Youtuber Marvin Wildhage sneaked onto the pitch – more than a prank

More than a prank
Youtuber Marvin Wildhage sneaked to the sidelines – this is his concept

From a security perspective, a football championship is a state of emergency – this also applies to the current European Championship 2024. Youtuber Marvin Wildhage has now shown that the security concept is still anything but mature: disguised as a mascot, he sneaked right to the edge of the pitch at the opening game in Munich. It is just the latest of many actions of this caliber.

His YouTube channel “Marvin” is full of such actions. Wildhage has already released a fake film in cinemas, sold fake beauty products to influencers and even bought himself a doctorate. He was convicted for the latter. But that didn’t stop him either: he is a committed criminal.

Marvin Wildhage: Pranks with substance

Unlike many other YouTubers, Wildhage’s actions are not just about silly pranks that get laughs and clicks. Instead, his channel relies on a mixture of Jenke von Wilmsdorff and Günter Wallraff in YouTube aesthetics. Almost all of his clips have one thing in common: they are intended to expose grievances.

The comparison with the extreme reporter and the investigative journalist is not far-fetched: Wildhage is also a trained journalist. The 27-year-old completed his training at the Axel Spinger Academy in 2018. Shortly afterwards, he made headlines for the first time: he had tricked his YouTube colleague “Tanzverbot” into giving him an interview with a fake Dieter Bohlen.

From celebrity talk to exposé format

It was only the first spectacular action of many. Wildhagen smuggled himself into Jürgen Kliensmann’s coaching debut at Hertha BSC, sold fake dinosaur bones to influencers, showed how easy it is to get fake vaccination certificates and gave the media supposed pregnancy photos of Wendler’s girlfriend Laura Müller. These were then published.

Wildhage knew early on that he wanted to be on television: at the age of 14, he began conducting interviews with German celebrities, getting Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, Ecko Fresh and Udo Lindenberg in front of the microphone. “At concerts, I simply waited outside the halls or at the hotel until someone came out,” he told the “Hannoversche Allgemeine”.

Celebrity interviews dominated his channel for a long time. It was only a few years ago that undercover reports and fake videos were added, which then took up more and more space. It doesn’t always have to be about big events or well-known influencers: Many of the latest videos deal with everyday problems such as the drug scene in Berlin or the problem of laughing gas. This is increasingly being abused as a drug among young people.

Successful business

With his mix of YouTube camaraderie and serious topics, Wildhage hits a nerve: his channel has almost 900,000 subscribers, and some videos have well over three million views.

But he is not just interested in educating people. His YouTube clip of the European Championship campaign not only contains the usual YouTube advertising, but also sponsor advertising spoken directly by Wildhage in the clip. But even self-made journalism is not free.

Sources:Youtube, Hanover General, Berlin newspaper

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