutely deadly weapon”. Also Frontal21 , the forward , who look to the right and other media reported on the shop and its customers.

Journalists from Zeit Online, SZ and Motherboard.vice visited twelve German customers of the shop, including a former police officer, a single mother who had never had bad experiences with refugees, and a car mechanic. He spoke of an “invasion of migrants”, warned of a “ civil war ” and declared: “I don't want to kill refugees. It's about a lesson. "

Protection of the constitution in Hungary, Austria and Switzerland are now investigating Rönsch and his customers. On January 24, 2017, around 400 German customs investigators searched 29 apartments and business premises of migrant scare customers in eleven federal states. 42 of around 300 prohibited weapons sold were found. Until then, the online shop had received orders for more than 150,000 euros. Only now has the LKA Berlin confirmed the dangerousness of the weapons, but according to the Hungarian authorities it had not yet applied for administrative assistance in Hungary and had not issued an arrest warrant against Rönsch. By February 2017 the site disappeared from the internet.

In July 2017, a “Patriot Shop” appeared with the same visual design and customer advertising. The specified seat in Zurich and actual sales are so far unoccupied. According to the Berlin public prosecutor Susann Wettley, Rönsch sold weapons worth more than 100,000 euros between his escape and arrest (January 2016 to March 2018), including 193 to Germans. The arms sales had reached "terrifying proportions" and hundreds of "apparently innocent citizens". German customers face fines or up to five years imprisonment for violating the German weapons law .

The Amadeu Antonio Foundation declares this arms trade as a sign of the dramatic increase in violence in the right-wing extremist scene against refugees, migrants, committed democrats and politicians since 2015. The right-wing extremist scene is also using illegal weapons to prepare for a “ race war ”, which its publications often invoke. Rönsch belongs to the Thuringian neo-Nazi scene, which is known to be particularly brutal at the latest by the terrorist group National Socialist Underground and should not be underestimated.

Search, arrest, extradition

Since the beginning of 2016, several German public prosecutors have been looking for Mario Rönsch for various criminal charges (insults, incitement to hatred), but stopped the investigation because he went into hiding and, according to their information, could not be found. As the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced in June 2018, the Federal Criminal Police Office had known his home address in Hungary since April 2016, even before the Migrantenschreck online shop was launched. Why the investigators did not receive this information and why Rönsch was arrested more than two years later is unclear.

After the investigators had received customer data from Migrantenschreck in October 2016 , a senior Compact employee testified against Rönsch at the LKA Berlin. In November 2016 the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), Motherboard.vice and the FDP politician Tobias Huch received a screenshot from the internal administrator area of the Facebook page Anonymous.Kollektiv , which listed three names: a "Mario Roensch", a "Chris Heller", according to the Facebook profile singer and manager of the right-wing rock band Bakudan from Erfurt, and "Kai Homilius", publisher of Compact . According to another screenshot, the same Facebook user "Mario Roensch" as "advertiser" and "Kai Homilius" were also involved in Compact's Facebook presence . The anonymous informant proved his insight into the internal data to the recipients. Facebook and the aforementioned people, on the other hand, declined to confirm. Huch filed a criminal complaint against Rönsch.

According to the Erfurt public prosecutor's office and joint research by Motherboard.vice, NDR , WDR and SZ, Rönsch was one or the operator of all three websites. There are many indications for this, such as statements from companions, e-mails, the internal screenshots from Anonymous.Kollektiv and the registration data from Migrantschreck . He had been in Hungary since the beginning of 2016, lived at different addresses in Budapest and moved into a stately apartment there with his girlfriend. According to the public prosecutor's office, he owned several properties and apartments in Hungary and earned money from arms sales during the manhunt. The German investigators had known his whereabouts since November 2016 and looked at a photo with the comment “Greetings from Yalta ! Merkel: Fuck u! ", Which he had posted as an attempt to distract himself. Since his arms sales were legal under Hungarian law, the Hungarian authorities did not arrest him; the suspicion of sedition under German law was not enough for them. Only when the German investigators were able to prove the suspicion of double bookkeeping to conceal illegal income from the sale of weapons and money laundering did the Hungarian authorities put Rönsch under surveillance. On March 28, 2018, the Hungarian Terrorelhárítási Központ (TÉK) and officials from the LKA Berlin arrested him in Budapest. His extradition to Germany was expected. He faces a minimum of six months and a maximum of five years in prison for illegal arms trafficking. According to the public prosecutor's office, he was aware of the “high energy output and the associated danger” of the weapons sold. An indictment of sedition is still pending.

