are known as Rijksburger, that is, “Citizens of the Reich”, and not recognizing Germany as a legitimate state. The group, which was dismantled yesterday, in an operation involving more than 3,000 police officers and a search of 130 properties, is reportedly seeking to invade parliament and overthrow the government. The aim would be to bring to power Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, a 71-year-old aristocrat who is among the 25 prisoners. The businessman will have tried to contact Moscow for support (including a Russian national among those arrested), with the Russian embassy in Berlin denying any involvement.
According to the German authorities, the detainees are suspected of “belonging to a terrorist organization established at the end of November 2021”, with ties to the movement. Rijksburger, which “had set itself the goal of overthrowing the existing state order in Germany and replacing it with its own form of state”. THEIn addition to the 25 arrested (one arrested in Italy and the other in Austria), 27 more suspects were identified.
One of the targets, according to the magazine Der Spiegel, was a barracks of the German army’s Special Forces Unit (KSK) in the town of Calw (in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg). Among those arrested will be a soldier of this unit, as well as several reservists of the German Armed Forces, as confirmed by the military intelligence services to the DPA news agency – one of the leaders is said to be Rüdiger von P., who commanded a battalion of paratroopers at the beginning of the 1990s decade (before joining KSK), eventually fired for stealing guns. It is not the first time that KSK has encountered problems with right-wing extremism, and in 2020 one of the units was therefore dismantled.
Prosecutors allege that as part of the preparations for the alleged coup d’état, members of this group have already acquired weapons, conducted target practice and tried to recruit more supporters, particularly among the army and police. The suspects knew that their objectives “could only be achieved through military means and violence against representatives of the state,” they added.
The group had plans to form a transitional government – judge and former member of parliament for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, who was also arrested, would be justice minister. In addition, they wanted to renegotiate the new state order in Germany with the Allies who had won World War II, starting with Russia.
Russian Vitalia B. is said to have facilitated contacts with officials in Moscow, with German authorities saying “there is no indication that the people contacted reacted positively”. The Russian embassy in Berlin “has no contact with representatives of terrorist groups or other illegal entities,” a statement said.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the investigation leading up to yesterday’s operation “looked into the abyss of the terrorist threat” of the Rijksburger🇧🇷 The group that was dismantled, he added, was “motivated by fantasies of a violent overthrow of the government and conspiracy theories,” and further investigation was needed to see how far they had progressed with their plans. The minister thanked the security forces involved in “protecting [sua] democracy”.
“Citizens of the Empire”
That reports broadcaster Deutsche Wellethe members of the movement Rijksburger deny the existence of the post-World War II Federal Republic of Germany and believe that the current state is nothing more than an administrative construct still occupied by the Western powers – the US, UK and France. The movement is formed by several small groups that refuse to pay taxes, as well as the authority of the police and other state institutions, and have declared their own “national territories”, without concealing their intentions.
This is reported by the internal information service. the movement will have about 21,000 members (mostly men and an average age of over 50), of which 5% are considered to be far right. More than 2,000 are considered potentially violent, with various military backgrounds – and a penchant for laying guns. In 2016, a police officer was killed by a member of the Rijksburger during an operation to seize the arsenal of more than 30 weapons he had in his house.
Although the group dismantled yesterday was founded just over a year ago, the more global movement has been around longer. This operation was launched after authorities discovered the plans of another group of the Rijksburger who planned to kidnap the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, because of the restrictive policy against covid-19. This gesture would be the “prelude” to the coup.
After the coup, power would pass to Prince Heinrich XIII, descendant of the House of Reuss, which was founded in the 12th century and ruled the region in today’s state of Thuringia until the collapse of the empire, in the 1918 Revolution. The family received lands and titles from Emperor Henry VI, hence the tribute paid to the male heirs.
Heinrich XIII is a real estate entrepreneur from Frankfurt, married to Iranian Susan Doukht Jalali. The family has distanced themselves from him for years, with a spokesman telling German media in August that he was a “partly confused” old man caught up in the “misconceptions of conspiracy theories”.
Source: DN
