Latest News on the German Military Coup | Dozens of People Have Been Arrested on Suspicion of Plotting a far-right Coup

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Latest News on the German Military Coup | Dozens of People Have Been Arrested on Suspicion of Plotting a far-right Coup

Authorities in Germany arrested 25 people on Wednesday who is suspected of planning to violently overthrow the government in a far-right extremist plot.

More than 3,000 police officers, including special forces, conducted 130 early morning searches across 11 of Germany’s 16 federal states in one of the biggest counterterrorism operations in the country’s history.

Suspects from the so-far unnamed group include a nobleman with a historic royal title and various armed forces veterans. It is centered on the so-called “Reichsbürger” movement, which is motivated by conspiracy theories about the role and legitimacy of the modern German state.

Those arrested will appear in court on Wednesday and Thursday. The homes of a further 27 people suspected of being members or supporters of the group have been searched.

“We will defend ourselves with all our might against the enemies of democracy,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser tweeted.
She claimed the organization was “driven by fantasies of violent overthrow and conspiracy ideologies” and despised democracy and the state. “Further investigations will show how far the coup plans have progressed,” she said.

The suspects, according to the German prosecutor’s office, are members of a terrorist organization that aims to overthrow Berlin’s government and install its leaders through the “forcible elimination of the democratic constitutional state” by November 2021.

“The members of the association are aware that this project can only be realized by using military means and violence against state representatives,” the prosecutor’s office said in an early Wednesday statement. It stated that there is “suspicion that individual members of the association have made concrete preparations to forcibly invade” the German Bundestag “with a small armed group.”

“Details are still being worked out,” it added.

The group was motivated, according to the statement, by a rejection of the “free democratic basic order of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

According to prosecutors, some members of the group’s “military arm” are former members of the German army, the Bundeswehr. A series of scandals involving personnel from far-right groups have plagued Germany’s armed forces.

According to a spokesman for the German Military Security Service, “an active member of the military’s special forces (KSK) group” is also being investigated. However, the spokesman stressed that he is not a member of the special forces and would not confirm whether the suspect had been apprehended.

The group is heavily influenced by right-wing conspiracy theories, authorities say, including a belief in a secretive, malign “deep state” running the country as seen in the QAnon movement. It believes that the Federal Republic of Germany is not a sovereign state, and its members espouse antisemitic conspiracy theories, Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution said.

Reichsbürger activists and members of other closely related groups commonly take part in protests against COVID-19 restrictions. The pandemic was a rallying cause for far-right actors across Europe, adding to baseless accusations of a wider government plot to control citizens.

Prosecutors also stated that the group believes “the Alliance,” a group of national governments and intelligence services, including those of the US and Russia, is active in Germany and planning an attack on the “deep state.”

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence service, has been officially monitoring the “Reichsbürger” scene since 2016. According to its website, the organization has approximately 21,000 followers, with slightly more than a thousand of them also considered right-wing extremists.

Authorities said “Heinrich XIII P. R.” was among those arrested, referring to Prince Heinrich XIII of the House of Reuss, which ruled parts of Germany until 1918. His identity has not been confirmed by NBC News.

He is considered a future head of state in the event of an insurgency, and he heads the group’s ruling council, which has met to discuss the planned takeover, according to prosecutors.

Prince Heinrich, who retains his title despite its constitutional insignificance, is accused of contacting Russian Federation representatives in both Russia and Germany in the hope of gaining support for the overthrow of the Berlin government.

One suspect was apprehended in Perugia, Italy, and another in Kitzbühel, Austria. Vitalia B., a Russian national, is accused of assisting the organization’s attempt to contact Russian officials.
However, German prosecutors point out that there is no evidence that Russian officials responded positively to the request.

In his daily news briefing on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the investigation was “an internal matter for Germany, and they state there is no question of Russian interference.”

Who are The Plotters?

The plotters, 25 of whom were apprehended during the operation, are accused of being members of an extremist terrorist organization with beliefs based on conspiracy theories. One of its members is a serving special forces officer, and another is an eccentric aristocrat who holds and still uses a historic royal title.

The group, which has not been named by officials, was founded no later than November 2021 and was planning an armed insurgency to install its government, according to German prosecutors.

The group is closely associated with the extremist Reichsbürger movement, which rejects the legitimacy of the German state. Reichsbürger means “citizens of the Reich” or “kingdom.”

