German police have arrested a 49-year-old software developer who called on the darknet to kill politicians, including former chancellors Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz. The assassinations were supposed to be financed by donations in the form of cryptocurrencies. The suspect, identified as Martin S., who has both German and Polish citizenship, was arrested on Monday evening in the city of Dortmundthe Federal Prosecutor’s Office said on Tuesday. TASR informs about it with reference to the website of the weekly Der Spiegel. Through the darknet platform Assassination Politics, he has been calling for the killing of politicians, judges and other public figures since at least June. There he posted lists of names, self-proclaimed death sentences and instructions for making explosives.
According to information obtained by Spiegel, Martin S. had more than 20 potential targets on his list. In addition to Merkel and Scholz, former Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock were also present.. In his posts on social networks, he also attacked the federal government for the measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. The suspect considered himself part of the resistance and established contacts with the Reich Citizens (Reichsbürger) movement.
Spiegel also found that he maintained contacts with the far-right scene for years, as evidenced by several photographs. For example, in October 2021 he took part in a memorial march in Dortmund for the late neo-Nazi Siegfried Borchardt, known by the nickname “SS-Siggi”. He is also captured in photos from Dresdenwhere a mass gathering of far-right supporters took place on February 13, 2022.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, Martin S. started raising money for assassinations on the darknet in the summer of 2025 at the latest. The Karlsruhe-based office accused him of financing terrorism, inciting the commission of a serious act of violence threatening the state and disseminating personal data in a way that threatens public security.
Martin S. did not hide his political views even on the LinkedIn social network, where he harshly criticized the coalition government and claimed that Europe is on the way to an Islamic caliphate. He spoke sarcastically about the vaccine against the disease COVID-19 and called the vaccinated people “guinea pigs”. He also questioned climate change.Investigators were led on the trail of Martin S. by information from the German civilian counter-intelligence – the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). On Tuesday, the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe issued an arrest warrant against him and he was placed in pretrial detention.
