Germany has violent antidemocratic crazies too
German authorities broke up a large anti-government plot today. CNN reports, “The members of the group follow a conglomerate of conspiracy myths consisting of narratives of the so-called Reichsbürger as well as QAnon ideology.”
BBC:
Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.
The group of far-right and ex-military figures are said to have prepared for a “Day X” to storm the Reichstag parliament building and seize power.
A minor aristocrat named 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 and antisemitic conspiracy theories. They also refuse to recognise the modern German state.
Other suspects came from the QAnon movement who believe their country is in the hands of a mythical “deep state” involving secret powers pulling the political strings.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser assured Germans that authorities would respond with the full force of the law “against the enemies of democracy”.
Yeah, that sounds familiar.
CNN’s report adds:
German Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann said on Wednesday that “democracy is defensible,” adding a “major anti-terror operation” has been underway since this morning.
“The Federal Public Prosecutor is investigating a suspected terrorist network from the Reich citizen milieu,” Buschmann said on Twitter.
“There are suspicions that an armed attack on constitutional organs was planned.”
The federal prosecutor’s office said the raids are continuing and are directed against a further 27 suspects.
The group was prepared to use violence and accepted that deaths would happen, the statement added. Its central “council” was headed by an individual named as Heinrich XIII P.R., who had reached out to Russian representatives inside Germany — although the prosecutor said there were no indications so far of a positive response to his overtures. German news media identified the individual as Prince Heinrich XIII, 71, a descendant of the House of Reuss, a royal dynasty from the German state of Thuringia.
“The 71-year-old aristocrat is a true descendant of the House of Reuss – a family who ruled over parts of Germany for hundreds of years – and is said to be hell bent on tearing down the German government to bring back the glory days of old,” says the London tabloid Daily Mail.
“The organisation is thought to have opposed Germany’s postwar constitution and intended to establish the ‘prince’ as the country’s new leader,” reports the Economic Times of India. “By German privacy laws, the other suspected ringleader is a 69-year-old former paratrooper identified only as Ruediger.