The scene of the so-called Reichsbürger and self-governers is growing - mostly in secret. Now the federal prosecutor's office struck more than two dozen people in a nationwide raid. One focus of the campaign was Baden-Württemberg.
Karlsruhe/Berlin (dpa/lsw) - In one of the largest police operations against extremists in Germany, 25 people from the Reich citizen scene were arrested who probably wanted to overthrow the political system. According to the federal prosecutor, they are suspected of having formed a terrorist organization that wanted to use armed force to install a new government and would have accepted the deaths. The news sparked horror on Wednesday.
Among those arrested are the judge and former AfD member of parliament Birgit Malsack-Winkemann and a soldier from the Bundeswehr's Special Forces Command (KSK). The entrepreneur Heinrich XIII is considered one of the ringleaders. Prince Reuss of Hesse. He and the first other suspects have now been taken into custody, as Attorney General Peter Frank said in Karlsruhe. By the evening, a total of 13 suspects had been taken into custody, as a spokeswoman for the authorities later added.
In Baden-Württemberg alone, according to Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU), hundreds of police officers were on duty. The action was "a large-scale, precise and successful strike against right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism". Strobl added: "The Reich citizen scene is a serious threat." The southwest was a focus of the action, where eight suspects were arrested.
The federal prosecutor accuses the accused of membership in a terrorist organization or their support. They clung to conspiracy theories, Frank explained. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) said the investigations revealed "the abyss of a terrorist threat". The raid at dawn was about "anti-state action from the right".
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann described the police action in eleven federal states as well as in Italy and Austria as an "anti-terrorist operation". The President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, rated it an important "blow against militant and widely networked parts of the Reich citizen scene". Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told the radio station MDR Aktuell that action would have to be taken if it was confirmed that terrorist crimes were being prepared. "Then criminal law must also set limits."
"Reich citizens" are people who do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution ascribes around 21,000 followers to the scene. In Baden-Württemberg it should be about 3800. "The scene is still very active and dynamic and has again received a significant number of visitors in the past year," said Haldenwang, head of the authorities.
According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, the investigations have so far produced the following picture: The accused are said to have founded the association by the end of November 2021 at the latest. They have already worked out the basics of structures for their own state order. As head of state, Henry XIII. Prince Reuss should act. Departments had already been distributed: the former member of the Bundestag should have been responsible for justice, said Frank.
The federal prosecutor said that soldiers and police officers were specifically targeted for the overthrow. According to the investigation, another plan was to force a small armed group into the Bundestag.
Around 3,000 police officers were deployed in eleven federal states. Federal prosecutors accuse 22 of those arrested of being members of a terrorist organization. Three are considered supporters. With the exception of one Russian, all have German citizenship.
There are also 27 other suspects. According to Frank, the officers secured extensive material during around 150 searches. According to dpa information, weapons were found in several dozen objects. Several of the suspects have gun permits, which is one reason for the large number of special forces involved in the raid.
The members of the association are firmly convinced that Germany is currently being governed by members of a so-called "deep state", according to the statement by the federal prosecutor. Behind the terms "deep state" used in conspiracy myths is the idea that secret powers pull the strings in the background of political decisions.
The group expected an "alliance" to set them free. This is a technically superior secret society of governments, military and intelligence services from various countries, including the Russian Federation and the United States of America. The association firmly assumes that their attack is imminent.
The central body of the group is a "council". Similar to the cabinet of a regular government, this has departments such as justice, foreign affairs and health. "The members of the "council" have met regularly in secret since November 2021 to plan the intended takeover of power in Germany and the establishment of their own state structures," said the federal prosecutor.
An interim government should have negotiated the new state order in Germany with the Allied victorious powers of the Second World War. "From the point of view of the association, the main contact for these negotiations is currently the Russian Federation." Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov promptly described the raid as an internal German affair.
A "military arm" should also "eliminate" the democratic constitutional state at community, district and municipal level, it said. The association is aware that there will be deaths. But she accepts this as a necessary intermediate step towards the desired system change. "This military arm is intended to build a new German army," said Attorney General Frank. Homeland security companies should be established for this.
"As far as we know, individual members of this military arm were also active in the Bundeswehr in the past," said Frank. According to the Defense Ministry, three soldiers are among the suspects, including one soldier from the KSK who is an active member of the Bundeswehr and two who are not active.
Above all, according to the information, the association also wanted to recruit members of the Bundeswehr and police for the planned overthrow of the state. At at least four meetings in Baden-Württemberg in the summer, suspected members promoted the terrorist organization and its goals. Members of the "military arm" scouted out Bundeswehr barracks in Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria "to inspect their suitability for housing their own troops after the overthrow."
The fact that the former AfD member of the Bundestag Malsack-Winkemann is among the suspects is very worrying, said SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich (SPD). The lawyer sat in parliament for the AfD from 2017 to 2021. In March 2022 she returned to the judiciary and works at the Berlin Regional Court. Justice Senator Lena Kreck (left) wants to "remove" the accused completely from the judiciary.
The business distribution plan was changed on Wednesday in such a way that Malsack-Winkemann is no longer involved in current decisions by the Berlin Regional Court. The lawyer had left the civil chamber responsible for construction matters, a spokeswoman for the court said on request.
According to the information, suspects were arrested in Baden-Württemberg (8), Bavaria (4), Hesse (3), Lower Saxony (3), Saxony (2), Thuringia (2) and Berlin (1) as well as one person each in Austria and Italy. There were also searches in Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.
The starting point of the investigation is said to be connections between members of the now dismantled association and members of the "United Patriots" group, who were arrested in April and probably wanted to kidnap Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD).
