They are accused of planning a coup and to kidnap German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. Now, five suspected members of a terrorist group linked to the "Reichsbürger" movement are facing trial.
Five suspects, four men and one woman, appeared in court in the western German city of KoblenzImage: Boris Roessler/dpa/picture alliance
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The trial of five suspected members of the "Vereinte Patrioten" (United Patriots) group begins on Wednesday (May 17) at the Higher Regional Court in the western German city of Koblenz.
The four men, along with a 75-year-old woman who is suspected of being the group's ringleader, are accused of planning to overthrow the German government. According to federal prosecutors, they got together in mid-January 2022 and called themselves the "Vereinte Patrioten". They are now charged with founding or being a member of a terrorist organization.
The group stands accused of wanting to unleash a civil war-like situation by causing an electricity blackout and kidnapping German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. Their goal: the end of the parliamentary democracy in Germany.
After their planned takeover, the accused wanted to assume control of government agencies themselves. Federal prosecutors, therefore, accused them of "preparing high treason against the federal government."
The plotters had been planning to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. Image: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images
How advanced were the group's plans?
Investigators have described "concrete preparations" by the accused, who communicated primarily via a chat group on the Telegram online messaging service and met several times in various locations.
One of the accused scouted targets for attacks on the electricity network. Another planned the kidnapping of the health minister, "if necessary, by killing his bodyguards."
To that end, the group obtained kalashnikovs and pistols as well as ammunition. They also wanted to import barrels of explosives from the former Yugoslavia.
Part of the 'Reichsbürger' movement?
The alleged ideological leader of the group is a 75-year-old former pastor and teacher who most recently lived in Saxony. Her writings were found on the blogs of the "Reichsbürger" (Citizens of the Reich) movement. They are written in the characteristic style of the 23,000-member movement which claims that the German Reich — Germany under the rule of an emperor — still exists as it did until 1918. The Reichsbürger reject all current state authorities as unlawful.
Open letters the woman is accused of writing on "Reichsbürger" blogs are addressed to Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, or "the Allies." In them, she expresses antisemitic thoughts, signed with "Wilhelm-Emperor-Rex-Descendants," implying that she saw herself as a successor of the last German emperor.
Federal prosecutors are convinced that the woman and her accomplices were more than eccentric imposters. According to the group's theory that the German Reich continues to exist based on the constitution of 1871, they would conclude that the democratic order of the Federal Republic of Germany was invalid. Instead, an authoritarian system of government modeled on the German Empire must be reintroduced.
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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Why target the health minister?
Karl Lauterbach has long been considered a bogeyman by Germany's "Querdenker" (lateral thinkers) and "Reichsbürger" movements. Even before he was appointed health minister in December 2021, the professor of medicine made countless media appearances as an expert during the COVID-19 pandemic. During these, he advocated for strict measures such as limitations on interpersonal contact to combat the spread of the virus. He continued this course when he entered office as minister.
In doing so, he drew hatred from extremist circles who rejected government measures to combat the pandemic in Germany. Lauterbach remains under round-the-clock protection to this day.
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How was the group discovered?
An undercover investigator is said to have played a key role in the arrests of the suspects. He was deployed in the surroundings of the accused for months.
On April 13, 2022, the four accused men were arrested, and the woman on October 13 the same year. Since then, they have been remanded in custody.
If the court finds them guilty, they are likely to face several years in prison.
This article was originally written in German.
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