The small group of “Citizens of the Reich” in court for having carefully prepared a coup d’état in Germany

Nine alleged members of this armed network appear on Monday for a planned coup d’état foiled at the end of 2022, the first in a series of three trials planned for this extremist group whose dismantling had stunned the country.

They wanted to overthrow power. Nine alleged members of an armed network appear Monday, April 29 in Stuttgart, Germany, for a planned coup d’état foiled at the end of 2022, the first in a series of three trials planned for this extremist group whose dismantling had stunned the country .

This small group called “Reichsbürger” (“Citizens of the Reich”) planned to invade the chamber of German deputies in Berlin, to arrest the elected officials and overthrow the government. Nourished by conspiratorial and far-right ideologies, the profiles of the nine men called to the stand on the first day of this marathon trial are astonishing. The alleged mastermind is a septuagenarian aristocrat and businessman, Henry XIII, known as “Prince Reuss”, descended from a lineage from the State of Thuringia, who was to take over the country after the putsch. Around him, a rather motley crew: former army officers, a former far-right MP, a renowned chef, an astrologer, a judge…

The “sustainability” of the German Reich

The small group was structured at the end of July 2021, with a political and military organization. The “Reichsbürger” movement brings together right-wing extremists and weapons enthusiasts who reject the legitimacy of the modern German Republic: they believe in the sustainability of the German Reich before the First World War, in the form of a monarchy, and several groups of sympathizers have decreed the creation of their own mini-states.

To prepare for the coup, the small group had therefore acquired bulletproof vests, helmets, handcuffs and night vision devices. During the searches, police also seized more than 700 pistols, rifles, crossbows, knives and machetes. The plan of the “Citizens of the Reich” was conceived in two stages: the militants were to invade the Bundestag and overthrow the government. To make the scenario credible, the cell had planned to recruit a double of Chancellor Olaf Scholz responsible for announcing the change of power. The activists, whose number is estimated at just over 20,000 across Germany, had to sign a confidentiality pact when joining the movement. Any treason was punishable by death.

In total, there will be 27 of them who will have to answer for their projects before the German courts in three different trials, in Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Munich. Each time, the courts scheduled around fifty hearing days, until January 2025.