Police arrested numerous suspects from the Reich citizen scene in the morning. The alleged ringleader has connections to Thuringia.
Karlsruhe/Bad Lobenstein (dpa/th) - Access also in Thuringia: On Wednesday, the federal prosecutor's office had 25 people from the so-called Reich citizen scene arrested. Two of them were arrested in the Saale-Orla district in south-eastern Thuringia, as the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe told the German Press Agency.
Around 3,000 police officers were on duty in eleven federal states on Wednesday morning, said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office. The Reich Citizens Group is regarded as a terrorist organization, they wanted to overthrow the state order in Germany and replace it with their own, the basics of which had already been worked out. The suspects would have accepted deaths for this.
22 of those arrested are said to be members of this terrorist organization, two of them ringleaders. Three others are considered supporters. More than 130 objects were searched.
Henry XIII is also one of the suspects. Prince Reuss. According to the federal prosecutor, the 71-year-old entrepreneur from Hesse, who is said to own a hunting lodge in eastern Thuringia, is suspected of having been a ringleader of the alleged terrorist group.
According to the investigation, he is said to have been chairman of the group's central body and, in the event of the overthrow, to have been considered the "future head of state". He is also said to have tried to contact representatives of the Russian Federation. The man was arrested in Frankfurt in the morning.
In view of the raids, Thuringia's head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, warned against "violent revolution fantasies" on the part of the Reich citizen scene and the New Right. "The allegations made by the Federal Public Prosecutor show that we have to take the Reich citizen scene very seriously because it poses a risk that should not be underestimated," Kramer told the editorial network Germany. "The networks also show that violent fantasies of revolution are not only limited to the Reich citizen scene, but also quite obviously include the New Right."
According to the Thuringian left-wing politician Katharina König-Preuss, the plans for the overthrow of the Reich citizen scene had been apparent for some time. It is good that the group was stopped before they could put their plans into action, said the member of parliament and right-wing extremism expert in Erfurt.
"It is nothing new that the Reich Citizens' Scene is pursuing plans for a coup; such efforts are often an essential part of the ideology," König-Preuss stated. "Thuringia has been a place of retreat for rich citizen structures for years, where new meeting places have recently become established, for example in Pfiffelbach near Weimar." It is correct that the federal prosecutor's office is taking action against the scene and taking action after there are indications of weapons being used. "There is an enormous potential for danger here, the Thuringian authorities alone know of 179 sharp firearms among members of the extreme right-wing scene and supporters of the Reich citizen ideology in the Free State," added König-Preuss.
The mayor of Bad Lobenstein also welcomed the large-scale operation. "My first reaction: It's about time," said Klaus Möller (left). "We've always had problems with Reich citizens in our city. It's good that action is now being taken." He doesn't know Reuss personally, said Möller. "I know he's counted towards that scene." The hunting lodge is private, it is not publicly accessible.
"Reich citizens" are people who do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures. They often refuse to pay taxes and are often in conflict with the authorities. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution ascribes around 21,000 followers to the scene.
According to the authorities, around five percent of them, i.e. around 1,150, are right-wing extremists. In 2021, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution attributed 1,011 extremist crimes to the "Reichsbürger und Selbstverwalter" scene.
