BERLIN, Dec 7 (Reuters) – German authorities on Wednesday arrested 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that the prosecutor’s office said was plotting a violent overthrow of the state, with some members suspected of having plotted an armed attack on parliament.
An active soldier and several reservists are among those under investigation, a spokesman for the military intelligence service told Reuters. The active soldier is a member of the Special Forces Command, he said.
A former far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP who is a judge in Berlin was also among those detained, as well as a former member of a German royal family.
Investigators suspect that individual members of the group had concrete plans to storm the lower house of the Bundestag parliament in Berlin with a small armed group, the prosecutor’s office said.
One of the suspects, identified as Heinrich XIII PR under German privacy law, had contacted representatives from Russia, whom the group considered its central contact in establishing its new order, the report said. desk. He said there was no evidence that representatives reacted positively to the request.
Heinrich, who comes from the royal house of Reuss, which had ruled parts of East Germany, was seen as the designated leader in the group’s future state while another suspect, Ruediger v. P., was the head of the military arm, the office says.
The Reuss household had previously distanced themselves from Heinrich, calling him a confused man who pursued conspiracy theories, according to local media. The house did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Prosecutors said the raids were carried out by more than 3,000 police and security forces in 11 German federal states. Suspects were arrested in the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Thuringia as well as in Austria and Italy, the office said.
The suspects are accused of preparing, since the end of November 2021 at the latest, to carry out actions based on their ideology, according to the office. These actions include purchasing equipment, recruiting new members and holding shooting lessons, he added.
Recruitment efforts have focused primarily on members of the military and police officers, the office said.
The group was aware that its plan would lead to fatalities, the office said, adding that its members saw this scenario as a “necessary intermediate step” towards overall system change.
The group’s ideology is in the same vein as the far-right Reichsbuerger movement and QAnon conspiracy theorists who share a deep belief that Germany is ruled by a “deep state”, the bureau. He did not name the suspect group.
Members of the Reichsbuerger (citizens of the Reich) do not recognize modern Germany as a legitimate state and insist that the much larger old “Deutsche Reich” still exists despite the defeat of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
BAMAD said it worked with prosecutors on their investigation and shared information with the Domestic Intelligence Service and federal criminal investigators in the run-up to Wednesday’s raids.
The detained suspects will appear on Wednesday and Thursday before a judge of the Federal Court of Justice who will issue the arrest warrants and decide on their pre-trial detention.
Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Kirsti Knolle; Written by Miranda Murray and Rachel More; Editing by Paul Carrel and Alison Williams
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