Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.
German reports say the group of far-right and ex-military figures planned to storm the parliament building, the Reichstag, and seize power.
A minor aristocrat described as Prince Heinrich XIII, 71, is alleged to have been central to their plans.
According to federal prosecutors, he is one of two alleged ringleaders among those arrested across 11 German states.
The plotters are said to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] movement, which has long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist conspiracy theories. They also refuse to recognise the modern German state.
An estimated 50 men and women are alleged to have been part of the group, said to have plotted to overthrow the republic and replace it with a new state modelled on the Germany of 1871 - an empire called the Second Reich.
"We don't yet have a name for this group," said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office.
Three thousand officers took part in 130 raids across much of the country, with two people arrested in Austria and Italy. Those detained were due to be questioned later in the day.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted that a major anti-terror operation was taking place and a suspected "armed attack on constitutional bodies was planned".
The federal prosecutor's office said the group had been plotting a violent coup since November 2021 and members of its central "Rat" (council) had since held regular meetings.
They had already established plans to rule Germany with departments covering health, justice and foreign affairs, the prosecutor said. Members understood they could only realise their goals by "military means and violence against state representatives" which included carrying out killings.
Investigators are thought to have got wind of the group when they uncovered a kidnap plot last April involving a gang who called themselves United Patriots.
They too were part of the Reichsbürger scene and had allegedly planned to abduct Health Minister Karl Lauterbach while also creating "civil war conditions" to bring about an end to Germany's democracy.
The latest plot is also said to have involved a former far-right AfD member of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, who was lined up to be installed as the group's justice minister, with Prince Heinrich as leader.
Heinrich XIII comes from an old noble family known as the House of Reuss, which ruled over parts of the modern eastern state of Thuringia until 1918. All the male members of the family were given the name Heinrich as well as a number.
As well as a shadow government, the plotters allegedly had plans for a military arm, with active and former members of the military a significant part of the coup plot, according to reports. They included ex-elite soldiers from special units. The aim of military arm was to eliminate democratic bodies at local level, prosecutors said.
One of those under investigation is a member of the Special Commando Forces, and police searched his home and his room at the Graf-Zeppelin military base in Calw, south-west of Stuttgart.
One advantage of communism is that you don't need to find some crusty inbred mummy to play the mascot of your revolution
crusty
inbredmummies:marx-angry: :lenin-sleeping: :blushing-engels:
(please ignore Engels, he's a bit of a freak. Likes being called that)
It's worth noting that this group did not only include ex militaries, but active duty members as well. Also a bunch of cops and ex-cops, and a former MP for the far-right AfD party, who had just won a case to get back to her old job as a judge in spite of her being literally a card-carrying fascist.
The Reichsbürger movement is an exact carbon copy of the sovereign citizens in the US. Even down to super weird, minor details like the believe that the federal government is actually a corporation.
minor details like the believe that the federal government is actually a corporation
:ambivalent-larry-david:
So do they also consider Germany to be a ship since it's "on the ocean" and therefore subject to maritime admiralty law?
So you walk into a building, kill a few guys and kick everyone else out and suddenly you control everything the German state did? Did they have a plan to control the German military and security state? Usually you need to do that first lol
Monarchists and believing that political power comes from sitting in metaphorical thrones lol
If you keep the area clear of enemies for 30 seconds all the flags change color and a countdown starts
So you walk into a building, [hang] a [Mike Pence] and kick everyone else out and suddenly you control everything the [American] state did?
:kelly: ReichsBörger indeed
The Axis has captured the spawn point!
Military planning, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, style.
It's been over a hundred years since Kaiser Billy single-handedly discredited the concept of monarchy within Germany.
If these dipshits haven't gotten the memo after all this time, who knows what other smooth-brained ideals they'd hold.
Sovereign citizen brainworms convince their hosts that contracts are not written on paper, but into the very fabric of the universe itself, and everyone has to obey them
Apparently they wanted to abduct Lauterbach publicly during a talkshow. They wanted to parade a doppelganger of the president or the chancellor during the coup / after the coup (?) for some reason. They wanted to have part of their group get in a boat, ship it over to Kaliningrad and hoped to get a meeting with Putin when they get picked up by the Russian marine. Monarchist brainrot lol.
his room at the Graf-Zeppelin military base
I refuse to believe that this base is not a huge Zeppelin moored to the peak of a Bavarian castle above a small mountain village where it is always raining and thundering.
they actually did ask Russia for help and apparently Russia was just like "wtf no do your coup yourself lol"
Right wing coup :wojak-nooo:
Right wing coup, [Third World Country of Strategic Interest] :so-true:
I visited the Reichstag (well, the dome) a few years ago while on a jolly to Berlin - you have to first book a time when you can visit, then go through, like, five security checkpoints before you even get close to the thing. I chortle at the thought of 20+ of these clowns in their long overcoats, queueing to get in next to gangs of schoolkids and Japanese tourists.
There are cops and armed security everywhere. They would get royally fucked within 30 seconds of trying anything.
This still seems a notch above plots like the one where those yokels got honeypotted to try to kidnap that one US governor
Oh aye, but it would need serious effort to storm that building.
:via-getty: :meemaw: :passion: :frothingfash:
A crack squad of hardcore right-wing insurgents from America is on their way to assist
Heinrich XIII comes from an old noble family known as the House of Reuss, which ruled over parts of the modern eastern state of Thuringia until 1918. All the male members of the family were given the name Heinrich as well as a number.
Real "video game antagonist backstory" moment.
They already had not one, but two Heinrich XIII. in the 1500s and then another one half a century later and then another one in the 1900s and i've only scrolled halfway down the absurdist Heinrich collection that is their family tree.
Heinrichs be like
:walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead: :walking-dead:
what is it with nobility and reusing names to the point of absurdity anyway
obviously their aims and their successful recruitment of ex/current special forces, cops, and others with institutional power is absolutely cause for concern, but this...
A minor aristocrat described as Prince Heinrich XIII, 71, is alleged to have been central to their plans.
...is extremely funny.
German monarchists are legit hilarious. You get all the same weird brainworms as monarchists in other parts of Europe, but with the added tickle that the German monarchy was literally abolished after the Kaiser led the country into World War 1 and also because he sort of helped establish the Soviet Union by sending in Lenin to be a rabble rouser in Russia.
His abdication, which was literally just him dipping to the Netherlands, was the thing that put the nail in German Monarchism's coffin.
"Bu-but Friedrich the Great!"
Why didn’t them simply debate Prince Heinrich XIII in the marketplace of ideas?
The fascist coup plotters being called "reichsburger" has gotta be the second most American thing to come out of Germany
it's sovereign citizens, but served in a brioche bun with a pickle and a slice of tomato
we really need a dirtbag Rustin Cohle from True Detective emoji
