The German police arrested 25 members and supporters of a far-right group on Wednesday. According to the prosecutor’s office, they were preparing a fierce overthrow of the government to seat a prince as the national leader who had asked for Russian support.
The German police detained a prince, a former MP, and former soldiers during raids throughout the country against the group, who call themselves the Citizens of the Reich movement, who had been accused of planning an attack on parliament, the Reichstag building, to overthrow the government.
The far-right group believes in monarchy
The far-right group had planned a coup to take control of the parliament and organized a “council” and a “military arm that would build a new German army”, said chief federal prosecutor Peter Frank at a press conference. He further added, “some members of the terrorist organization also considered using force to enter the German Bundestag (parliament).”
According to German media reports, the group comprised former military men and a self-styled Prince Heinrich XIII.
Around 3,000 policemen raided over 130 properties and the operation was described as “one of German’s biggest police operations against extremists.” The police also identified 27 other people as suspected members or supporters of the group.
The office of the Federal prosecutor said that the group “had set itself the goal of overcoming the existing state order in Germany and replacing it with their own kind of state.”
Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann called the raids an “anti-terrorist operation”. An official of the German Intelligence Service said that the group was “driven by violent coup fantasies and conspiracy ideologies.”
According to the Prosecutors, the believers of the movement are against the country’s constitution and have demanded an overthrow of the government. The movement does not recognize the modern German state and has become more dangerous in the past year, said Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany‘s domestic intelligence agency.
Ex-army man, a former judge among the detainees
The prosecutors further said that the arrested persons knew that the “use of military means and violence against state representatives would ensure the execution of their plan.” The plan included installing one of the arrested persons, whom the media call an aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, as the nation’s new leader after attempting a coup.
The prince had after the coup managed to contact Russian officials to talk about Germany’s “new state order”. However, the prosecutors said that there was “no indication that the contact persons responded positively to his request.”
Among the arrested was a Russian woman named Vitalia B. who is suspected of having facilitated contacts. Other detainees include Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a former MP of the far-right AfD party and Berlin judge who had to become the justice minister after the coup, according to the plan, current and ex-members of the army in the lower levels, said defense ministry spokesperson and another one was an active soldier in the KSK special forces, who worked in a “support” role.
The Reichsbuerger movement, including far-right extremists, conspiracy theorists, and gun enthusiasts, dismiss the authority of the contemporary German republic. On the other hand, the believers of the movement believe in the German Reich of the pre-World War I time which was under a monarchy, they also declared their own states.
