Anton Maegerle is thepseudonym of the German journalistGernot Modery.^[1][2][3] He is also the author of books aboutfar-right politics,right-wing radicalism, theNew Right, andright-wing policy in general.

Only very few personal details of his life and career are known to the public. He was in his early 40s in 2002, and lives in a village inSouthern Germany, where he always lived except when he was studyingsocial science.^[4] During the time of his studies, the Germanright-wing partyThe Republicans was founded.^[4] He describes this occasion as the “priming” for his activism.^[4] He himself is a member of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After finishing his studies he moved home and started to make his inquiries.^[4] His articles and books are published under his pseudonym.^[4]

Maegerle does not publish any personal data because he is exposed to hostility and threats, as well as threats of murder fromneo-Nazis due to his professional activity. At times he was dependent on state personal protection. Therefore, he chose a pseudonym^[4] under which his articles, book and TV contributions appear.

Maegerle started collecting information on the right-wing party The Republicans in 1983, and observes right-wing extremists as well as right-wingconservative circles in Germany and abroad. Maegerle's database contains some 550,000 items and data on ca. 17,000 individuals, and is said to be one of the largest of its kind, providing information to journalists and governments agencies including theFederal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In 2001, he published a book against right-wing extremism inBaden-Württemberg together with the president of theLandesamt für Verfassungsschutz Helmut Rannacher.^[5] Maegerle also collects information on right-wing extremist,xenophobic andanti-semitic acts of violence, regularly publishing chronicles of such events.

In the past he has worked for thepublic broadcastingARD TV showsPanorama[1] andReport Mainz[2]; theBerliner Zeitung[3]; theFederal Agency for Civic Education[4]; the news magazineStern[5]; andDie WeltDie WELT. He is a regular contributor to the controversial government-funded Internet newsletterBlick nach Rechts (View to the Right) and wrote for theInformationsdienst gegen Rechtsextremismus (Information Service against Right-Wing Extremism) until it was closed down in 2006. As a result of his feature inReport Mainz in 2000 several banks cancelled the bank accounts of right-wing extremists.^[4]

Maegerle belongs to the critics of theIngolstadt Research Institute for Contemporary Historical Research, a portrayal of which he published in 1996 in the View to the Right.^[6]

On 16 November 2007Netzwerk Recherche awarded Maegerle, Andrea Röpke and Thomas Kuban its"Lighttower Award".^[7]

Some New Right publishers accuse Maegerle's work of containing aleftistbias because he makes nearly no distinction betweenconservatives andNazis, and criticize that he receivespublic money for this.^[8] For example, Maegerle defends the use ofpolitical correctness, and published an article in the left-wing newspaperJungle World during the2002 German federal election in which he, as aSPD member, accusedCDU chancellor candidateEdmund Stoiber of having "best ties to the twilight zone of right-wing extremism".^[9][10] The extremism researcherEckhard Jesse has criticized Maegerle for "scent[ing] in the well-known Antifa manner almost everywhere right-wing extremists."^[11]

In 1996, Maegerle's real name was exposed by "nationalist-pacifist",Neue Rechte^[12] politicianAlfred Mechtersheimer.^[4][13][14]

TheHolocaust denierGermar Rudolf published under the nameAnton Mägerle in order to discredit the journalist's research on Holocaust denial.^[4]

In 2007, Felix Krautkrämer, an editor ofJunge Freiheit claimed repeatedly, that Maegerle is afar left extremist and he publishes in multiple far left media. Maegerle filed a lawsuit against the claim that he is still publishing in four of the far left media mentioned by name. Krautkrämer, as well asFocus Michael Klonovsky, were later ordered by a court not to repeat this claim.^[15]

