Marcant: He counters right-wing extremists and populists with humor and attitude – and lives under constant threat.Image: www.imago-images.de
The young Frankfurter interviews rights people at demonstrations and thereby exposes them. Many celebrate him for this – but the hatred against him is so concrete that he has to hide his true identity.
June 20, 2026, 10:41 p.mJune 20, 2026, 10:41 p.m
Patrick Schiller / t-online
The web video producer Marcant feels that his role has been misinterpreted by the public exaggeration of his personality. In a recent conversation on his YouTube channel, he reported being occasionally referred to online as the “new Anne Frank” or “new Sophie Scholl”. He rejects such comparisons with victims of the National Socialists: “That’s not me, I can’t be that.”
He is 23 years old and a native of Frankfurt. Online he calls himself Marcant, a play on words from his first name Marc and “markant”. Under this name he became one of the in just over a year most famous political voices against the right on the internet become.
His method is simple and controversial: He talks to right-wing extremists – and asks questions until they entangle themselves in contradictions.
Neo-Nazi march in Dresden: The right-wing extremist Michael Brück gives an interview to the YouTuber Marcant.Image: www.imago-images.de
Marcant goes to right-wing extremist demos, AfD festivals and neo-Nazi marches. There he seeks to talk to people whose worldview he fights against.
In April he was awarded the Theodor Heuss Medal, one of the most prestigious democracy honors of the country.
The format works. Young people repeatedly write to him saying that his videos have turned them away from right-wing ideas. For him there is hardly a greater meaning in life.
But Marcant makes enemies with his videos.
Life in secret
He only performs under his stage name; he keeps his full name secret for security reasons. He also doesn’t reveal his place of residence. There is no name on his door. Only those closest to him know where he lives. He has had old photos from his school and basketball days deleted from the internet.
The threats are specific. At a demonstration in Bautzen, the police advised him to leave because they could no longer protect him. At a train station, a man announced that he would beat him up. People wrote to him and tried to track him down, he told the “Tagesspiegel”. He gets death threats every day. He expects that sooner or later someone will attack him.
Marcant at a demonstration by the right-wing extremist party Die Heimat.Image: www.imago-images.de
Dream: Just play basketball
Marcant grew up in Hesse. His time at high school was hard and characterized by bullying, he described to “Zeit Campus”. What remains is the lesson that you always have to appear strong. For a long time he wanted to become a professional basketball player. A torn ligament ended the dream. At around 2.09 meters, it is difficult to miss.
“My biggest dream is to play basketball again,” he says in his YouTube video. “A bit of league activity, a cool team with normal people, just play normally.” But that’s no longer possible, too many people would recognize him. “It’s simply no longer possible.”
Marcant is not without controversy. The accusation comes from our own left-wing camp that we are not allowed to talk to those on the right. After a vacation in Rio, some called him a “champagne leftist.” He is met with open hatred from the right.
The right-wing online media “Nius” also attacked Marcant after he received the Theodor Heuss Medal. It called the award tax-financed and criticized Marcant for comparing the AfD’s methods with those of Adolf Hitler and Baldur von Schirach in his acceptance speech.