The first hearing on Monday will focus on the nine suspects associated with the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) group. Overall, they are estimated to consist of 21,000 people who reject contemporary Germany’s legitimacy as a state, with about 5% of them considered far-right extremists. Some have been identified as family doctors or even politicians. Germany’s domestic intelligence service, Verfassungsschutz, first began observing the Reichsbuerger in 2016 after one of its members killed a police officer.
Reichsbuergers subscribe to the belief that they are citizens of an older Germany, specifically that of the pre-World War I German Reich. Others call for the return of Hitler’s Third Reich. But their overall aim is to overthrow the ‘Deep State’ they believe has entrenched itself in Germany politics since World War II.
The leader of the group, real estate tycoon Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss (who has previously complained about the loss of his family’s dynasty, resting blame upon both Freemasons and Jewish business people), will appear in court in Frankfurt next month. More suspects are scheduled for trial in Munich in June.
When discovered, the nine defendants had amassed €500,000 in cash, 380 firearms, 350 bladed weapons, and approximately 148,000 rounds of ammunition. Prosecutors assert that the group’s meticulous planning and the accumulation of firearms and funds indicate a genuine threat. The prosecutors believe that the suspects aimed to infiltrate the parliament in Berlin, apprehend legislators, and dismantle the existing system — using violence to seize power.
The Reichsbuergers also use the rhetoric of the QAnon movement — a group that also believes in a Deep State and which played a role in the storming of the Capitol in Washington D.C. on 6 January 2021.
Judicial proceedings in the Stuttgart case are scheduled until January 2025. However, anticipated to be one of the most expansive legal proceedings in German history, experts believe the case will take more time.
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‘Citizens of the Reich': Raids and suspicion as German group grows