The Hungarian authorities approved the German extradition request for Rönsch. This appealed against it. On June 28, 2018 he was extradited to Berlin. On August 14, 2018, the Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office brought charges against him for illegal arms sales in around 200 cases. The sales proceeds of more than 100,000 euros were temporarily confiscated and should be confiscated. According to the indictment, other websites of the operator of “Migrantenschreck” could be criminally relevant. A separate determination will be made against the gun buyer.

Criminal trial

After five months of pre-trial detention, the criminal trial against Rönsch began on November 28, 2018 before the Berlin Regional Court. Because Hungary had only extradited him for trafficking in arms, this criminal offense was initially dealt with separately. He faced up to five years imprisonment for this. According to prosecutor Susann Wettley, he went into hiding at the beginning of 2016, fled to Hungary, where he set up the “Migrantenschreck” online shop and from May 2016 to the end of January 2017 illegally sent 193 weapons with a total value of around 100,000 euros to Germany. The high energy output of the weapons and their possible risk of fatal injury was clear to him. He is both a true believer and a business man and has used an ideology and the fear of refugees for his profit. The prosecution also used advertisements, blog posts and “product test” videos on the Migrantenschreck.ru website. Based on bank data, the public prosecutor's office confirmed media reports that Rönsch had worked for Jürgen Elsässer's magazine Compact since the beginning of 2015 , most recently headed its online marketing and received well over 50,000 euros for it. The Kopp Verlag had also transferred five-digit sums to its Swiss account. According to investigators, he had no other sources of income from 2016 until the arrest.

Rönsch said in court that he had not fled prosecution, but emigrated to Hungary to live with his fiancée. He sold the weapons in the belief that he would not commit a crime because a Hungarian lawyer had confirmed this to him and the products sold were allowed in Hungary as alarm and signaling devices. However, the judge sentenced him to 34 months in prison on December 18, 2018: from May to November 2016 he illegally sold at least 167 firearms for hard rubber ammunition from Hungary to Germany, knowing that sales and transport there required a permit, and this was "perfidious Applied". His confession was not "carried by insight and repentance". The profit of around 99,133 euros is to be collected. A forensic doctor had proven the possible lethal effect of the rubber projectiles. Rönsch was released from pretrial detention with registration requirements and wants to move to Erfurt until the judgment becomes final. The judge stayed four months below the prosecutor's proposed sentence. This had also accused Rönsch of inciting hatred against refugees. The defense announced a request for revision. The Federal Court of Justice rejected the appeal on August 27, 2019. This made the judgment of the Berlin Regional Court of December 18, 2018 final: Rönsch had to serve a 34-month prison sentence.

The inflammatory website Anonymous.Kollektiv, which had often advertised the weapons online shop, was not the subject of the proceedings. However, the Berlin public prosecutor's office continues to investigate Rönsch for inciting hatred; a second trial against him is expected. After raids by customs investigators, several investigations and some criminal proceedings are ongoing against customers of his online trade. He also had orders from Russia, Austria, Spain and Switzerland.

Additional information

Web links

Report at Mimikama e. V .: 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 .
Infographic at Zeit online : Arms buyers from migrant fright

Individual evidence

^ Social networks: False fans. In: Der Spiegel , July 23, 2012

↑ ^a ^b Simon Hurtz: Mario Rönsch: Alleged operator of the propaganda website Anonymous.Kollektiv goes under. SZ, May 31, 2016

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Max Hoppenstedt: As a lying press in the dock: My two years with Mario Rönsch. Motherboard.vice, August 26, 2016

^ Kristiana Ludwig, Erik Peter: Political orientation of the Monday demonstrations: Mission left. taz, June 24, 2014

↑ ^a ^b Andrea Diener : Where is the boss of the right-wing Internet trolls? In: FAZ , June 2, 2016

