Authorities in the western city of Karlsruhe said they had charged 26 suspected members of a terrorist organization and a Russian female national accused of supporting it.
"The accused are strongly suspected of membership of a terrorist organisation as well as preparation of a treasonous undertaking," the prosecutors said in a statement.
What do we know about the suspects?
Police in several German states arrested 25 suspects last December in the first of a string of raids.
Prosecutors said the circle of suspects was still growing with many of those involved already in custody.
Those now charged include Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a former member of the German parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Also charged was the entrepreneur and aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, who is alleged to have been the ringleader.
Plans for the coup had evolved to such a degree that branches of a future government had already been allocated.
Malsack Winkemann, a sitting Berlin judge at the time of her arrest, had been earmarked to lead the justice ministry. Reuss was to have become Germany's head of state.
The accused, who also included a former special forces soldier, were said to have wanted to overthrow Germany's political order. They were said to have accepted that this would involve violence and possible deaths.
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Plan to set up armed units
According to prosecutors, the group made contact with Russian officials seeking to establish a new order in Germany once the Berlin government was overthrown. They also began stockpiling weapons.
Prosecutors said the suspects planned to set up 280 armed units across Germany that would have been tasked with "arresting and executing" people after a coup. They planned to break into the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin armed and arrest members of the Bundestag.
The group made numerous concrete preparations for the coup and the subsequent securing of power. The "Council" was to serve as the central body of a transitional administration, similar to the cabinet of a regular government. Its job was to negotiate a new state order in Germany with the Allied victorious powers of the Second World War.
In the states of Saxony, Thuringia, and Baden-Württemberg, concrete preparations had already been made.
The Reichsbürger movement in Germany
They reject the legitimacy of Germany's government. Some are prepared to use violence. Who are the Reichsbürger? And what is Germany doing about them?
Image: picture-alliance/chromorange/C. Ohde
What do Reichsbürger believe?
"Reichsbürger" translates to "citizens of the Reich." The nebulous movement rejects the modern German state, and insists that the German Empire's 1937 or 1871 borders still exist and the modern country is an administrative construct still occupied by Allied powers. For Reichsbürger, the government, parliament, judiciary and security agencies are puppets installed and controlled by foreigners.
Image: picture-alliance/SULUPRESS/MV
The first 'Reichsbürger' Wolfgang Ebel
Wolfgang Ebel was the first to argue the German Reich's continued to exist. A resident of West Berlin, he worked for Berlin S-bahn local train service which the GDR operated under the label "Deutsche Reichsbahn." When he got sacked in 1980 he argued that he was actually a civil servant of the Reich and could not be sacked by a post-war institution. He lost all his court cases and turned radical.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Ebener
What do they do?
The Reichsbürger refuse to pay taxes or fines. They see their personal property, such as their houses, as independent entities outside the authority of the Federal Republic of Germany, and reject the German constitution and other legal texts, but also swamp German courts with lawsuits. They produce their own aspirational documents such as passports and driving licenses.
Image: picture-alliance/Bildagentur-online/Ohde
How much of a threat are they?
The Reichsbürger scene began to develop in the 1980s and is a disparate, leaderless movement that has grown to about 23,000 supporters, according to German intelligence officials. Of those, about 950 have been identified as far-right extremists and at least 1,000 have a license to own firearms. Many subscribe to antisemitic ideologies.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Weihrauch
Who are its members? One was Mr. Germany
According to German authorities, the average Reichsbürger is 50 years old, male, and is socially and financially disadvantaged. The movement's members are concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of Germany. Adrian Ursache, a former winner of the Mister Germany beauty pageant, is also a Reichsbürger and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2019 for shooting and injuring a policeman.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. Schmidt
Turning point
The case of Wolfgang P., who in October 2017 was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a police officer, is seen as a turning point for how German authorities deal with the extremist group. P., an alleged Reichsbürger member, shot at officers who were raiding his home to confiscate weapons. The case gained international attention and set off alarm bells over the escalation of violence.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Karmann
What are the authorities doing about it?
German authorities were accused of long underestimating the threat. In 2017 for the first time Germany’s domestic intelligence service documented extremist crimes perpetrated by individual Reichsbürger. Since then there have been several raids on Reichsbürger targets and subgroups have been banned. Police and military have also probed whether they have Reichsbürger in their own ranks.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Zinken
International parallels, conspiracy theories
Reichsbürger have been seen waving Russian flags, leading to allegations that they are funded by Russia with the aim to destabilize the German government. Germany's Reichsbürger are also compared to US groups such as "freemen-on-the-land," who believe that they are bound only by laws they consent to and can therefore declare themselves independent of the government and the rule of law.
Image: DW/D. Vachedin
Ringleader Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuss
The prince was the ringleader of "Reichsbürger" affiliates who planned a coup in 2022. He had lost several court cases to regain lost lands and properties, and then publicly reiterated the belief that the current democratic Federal Republic has no valid basis, peddled well-worn antisemitic tropes and suggested to reinstate the Kaiser, who had been removed against the wishes of the people.
Image: Boris Roessler/picture alliance/dpa
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Prosecutors said the cases would be heard at higher regional courts in Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart. The more prominent cases are set to be heard in Frankfurt.
Members of the movement believe deep-state conspiracy theories that deny the existence of Germany's post-World War II Federal Republic and reject the authority of the German government. They claim that the 1937 borders of the German empire still exist.
They were therefore convinced by various conspiracy myths for example that Germany is currently ruled by members of a so-called deep state.
The members believed they would be liberated by a secret alliance that would work with them and give them the signal for "Day X" when the coup would be launched.
The non-existent society was said to include governments, intelligence services and militaries of various states, including the Russian Federation and the United States of America.
Edited by: Alex Berry
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