Plans to overthrow: Arrests in the Reich citizen scene in the southwest

Created: 2022-12-07Updated: 2022-12-07 10:36 am

A man is holding a booklet with the imprint “Deutsches Reich Reisepass” in his hand.

© Patrick Seeger/dpa/Illustration

They believed in the "deep state" and planned a coup.

Some of them legally owned guns.

Several thousand police officers went out early in the morning to arrest suspects who were preparing for "Day X".

One focus of the campaign: Baden-Württemberg.

Karlsruhe/Berlin – They are said to have planned a coup and in some cases also trained with weapons: the federal prosecutor's office had 25 people from the so-called Reich citizen scene arrested.

Around 3,000 police officers were on duty in eleven federal states on Wednesday morning, and searches were carried out primarily in Baden-Württemberg, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe told the German Press Agency.

The terrorist organization wanted to overthrow the state system in Germany and replace it with its own, which had already been worked out in outline.

She would have accepted death for that.

22 of those arrested are said to be members of this terrorist organization, two of them ringleaders.

Three others are considered supporters.

There are also 27 other suspects, said the spokeswoman.

More than 130 properties were searched, including many in around 15 urban and rural districts between the Main and Lake Constance.

According to information from the "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and "Stuttgarter Nachrichten", at least 30 apartments in the southwest of suspected corona deniers and so-called Reich citizens were searched.

In Pfinztal-Wöschbach (Karlsruhe district), according to the report, forces from the special task force (SEK) broke into the house of a suspect after they had ignited a firecracker to distract them.

The officials had therefore approached the apartment building in an armored vehicle.

"We don't have a name for this association yet," said the spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office about the group that has now been arrested.

According to the findings, this is based on conspiracy myths.

The members are firmly convinced that Germany is currently governed by members of a so-called deep state, a "deep state", it said in a statement.

According to this conviction, an attack by a technically superior secret society of governments, intelligence services and the military of various countries, including the Russian Federation and the United States of America, is imminent.

The people should have founded the group by the end of November 2021 at the latest.

The central body is a “council”.

Similar to the cabinet of a regular government, this has departments such as justice, foreign affairs and health.

"The members of the "Council" have met regularly in secret since November 2021 to plan the intended takeover of power in Germany and the establishment of their own state structures," said the federal prosecutor.

A "military arm" should also "eliminate" the democratic constitutional state at the level of the municipalities, districts and municipalities.

The association is aware that there will be deaths.

"However, it at least accepts this scenario as a necessary intermediate step to achieve the "system change at all levels" it is aiming for." Some suspected members of the military arm would have done active service in the Bundeswehr.

Above all, they would have wanted to recruit members of the Bundeswehr and the police for the planned overthrow of the state.

At at least four meetings in Baden-Württemberg in the summer, suspected members promoted the terrorist organization and its goals.

In the fall, suspects in northern Germany specifically wanted to win over police officers for the association.

Members of the "military arm" scouted out Bundeswehr barracks in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and Bavaria "to inspect them for their suitability for housing their own troops after the overthrow".

The investigations of the federal prosecutor's office are also aimed at a soldier from the Bundeswehr's Special Forces Command (KSK) and several Bundeswehr reservists.

The active soldier was deployed on the KSK staff, said a spokesman for the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD).

According to information from the dpa, it is a non-commissioned officer.

Accordingly, his house and office in the Graf Zeppelin barracks in Calw (Baden-Württemberg) were searched.

According to the information, people were arrested not only in Baden-Württemberg, but also in Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Thuringia, as well as one person each in Austria and Italy.

There were also searches in Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.

The federal prosecutor's office wanted to start questioning the first arrested on Wednesday, the spokeswoman said.

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Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann described the nationwide raid as an "anti-terrorist operation".

"Democracy is defensive: A major anti-terrorist operation has been taking place since this morning," wrote the FDP politician on Twitter on Wednesday morning.

The starting point of the investigation is said to be connections between members of the now dismantled association and members of the "United Patriots" group, who were arrested in April and are said to have planned to kidnap Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD).

"Reich citizens" are people who do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures.

They often refuse to pay taxes.

Often they are in conflict with 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.

During a raid in 2016, a so-called Reich citizen shot four police officers in Georgensgmünd, Bavaria.

One of them succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

The special task force wanted to confiscate the hunter's weapons.

In Stuttgart, a suspected "Reich citizen" is also on trial for attempted murder.

The federal prosecutor accuses the 62-year-old of deliberately hitting a police officer after a check and a chase in the Lörrach district.

dpa