↑ ^a ^b ^c Hannes Vogel: Holocaust denial on Facebook: The dark pages of Mario R. Focus, May 30, 2016

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Max Hoppenstedt, Simon Hurtz, Daniel Mützel, Sebastian Pittelkow, Katja Riedel: Mario Rönsch: German investigators arrest right-wing extremists in hiding in Budapest. Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 28, 2018

↑ ^a ^b Markus Böhm: Hetzseite Anonymous.Collective: Public prosecutor's office is looking for a suspected operator. Spiegel online, June 1, 2016

↑ ^a ^b ^c Silvio Duwe: The miraculous career of Migrantenschreck.net. Motherboard.vice, May 18, 2016

↑ ^a ^b ^c Refugees are insulted as "garbage": Germany's biggest hate speech: New documents burden long-term AfD man. In: Focus , May 20, 2016

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Richard Diesing: Anonymous. Collective: Hetze under the Anonymous cover. In: Die Zeit , June 6, 2016

↑ Keno Verseck: Horst Mahler in Hungary: Orbán's Eldorado for right-wing extremists. Spiegel online, May 16, 2017

↑ ^a ^b Jürgen P. Lang , Theresa Authaler: "Migrantenschreck": E-Mails from the brothers in arms. In: BR.de , June 13, 2016

↑ Christian Stöcker: Facebook Spam: Russia friends from the right corner. Spiegel online, April 16, 2014

↑ What actually went wrong with the largest German Anonymous website? Motherboard.vice, November 20, 2015

↑ RIP Anonymous.Kollektiv: Largest German Anon Facebook page switches off. Motherboard.vice, December 17, 2016

↑ ^a ^b Melanie Reinsch: Wrong Anonymous page leads users astray. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , November 20, 2015

↑ Max Hoppenstedt: Digital conspiracy friends declare the Charlie Hebdo assassination to be a false flag fake. Motherboard.vice, January 8, 2015

↑ Theresa Locker, Max Hoppenstedt: Politics: Confused Anonymous page declares Heidenau riot to be radical left staging. Motherboard.vice, September 1, 2015

↑ Anonymous.Kollektiv on Facebook: Because they don't know what they like. Spiegel online, November 20, 2015; Step driver: If you want to like Anonymous, you suddenly end up with Pegida. This is how it works. Watson.ch, November 19, 2015; Why Anonymous Collective on Facebook has nothing to do with Anonymous. Belltower.News, November 19, 2015

↑ Benedikt Peters: Refugees: Doubtful report stirs up fears among Russian Germans. Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 25, 2016

↑ Confused claim: Aibling railway accident as a terrorist attack. In: Merkur.de , March 10, 2016

↑ Aaron Clamann: Transfer falsified - Mimikama exposes right- wing network. Westfälische Allgemeine Zeitung, May 24, 2016

↑ Max Hoppenstedt: Anonymous.Kollektiv is offline: The end of Germany's largest propaganda page. Motherboard.vice, May 23, 2016

↑ Stephan Dörner: Operator of the well-known Facebook propaganda page goes underground. Welt online, May 31, 2016

↑ ^a ^b Max Hoppenstedt, Simon Hurtz: Anonymous. Collective: Leak shows alleged operators of the largest German hate speech. SZ, November 3, 2016; Simon Hurtz, Max Hoppenstedt: Facebook leak shows names of alleged Anonymous.Kollektiv-backers. Motherboard.vice, November 3, 2016

↑ Daniel Mützel: Anonymous "leaks" that Compact actually belongs to the protection of the constitution. Motherboard.vice, August 19, 2016

^ Daniel Mützel: Anonymous instigates epic war of the roses against Compact. Motherboard.vice, October 6, 2016

↑ Patrick Gensing : Right-wing extremist fake news: Anonymous rushing via Russia. Tagesschau.de, November 15, 2017

↑ Max Hoppenstedt: LKA is targeting "33-year-old Thuringians" as the operator of migrant fright. Motherboard.vice, December 2, 2016

↑ ^a ^b Kai Biermann, Philip Faigle, Astrid Geisler, Andreas Loos, Karsten Polke-Majewski, Daniel Mayer and Sascha Venohr: “Migrantenschreck”: Die Waffenbürger. Die Zeit, December 9, 2016