Instead, Hegelich and others point to an alliance of mostly anonymous online trolls and extremist agitators who are disseminating right-wing materials through YouTube; messaging board sites like 4chan and reddit; and Gab.ai, a texting service.

„A lot of the stuff we are seeing in Germany can be linked to, or is at least inspired by, the ‚alt-right‘ movement in the U.S.,“ Hegelich said, referring to a loosely defined group whose far-right ideology includes racism, populism and white nationalism.