Bavaria: "Reichsbürger" meeting in school: procedure set

Coburg (dpa / lby) - After a meeting of supporters of the "Reichsbürger" scene in a Coburg school was dissolved, the investigations against the school caretaker were discontinued.

Bavaria: "Reichsbürger" meeting in school: procedure set

Coburg (dpa / lby) - After a meeting of supporters of the "Reichsbürger" scene in a Coburg school was dissolved, the investigations against the school caretaker were discontinued. The man was accused of having unlocked the 55 so-called Reich citizens for the illegal meeting. Several media had previously reported.

The investigations were stopped because the school had not filed a criminal complaint, said a spokesman for the Coburg public prosecutor's office. The prosecution can only prosecute a trespassing, unlike, for example, a bodily harm, on request and not on their own initiative.

The headmaster of the Waldorf school, Hans-Joachim Döhner, justified the decision against filing a criminal complaint with the fact that there was no legal basis for prosecuting the incident. The prosecutor's office did not comment on this assessment. "It was important to us that the employment relationship ended quickly," said Döhner. That happened immediately after the incident.

"Reich citizens" are people who reject the Federal Republic of Germany as a state entity and often accuse its organs of corruption and reprehensible goals. They often proclaim their own states and laws and categorically reject any state authority. The police had broken up the illegal meeting in early February, and firearms were later found on one of the participants.

In a statement published on Tuesday, the Rudolf Steiner School said the meeting and nationwide reporting had placed significant strain on the school community. Despite the immediate distancing, "the school faced repeated suspicions of being close to the Reich citizens or of tolerating their aspirations." Make it clear that "Reichsbürger or similar anti-constitutional movements" will not be tolerated in the school community.