“Remigration” by Martin Sellner: Why the right-wing extremist’s not

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Amazon book charts from February 2nd: Will be checked “as soon as it is available”

The word “remigration” is on everyone’s lips, at least since Correctiv reported on the Potsdam meeting between right-wing extremists and politicians from the AfD and the CDU. A language jury even voted the expression “unword of the year.” For Martin Sellner, it's all just "good advertising." The Austrian activist of the right-wing extremist “Identitarian Movement,” who spoke in Potsdam about how people he didn’t like should be deported out of the country, has written a book called “Remigration. A proposal« announced.

This title has been topping the list of bestsellers in the book category on Amazon's online sales portal since Thursday. The mail order company specifies the release date as March 1st - so these can only be pre-orders for the book, which will be published by the right-wing Antaios publishing house. Antaios is led by Götz Kubitschek, founder of a right-wing extremist think tank in Schnellroda. He has already published previous books by Sellner.

Previous titles from Antaios Verlag had been removed from the offering by Amazon. In 2014, publisher Kubitschek wrote about twelve Antaios titles being canceled. In 2018, a book by the French author Richard Millet, who once published a “hymn in praise of Anders Breivik,” was removed from Amazon’s inventory. At the time, Kubitschek was surprised to the Austrian "Presse" that some titles were "offered and sold directly by Amazon, some only through second providers, some are blocked entirely." He saw “something irrational” about the selection.

When asked by SPIEGEL and the “Standard”, an Amazon spokesman said that as a company they “firmly believe in diversity, equality and inclusion”. As a bookseller, however, we “decided to allow a very wide range of books – including titles that contradict our values ​​and the positions of our company. We believe it is possible to do both.«

Deliberately few restrictions in the list of available books

While the announced Sellner title is prominently placed on Amazon thanks to the bestseller list, you won't find it among competitors like Thalia or Hugendubel. Thomas Koch, press spokesman for the German Book Trade Association, says that it is “every bookstore’s decision as to which titles they include in their range or order for customers.” Apart from works that are prohibited by law, “freedom of contract applies here without restriction”.

So how are the decisions made about whether or not to publish a book like Martin Sellner's?

A Thalia spokeswoman told SPIEGEL and "Standard" that her company was "committed to diversity, freedom of expression and democracy. We therefore endeavor to actively delete all authors/books brought to our attention through our own research, by customers or organizations that clearly spread right-wing extremist and/or anti-Semitic content.

Amazon refers to its content guidelines, which determine which books can be offered for sale. For example, there is a clause on content “that we conclude contains hate speech” or “is otherwise inappropriate or offensive.” Check every book immediately if concerns are raised. The content of Sellner's book "Remigration" will also be examined "as soon as it is available."

Until then, the book is in Amazon's range and can be pre-ordered. Apparently, titles that are included in the list of available books (VLB) are generally listed on Amazon. This directory is organized by a subsidiary of the Börsenverein. With a few exceptions, all books that have been announced and have been given an ISBN number appear there. However, the restrictions are "deliberately low because the VLB has a monopoly position as a platform - it shows which books that are not banned or indexed are currently available," said the stock exchange association spokesman.

Sellner has been delisted from Libri since 2020

But decisions can then be made, as a spokeswoman for the bookseller Hugendubel describes. “Martin Seller's titles were already noticed in our catalog in 2020,” she says when asked by SPIEGEL and “Standard”: “They were subsequently removed from the list by our partner Libri. Therefore, these titles are no longer available at Hugendubel. Hugendubel neither intentionally nor actively offers hateful writings available online. They do not in any way reflect Hugendubel's opinion." Such titles would be immediately removed from the Hugendubel catalog as soon as they were discovered.

In the publisher's announcement for "Remigration", which tries to be tame in the subtitle "a suggestion", it says that Sellner's book is "in the political debate" also "a contribution to the battle over concepts". So it's part of the strategy of the radical right: When a word like "remigration" "leaves the radical right-wing circles and moves into the bourgeois center, the mission is almost accomplished," wrote SPIEGEL editor Tobias Rapp.

It is impossible to predict how far into the middle class the pre-orders on Amazon will reach. “The Amazon bestseller lists are updated every hour, so they only represent snapshots,” says Börserneverin spokesman Koch. So “even comparatively small quantities could make a difference.” This is what distinguishes the Amazon charts significantly from other bestseller lists (such as those from SPIEGEL), which measure sales across retailers and over the course of a whole week.