- Military among those investigated
- Prosecutors: attack on Parliament predicted by some
- More than 3,000 security personnel involved in raids
BERLIN, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Germany on Wednesday arrested 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that prosecutors said was plotting a violent overthrow of the state, with some members suspected of plotting an attack armed against parliament.
Prosecutors said the group was inspired by the deep state conspiracy theories of QAnon and the Reichsbuerger, which do not recognize the legitimacy of modern Germany, insisting that the much larger “German Reich” still existed despite the defeat of the Nazis in World War II.
The plot envisioned a former member of a German royal family, identified as Heinrich XIII PR under Germany’s privacy law, as a leader in a future state while another suspect, Ruediger v. P., he was the head of the military arm, the prosecutors. said the office.
He said Heinrich, who uses the title prince and comes from the royal house of Reuss, which had ruled parts of eastern Germany, had contacted representatives of Russia, which the group considered its central contact to establish your new order. He said there was no evidence that the representatives had reacted positively to the request.
The RIA news agency quoted the Russian embassy in Germany as saying that Russian diplomatic and consular institutions in Germany do not maintain contacts with representatives of terrorist groups and other illegal groups.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the government would respond with the full force of the law against such efforts against the state and said further investigations would reveal how far the coup plans had advanced. group
“The investigations offer an insight into the abyss of a terrorist threat from the environment of the Reichsbuerger,” Faeser said in a statement, adding that the constitutional state knew how to defend itself against the “enemies of democracy.”
An active-duty soldier and several reservists were also among those being investigated, a spokesman for the military intelligence service told Reuters. The active-duty soldier is a member of the Bundeswehr’s elite KSK force, which has been under review in recent years due to a series of far-right incidents.
Investigators suspect that individual members of the group had concrete plans to storm the lower house of the Bundestag parliament in Berlin with a small armed group, the prosecutor’s office said.
In August 2020, protesters stormed the steps of Germany’s Reichstag parliament building, some of them carrying far-right flags, during mass marches against the coronavirus curbs.
Germany’s national intelligence agency attributes some 21,000 people to the Reichsbuerger (Reich Citizens) movement, with 5% of them considered far-right extremists.
About 2,100 Reichsbuergers are prepared to use violence to achieve their goals, according to the agency’s 2021 annual report.
CASA DE REUSS
The House of Reuss had previously distanced itself from Heinrich, calling him a confused man who pursued conspiracy theories, according to local media. The house did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a 2019 speech denouncing modern political structures, Heinrich Reuss said his family dynasty dates back to 900 AD. He said that in the former principality of Reuss people led “happy lives” because the administrative structures were “direct and transparent”.
“If things didn’t work out, you just went to the prince,” he said. “Who do you have to turn to today?”
Germany had been a vassal state since World War II, he said, ruled by the Western Allies.
The German monarchy was abolished a century ago. When the Weimar Constitution came into effect on August 14, 1919, the legal privileges and titles of the German nobility were abolished. So, officially, there are no princes or princesses in Germany.
Prosecutors said the raids were carried out by more than 3,000 police and security officials from 11 German federal states. The suspects were arrested in the German states of Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Thuringia, as well as Austria and Italy, the office said.
The suspects are accused of preparing, from the end of November 2021 at the latest, to carry out actions based on their ideology, according to the office. These actions include acquiring equipment, recruiting new members and conducting shooting lessons, he added.
The office said the focus of recruitment efforts were mainly members of the military and police officers.
The group was aware that its plan would involve deaths, the office said, adding that its members viewed this scenario as a “necessary intermediate step” toward overall system change.
The military intelligence service said it had worked with prosecutors in its investigation and had shared information with the National Intelligence Service and federal criminal investigators before Wednesday’s raids.
The arrested suspects will appear on Wednesday and Thursday before a judge of the Federal Court of Justice who will issue the arrest warrants and decide on their preventive detention.
Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Sarah Marsh and Kirsti Knolle; Additional reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Written by Miranda Murray and Rachel More; Editing by Paul Carrel and Alison Williams
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