• "Rechtsextreme Publikationsorgane und -strategien. Verlage, Antiquariate, Zeitschriften und Internet". In: Thomas Fliege, Kurt Möller (Hrsg.):Rechtsextremismus in Baden- Württemberg. Verborgene Strukturen der Rechten. Dezember 2001, S. 85-101,ISBN 3-89902-019-7
• "Autoren desGrabert-Verlags und des Hohenrain-Verlags. Ihre Funktion und ihre Bedeutung in der rechten Szene." In: Martin Finkenberger, Horst Junginger (Hrsg.):Im Dienste der Lügen. Herbert Grabert (1901–1978) und seine Verlage. Alibri-Verlag, Aschaffenburg 2004, S. 155-174,ISBN 3-932710-76-2
• Globalisierung aus Sicht der extremen Rechten. Bildungsvereinigung Arbeit und Leben Niedersachsen Ost, Braunschweig 2005,ISBN 3-932082-12-5
• Rechte und Rechtsextreme im Protest gegen Hartz IV. Bildungsvereinigung Arbeit und Leben Niedersachsen Ost, Braunschweig 2006,ISBN 3-932082-22-2
• Gewerkschaften im Visier von Rechten und Rechtsextremisten. Bildungsvereinigung Arbeit und Leben Niedersachsen Ost, Braunschweig 2007,ISBN 3-932082-30-3
• "Politischer und publizistischer Werdegang von Autoren der "Jungen Freiheit"." In: Stephan Braun, Ute Vogt (Hrsg):Die Wochenzeitung "Junge Freiheit". Kritische Analysen zu Programmatik, Inhalten, Autoren und Kunden. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Wiesbaden 2007, S. 193-215,ISBN 978-3-531-15421-3

together with Martin Dietzsch

• Das Plagiat. Der Völkische Nationalismus der Jungen Freiheit. Duisburger Institut für Sprach- und Sozialforschung e.V., 1994,ISBN 3-927388-44-0
• "Digitales Braun. Die Nutzung Neuer Medien durch Neonazis". In: Jens Mecklenburg (Hrsg.):Handbuch deutscher Rechtsextremismus. Berlin (Elefanten Press) 1996,ISBN 3-88520-585-8
• "Rechtsextremisten und Neue Medien". In: Jens Mecklenburg (Hrsg.):Antifa Reader. Antifaschistisches Handbuch und Ratgeber. Berlin (Elefanten Press) 1996,ISBN 3-88520-574-2

together with Friedrich Paul Heller

• Thule. Vom völkischen Okkultismus bis zur Neuen Rechten. Schmetterling-Verlag, 2. aktualisierte und überarbeitete Auflage, Stuttgart 1998,ISBN 3-89657-090-0
• Thule. Von den völkischen Mythologien zur Symbolsprache heutiger Rechtsextremisten. Schmetterling-Verlag, 3. überarbeitete Auflage, Stuttgart 2007,ISBN 3-89657-092-7
• Die Sprache des Hasses. Rechtsextremismus und völkische Esoterik:Jan van Helsing undHorst Mahler. Schmetterling-Verlag, Stuttgart 2001,ISBN 3-89657-091-9

Texts by Maegerle

• Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund (GBV)/ Gemeinsamer Verbundkatalog (GVK): Aufsätze von Anton Maegerle
• Die iranische Rechtsextremisten-Connection (2006)
• Studienzentrum Weikersheim (In:Wolfram Wette (Hrsg.):Filbinger – eine deutsche Karriere, zu Klampen Verlag, Springe 2006, S. 123 ff; PDF-Datei; 70 kB)
• „Junge Freiheit“-Autoren und ihr politisches Umfeld^{[permanent dead link]} (In: perspektive 21, Brandenburgische Hefte für Wissenschaft & Politik Nr. 18/2003, S. 57ff - pdf; 658 kB)
• Martin Dietzsch / Anton Maegerle:Kampfbegriff aller Rechten: "Political Correctness" Duisburger Institut für Sprach- und Sozialforschung, Mai 1996.

• German male journalists
• Writers from Baden-Württemberg
• German television journalists
• Living people
• German non-fiction writers
• Social Democratic Party of Germany

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• CS1: unfit URL
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters
• All articles with dead external links
• Articles with dead external links from October 2016
• Articles with permanently dead external links
• Year of birth missing (living people)