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- BBC News World
image source, Archyde.com
Conspirators accused of overthrowing the German government include members of the Reichsbürger movement
The German authorities have spent years monitoring the so-called Reichsbürger (Reich Citizens), groups or individuals who deny the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany as a State and its legal system for many different reasons.
In many cases, they deny the legitimacy of any democratically elected representative. The German authorities arrested 25 people on Wednesday who “follow a conglomerate of conspiracy myths made up of narratives from the so-called Reichsbürger and the QAnon ideology,” according to the German Prosecutor’s Office, set off the alarms again. The detainees conspired to overthrow the government and form a new one.
“Research allows us to glimpse the abyss of a terrorist threat coming from the environment of the Reichsbürger“, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser declared today. The association is “driven by fantasies of violent overthrow and conspiracy ideologies,” added the Social Democratic politician.
A parallel state
The Reichsbürger often see themselves on the fringes of the current legal system such as parliament, laws or the courts. They declare that the historic German Reich continues to exist today, hence its name (Bürger is citizen in German).
In particular, this means that the Reichsbürger reject, for example, official German identity cards and instead issue fictitious documents such as the “Reich driver’s license” or “Reich ID card” or use “German Reich” car license plates or even print their own currency. They also refuse to pay taxes or tariffs and the social security contribution.
This led to the fact that for years the Reichsbürger were the subject of national ridicule and were branded as crazy. However, in recent years the State security services warned that they had become more radical and dangerous and intensified their vigilance.
Despite its name, it is not a unified organized national movement, but rather a disparate collection of small groups and individuals scattered across the country united by that common belief.
Some even dream of creating their own autonomous stateapart from the Federal Republic of Germany.
Earlier this year, for example, a group calling itself Königreich Deutschland (Kingdom of Germany) bought two pieces of land in the eastern German state of Saxony, on which it intended to create its own state.
image source, Archyde.com
The raids were carried out on 130 properties in 11 German federal states and 3,000 agents participated. It is one of the biggest raids in German history.
Many of his supporters have weapons, legal or illegal. This became concerning when in 2016 a Bavarian Reichsbürger shot and killed a police officer while officers were searching his home for weapons cache.
Since then the German authorities have revoked more than a thousand gun licenses from people they believe subscribe to this ideology. Specifically, between 2016 and 2021, some 1,050 Reichsbürger saw their weapons permits withdrawn. However, it is currently estimated about 500 own guns legally.
Government figures show that the Reichsbürger and the so-called Selbstverwalter – a “grouping” with similar beliefs that translates as “self-managed” – committed more than 1,000 extremist criminal acts in 2021, double the number in 2020.
Of the 21,000 people in Reichsbürger circles, it is believed that 1,150 are right-wing extremists and 2,100 are potentially violent, according to data from the German secret services in the interior, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). In addition, according to his information, “approximately one in ten considers himself willing to resort to violence.”
image source, Archyde.com
All those arrested were Germans, except for one person of Russian nationality.
They also have ties to the German military, says Miro Dittrich, an expert who tracks the group, as well as other conspiracy theorists.
In his opinion, the pandemic has served to further radicalize the group, as well as to increase its support.
“The pandemic was a difficult time for a lot of people. It wasn’t clear how things were going to play out… conspiracy narratives were quite attractive to many people because they brought order to the world“, he states.
The Reichsbürger demonstrated alongside anti-vaxxers and covid deniers (indeed, some share those positions), as well as QAnon supporters, during the massive street protests of recent years.
They were also there when a mob from a demonstration against the measures applied by the German government to fight covid tried to storm the Bundestag in August 2020.
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