According to Miro Dittrich, an expert at CeMAS, a German organization that monitors right-wing extremism, this is not the first time a far-right group has plotted a coup in recent years.

“Today’s group, on the other hand, was larger, further along in planning, and better connected with people trained in the [use of] weapons,” he explained.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the country’s domestic intelligence agency, began tracking Reichsbürger members in 2016 after one of them shot and killed a police officer sent to confiscate his guns.

The agency now estimates that there are approximately 21,000 active Reichsburger members in Germany, with approximately 5% classified as far-right.

Who is Heinrich XIII?

One of the group’s main leaders is Henry XIII, Prince Reusthe, holder of a royal title that expired with Kaiser Wilhelm II’s abdication and the establishment of the modern German state in 1918. When police picked up the 71-year-old from a property on Wednesday, he was photographed in handcuffs.

The movement has gained a foothold in society as a whole, according to Carsten Koschmiede of the Free University of Berlin. “Even if the Reich citizens or the conspiracy ideologues appear insane,” he said, “many of those arrested come from the middle of society, have normal jobs, friends, and so on.”

He went on to say that what brought them together was a “belief that the Germans are being oppressed by a powerful foreign power,” or that the German state is assisting in this oppression, thus justifying an armed insurgency.

Germany foils far-right plot to install Prince Heinrich XIII in coup

Germany detained 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that the prosecutor’s office said was planning a violent overthrow of the state in order to install a prince who had sought Russian support as national leader.

Prosecutors said the group was inspired by the deep state conspiracy theories of Germany’s Reichsbuerger and QAnon, whose supporters were among those arrested following the January 2021 storming of the US Capitol.

Reichsbuerger (Reich citizens) do not recognize modern-day Germany as a legitimate state. Some are loyal to the German empire under monarchy, while others support Nazi ideas and believe Germany is under military occupation.

Prosecutors said the plot envisioned a former member of the German royal family, identified as Heinrich XIII P. R. under German privacy law, as the leader of a future state, and another suspect, Ruediger V. P., as the head of the military arm to build a new German army.

Prosecutors said the group had mimicked the structure of the government by forming a “council” that had met on a regular basis since November 2021 as an administration-in-waiting with various departments such as foreign affairs and health.

They claimed Heinrich, who goes by the title prince and is descended from the royal House of Reuss, which ruled over parts of eastern Germany, had reached out to Russian representatives, whom the group saw as its main point of contact in establishing its new order. It stated that there was no evidence that the representatives had positively responded to the request.
Requests for comment were not returned by the House of Reuss or Prince Reuss’ office.

According to a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, security agencies are closely monitoring any potential contact with Russia.

The Kremlin said there was no way Russia could be involved in an alleged far-right plot to destabilize the German state, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying it “appears to be a German internal problem.”

‘ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY’

According to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, the German government will respond with the full force of the law.

“The investigations provide a glimpse into the abyss of a terrorist threat from the Reichsbuerger milieu,” Faeser said in a statement, adding that the constitutional state was well-prepared to defend itself against “enemies of democracy.”

Faeser stated that she would introduce legislation in the coming days to make it easier to fire civil servants who are deemed enemies of the Constitution.

According to the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Reichsbuerger movement has grown significantly in the last year and continues to pose a high level of danger.

One active soldier and several reservists are also being investigated, according to a spokesperson for the military intelligence service. The soldier is a member of the Bundeswehr’s elite KSK force, which has been overhauled in recent years in response to a series of far-right incidents.

Prosecutors added that the group had been purchasing equipment, recruiting new members, and holding shooting lessons. According to them, the focus of the recruitment efforts was primarily on military and police officers.

According to German prosecutors, a former parliamentary lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was also detained.

In a statement, the AfD condemned the far-right group’s efforts and expressed confidence in the authorities’ ability to quickly and completely resolve the situation.

Investigators believe individual members of the group planned to storm the lower house of the Bundestag in Berlin with a small armed group, according to prosecutors.

HOUSE OF REUSS

Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki told the Rheinische Post that the building was prepared for attacks and that possible threats were known, so that “the group’s plans were already doomed to fail” when they were faked. But the revelations of the plot bring back memories of the attack on the steps of Germany’s Reichstag building by protesters in August 2020 during mass marches against the coronavirus restrictions and the attack on the United States. Capitol.

