Germany has seen a significant spike in supporters of the anti-state Reichsbürger movement. Dirk Wilking, of the Brandenburg Institute for Local Community Advice, spoke to DW about the group and what threat it poses.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Lübke
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Made up of a motley array of subgroups, the Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich) movement does not recognize the government, its institutions or its laws. Instead, many Reichsbürger insist that the German Reich, which ended after World War II, still exists today. Some have declared themselves rulers of their very own states, complete with customized passports and license plates. Often, Reichsbürger refuse to pay taxes, social security contributions or fines to the German state.
DW: According to the regional public broadcaster WDR, the number of Reichsbürger sympathizers in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has seen a jump in recent years. In 2016, there were 300. By January 2018, there were 2,200 and currently there are thought to be 2,750 supporters of the movement. What explains this increase?
Dirk Wilking: The Reichsbürger ideology gained popularity with the Pegida protests. The Reichsbürger movement does not keep a membership list so the only way of assessing their strength is from letters they send to state offices and other recipients. That is the basis for counting their numbers. It is a complicated way to measure their strength and takes time. A few exceptions aside, Germany's states were slow to become aware of the Reichsbürger movement and only recently began trying to assess their numbers.
We estimate that 30 to 40 percent subscribe to a far-right ideology.
Are the Reichsbürger particularly active in certain regions of Germany?
No, they are not active in just one region. But there is a typical kind of milieu. Many supporters are male, between 45 and 55 years old, and work for small and medium-sized enterprises. Many are self-employed, or formerly self-employed, and many are bankrupt. In southern Germany, there are also millionaires who are part of the movement. There is no particular East-West divide. But some adherents of the movement in eastern Germany witnessed the collapse of communism and know that it is possible to bring down an entire state. That is a crucial difference.
Those are isolated cases. The authorities are resolute in dealing with them. Nothing is swept under the rug. Supporters are directly confronted.
Are there politicians who are part of the movement?
None that I know of. There may be the occasional Alternative for Germany (AfD) party member. But I have always said Reichsbürger sympathizers are incompatible with political parties. They are practically impossible to integrate into party structures that require a degree of discipline.
In sum, how big is the danger posed by Germany's Reichsbürger movement?
There is no danger of them gaining actual power. The real risk is them delegitimizing the state. It's a real danger in more rural areas because the political class has almost lost touch with rural populations. The countryside has been largely left to fend for itself.
What can the state do to prevent the Reichsbürger movement becoming more influential?
I think the parties, more so than the state, should do more to reach out to social communities that have been abandoned. But that is something rank-and-file party members find hard to do. Parties have become clubs for the educated. Anyone unable to engage in intellectual debate is basically dismissed. That is fatal.
Dirk Wilking works for the Brandenburg Institute for Local Community Advice. It aims to reconcile the interests of different democratic forces in Germany. For roughly 10 years now, Wilking has devoted his attention to Germany's Reichsbürger movement. In 2015, he published the book Reichsbürger: Ein Handbuch (Reichsbürger: A Handbook).
The interview was conducted by Marco Müller.
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.
