"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

If you know the different German ranks of royalty, you're probably a medieval history buff: Kaiser (emperor), König (king), Erzherzog (archduke), Grossherzog (grand duke), Kurfürst (elector), Herzog (duke), Landgraf (landgrave), Pfalzgraf (count palatine), Markgraf (margrave), Fürst (prince), Freiherr (baron), Ritter (knight), Junker (squire)… But are there any kings and queens left in Germany?

Following the German Empire's defeat in World War I, civil unrest across Germany led to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II (portrayed above). A parliamentary democracy was proclaimed on November 9, 1918, and the Prussian monarchy and Germany's 22 constituent monarchies were abolished.

Traces of nobility can still be found in people's names. The particles "von" (which means "descending from") or "zu" ("resident at") preceding a German surname indicate that the person belongs to a family with a former heredity title — which is estimated to be the case for around 80,000 people in Germany. The titles only have a symbolic value today.

The last Emperor of Austria, Karl I (picture), didn't officially abdicate, so the laws abolishing the monarchy were stricter in the Austrian Republic. Germany's Weimar Republic allowed aristocrats to keep their family's nobiliary particles, but Austria determined in 1919 that such markers of identity were to be removed from names. Some politicians say a similar law should apply in Germany too.

Belonging to the nobility does not provide any legal advantages in Germany, but studies have found that people with a nobiliary particle in their name had more chances of landing a job interview than those without one. Nobility associations also provide networking opportunities that can contribute to gaining access to influential circles.

Proof that some people still believe that nobility has its perks, it is possible to acquire a genuine title through marriage or adoption. It's not cheap, however: Consultants offering such services mention fees "in the five to six-digit range." You'll also need to convince the family court that you're not getting adopted only to obtain the noble name — in that case, the name change can be refused.

It's actually really cheap to buy a German nobility title from a feudal line whose family members are all deceased. The companies selling those titles compare it to choosing your own artist's pseudonym, a right that's protected in Germany. But it's not a title that can be added to your identity card — unless you manage to prove that everyone knows you as "Prince."

Picking up a title for fun is one thing, but that doesn't mean you suddenly belong to nobility. Pretending you do can damage your credibility. For instance, the media investigated the title of a politician from the far-right AfD party, Doris Fürstin von Sayn-Wittgenstein. It turned out to be one that "has been sold at a high cost for a certain time already," according to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung."

Additionally, not everyone is impressed by nobiliary particles. The expression "Herr von und zu" or "Frau von und zu" — without referring to an actual family name — is sometimes used to mock a man or a woman who takes on pretentious airs. Haughty Ladies and Sirs should try kissing a frog; it might remind them that they're just mortal humans — and no noble title will ever change that.