The Federal Intelligence Service assigns around 21,000 people to the “Reichsbürger” movement, of whom around 5% are considered right-wing extremists. The House of Reuss had previously distanced itself from Heinrich and, according to local media, described him as a confused man who pursued conspiracy theories.

The monarchy in Germany was abolished a century ago. The legal privileges and titles of German nobility were abolished when the Weimar Constitution went into effect on August 14, 1919. Officially, Germany has no princes and princesses.

Prosecutors said the raids were carried out by over 3,000 police officers and security personnel from 11 German federal states. Suspects were also apprehended in Austria and Italy, according to the office.

Eight suspects are already being held in pre-trial detention, and they are scheduled to appear before a judge on Wednesday and Thursday to determine the next judicial steps.
In connection with the case, Italian police said they had arrested a 64-year-old former German army officer in the city of Perugia, and extradition proceedings had begun.

The police, however, declined to comment on a report by Italy’s ANSA news agency that the suspect, who had acted as a recruiter, had been a prominent figure in anti-lockdown demonstrations in Germany during the coronavirus pandemic.

Respected Source:- NBCNEWS     Reuters 

What do they Believe?

Reichsbürger supporters deny the existence of the modern German state. They argue that the true Germany is the constitutional monarchy that existed prior to the establishment of the modern republic. Others in the movement contend that Germany is under military occupation.

They argue, like the Sovereign Citizen movements in the United States, that modern laws do not apply to them.

“They do not respect the state constitution; they believe it is illegitimate.” “They don’t have license plates, they don’t pay taxes, and they believe the last legitimate state was the Kaiserreich, which ended in 1918,” said Peter Neumann, a security studies professor at King’s College, London.

However, the movement has become externally politicized and shares with the QAnon conspiracy theory the idea that Germany is held captive by the “deep state.”

And like Q followers, Reichsbürger members believe Germany will soon be liberated from tyranny—not by Donald Trump but by an alliance including the governments and intelligence services of the United States and Russia.

“The Reich Citizens’ Movement has grown parallel to the QAnon movement in Germany during the pandemic, they share many stories and are very closely intertwined.

Germany has the largest non-English speaking QAnon community in the world,” Dittricht said.

What Were They Planning?

According to German prosecutors, the group had detailed plans for seizing power. These included the formation of “homeland security” groups to take and maintain control of the country, weapons training, information technology systems, and an entire shadow cabinet of leaders who were to take control if the coup succeeded.

“Members of a “military arm” are to carry out this forcible elimination of the democratic constitutional state,” prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday.

The Federal German Republic would then vanish, rewriting 100 years of history.

“There are not a lot of guns in private hands [in Germany], but Reichsbürgers were actively arming themselves — they got licenses for sports shooting,” Neumann said.

“There are also ex-military and police officers who know how to use firearms.” In that regard, they are a dangerous movement that has grown in popularity over the last two years.”

How Close Were They to Acting?

The German authorities have not stated whether the group was ever in a position to launch a coup or whether such an attempt would be successful.

However, the group and its plans were deemed serious enough to justify the largest and possibly most expensive counter-terrorism operation in the country’s history, implying that an armed confrontation of some magnitude was anticipated.

In 2020, nearly 40,000 protesters marched through Berlin to express their displeasure with COVID-19 measures. Around 100 to 200 of them attempted to storm the German Parliament, the Bundestag.

They were repulsed, and 300 people were arrested, but the size and potential power of the movement were undeniable.

So, what comes next?

“It’s a success for the security agencies because they’ve put a stop to this.” “But I don’t think this is the last plot like this,” Neumann said. “I would be very surprised if there were no other networks discovered.”

What Role Did Covid-19 Play?

The pandemic fueled far-right movements across Europe. Previously unknown activists found a large audience and a sympathetic audience through social media platforms such as Telegram.

People who were concerned about the state’s overreach quickly discovered far-right voices offering an explanation, which often included conspiracy theories based on the role of shadowy globalists or deep-state actors.

“These people have always existed, but the anti-COVID measures movement gave them enormous power,” Neumann said. “They were radicalized because it allowed them to say they had the right to take action, including armed action.”

“It enabled them to say, ‘This has gotten so bad that we need to act.'” The pandemic enabled them to expand their movement. They were previously sidelined because they were so insane.”