AfD member of the Bundestag employs right-wing extremists

A thug in the heart of democracy: The neo-Nazi Mario Alexander Müller, a violent criminal who has been convicted several times, works for a member of the German Bundestag. This is shown by research by WELT. According to this, Müller has been employed as a research assistant by AfD MP Jan Wenzel Schmidt since July of this year. Most recently, Müller had applied for a house pass for the Bundestag.

Who is pushing into Parliament? Müller is 33 years old and has been active in the right-wing extremist scene for more than 15 years. He became violent repeatedly and ended up in court several times. Most recently, in 2021, Müller was sentenced to six months in prison for dangerous bodily harm by the Halle (Saale) district court, suspended on probation. At the end of 2017, armed with a baseball bat, tear gas, a protective helmet from the GDR People's Police and a shield, he attacked two plainclothes police officers. He probably thought they were left-wing activists.

The starting point of the attack was a house project in Halle, where the so-called Identitarian Movement had its headquarters. There was also an office of an AfD member of parliament for a time.

Müller is known to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a functionary of the Identitarian Movement, which is classified as definitely right-wing extremist. Several state offices name him in this context in reports from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Among observers of the Identitarian movement, Müller is considered a particularly influential member of the organization. Most recently, Müller worked as an author for the "Compact" magazine, which was also classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

As early as 2013, Müller had been sentenced to seven and a half months in prison on probation by the Delmenhorst district court for dangerous bodily harm. In 2010 he attacked a group of four young people in a market square. He threw a blackjack consisting of a sock and a piece of metal weighing 200 grams on the forehead of one of the four youths. In the proceedings, Müller was represented by the neo-Nazi squad and scene lawyer Wolfram Nahrath.

In September 2010, the district court had sentenced Delmenhorst Müller to four days in youth detention for physical harm because in November 2009 he insulted, spat on and hit a young person on the head with a metal object, whom he considered to be associated with Antifa. Also part of the verdict was a physical attack on a man in a pub in October 2009.

A photo from 2007 shows Müller in the vicinity of the NPD youth organization "Young National Democrats" (JN). "Zeit Online" referred to Müller years later as a "former JN squad".

There is also a recent photo of Müller. An anonymous "identitarian movement research platform" circulated it a few days ago. The explosive thing is that Müller is apparently in the Bundestag: a convicted neo-Nazi in Parliament. To be more precise: in the room of the German Bundestag where employees, lobbyists and journalists are issued house passes. According to WELT information, Müller actually applied for a house pass for the parliament building there – as an employee of a member of parliament. Just like him.

With such a card, employees of MEPs can move freely through the Parliament buildings. Without having to expose yourself to bag checks and metal detectors like at the airport. Anyone who applies for a house pass is therefore checked in advance. Among other things, the criminal offenses stored in the Federal Central Register of the Federal Office of Justice are retrieved. Only those who are considered reliable can receive a house ID card.

Democracy showed itself to be defensive in Müller's case: the Bundestag administration announced on request that Müller's application for a house ID had been rejected. Apparently the exam brought something to light.

The Bundestag also referred to the security checks at the entrances and at police patrols through the Parliament buildings. A spokesman said that the room shown in the photo can also be accessed without a house pass.

According to WELT information, the process was a topic this week in the so-called Security Commission in the Bundestag, in which representatives of all parliamentary groups exchange information on the security concerns of Parliament. But the deputies only learned that Müller, as a deputy of a parliamentary group or deputy, had tried to get an ID - but were left in the dark about where exactly the right-wing extremist is employed.

The research now reveals Müller's employer. The AfD MP Jan Wenzel Schmidt told WELT that the rule of law "enables every person in our society a second chance". "In particular, a person should not be punished again for behavior for which he has already been punished," Schmidt continued. "Since Mr. Müller has been working for me, he has always behaved correctly and in an exemplary manner. That's what matters to me as an employer." Schmidt will continue to work to ensure that Müller receives an ID card for access to the Bundestag. "The matter is not yet closed."

Within the AfD, Schmidt belongs to the formally dissolved right-wing extremist wing. He is a member of the state board of the Saxony-Anhalt AfD.

It is not the first time that Schmidt has hired a right-wing extremist. In 2016, for example, it became known that the then Saxony-Anhalt member of the state parliament had employed a former NPD candidate for the Bundestag in his constituency office.

At that time, too, Schmidt spoke of a "second chance" and the unquestionable "scientific qualification" of the employee. Shortly before, Schmidt was a speaker at a rally of the Harz local group of the Identitarian Movement, with whom he was repeatedly in direct contact.

A spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group said that the parliamentary group had not previously been aware of the Müller case. "We do not comment on personnel matters of individual MPs," he said.

Even though Müller has not received an ID card, the right-wing extremist now has privileged access to information, classified documents and internals from parliament through his employment with a member of parliament. The administration of the Bundestag has no effective means of counteracting this.