German federal prosecutors said on Tuesday, December 12, that they charged 27 suspected adherents of a far-right "terror group" arrested last year with involvement in a plot to attack parliament and overthrow the government.
Among those charged are 26 people accused of membership of a nationwide extremist network around Frankfurt aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss; as well as one Russian woman, identified only as Vitalia B., who is accused of supporting the terrorist organization, in part by allegedly setting up a contact with the Russian consulate in Leipzig and accompanying Reuss there.
"The accused are strongly suspected of membership of a terrorist organization as well as preparation of a treasonous undertaking," prosecutors said in a statement on the so-called Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich). Given the size of the organization and the complexity of the alleged plot, three superior regional courts, in Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart, will take charge of putting the suspects on trial. An indictment against 10 suspects, including the most prominent figures, was filed on December 11 at the state court in Frankfurt. Under the German legal system, the court must now decide whether and when the case will go to trial.
The accused were captured in raids across Germany last December in a case that made global headlines and prompted a heated domestic debate about how to rein in the country's growing and increasingly emboldened far-right scene.
Prosecutors said that the accused believed in a "conglomerate of conspiracy myths," including Reichsbürger and QAnon ideology, and were convinced that Germany is ruled by a so-called "deep state." Adherents of the Reich Citizens movement reject Germany’s postwar constitution and have called for bringing down the government, while QAnon is a global conspiracy theory with roots in the United States.
The Reichsbürger had allegedly organized a "council" to take charge after a putsch, as well as a "military arm that would build a new German army," chief federal prosecutor Peter Frank said at the time. Frank said some members of the "terrorist organization" intended to use force to enter the German Bundestag (lower house of parliament) and that the group's preparations were "already at an advanced stage."
Around 3,000 officers including elite anti-terror units took part in the early morning raids against the group last year, searching more than 130 properties in what German media described as one of the country's largest-ever police actions against extremists.
They allegedly planned to appoint Heinrich XIII, who was among those charged, as Germany's new leader after the coup. He had sought to make contact with Russian officials to discuss Germany's "new state order" after the coup, prosecutors said, although there is no indication that the Russian contacts were receptive to the request.
Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a former member of parliament for the far-right AfD party and Berlin judge, was also among those charged on Tuesday. The ex-MP had allegedly been tapped by the group to take over as justice minister after the planned coup. Other suspected members comprise current and a few former members of the German army, including an active soldier in the KSK special forces.
The Reichsbürger movement includes far-right extremists, conspiracy theorists and gun enthusiasts who reject the legitimacy of the modern German republic. Its followers generally believe in the continued existence of the pre-World War I German Reich, or empire, under a monarchy and several groups have declared their own states. Long dismissed as malcontents and oddballs, the Reichsbürger have become increasingly radicalized in recent years and are seen as a growing security threat.
Officials have repeatedly warned that far-right extremists pose the biggest threat to Germany’s domestic security. This threat was highlighted by the killing of a regional politician and an attempted attack on a synagogue in 2019. A year later, far-right extremists taking part in a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions tried and failed to storm the parliament building in Berlin.