The 25 arrested this Wednesday in Germany for planning an armed coup against the State are mostly Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich), a movement of far-right Germans who do not abide by the Constitution or accept the existence of the Federal Republic, and Querdenker, sympathizers of the so-called lateral thinking, who believe in conspiracy theories.
The main ringleader of the attempted coup is a nobleman, Heinrich XIII Reuss, Prince of Thuringia, who was arrested in Frankfurt. The Federal Prosecutor's Office confirmed in a statement that the raid, in which 3,000 agents participated, included the exhaustive search of 130 homes or premises in eleven Länder (federated states) of the 16 that make up the country.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), that is, the German national intelligence agency, estimates that there are about 21,000 Reichsbürger in the country, of which about 1,150 are classified as far-right radicals. Most are men, on average over 50, and have Nazi and anti-Semitic sympathies. Some 2,100 are considered potentially violent. The BfV considers both those with a history of violence and those who have made threats or statements in favor of violence with the corresponding ideological references to be violent.
Its historical reference is the German Empire, founded in 1871 by chancellor Bismarck and which disappeared after the First World War with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Reichsbürger deny the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), which they consider an administrative invention of the post-war occupying Allied powers. Some even print blue passports and driver's licenses from the so-called German Empire, and fly flags from the Kaiser's time.
His affinity for firearms is of great concern to the German authorities. The latest BfV report on the Reichsbürger stated that there are men among them ready to commit “serious acts of violence”. On several occasions, the police have already found caches of weapons and ammunition in house searches. Its members include ex-soldiers of the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) and the NVA (National People's Army of the former GDR), that is, men with military training.
The Reichsbürgers and the Querdenkers came together in an ideological mess during the covid pandemic, united by their rejection of the anti-virus measures decreed by the government of the then chancellor, Angela Merkel. The self-described 'lateral thinkers' are anti-establishment people, who hold similar conspiracy theories to QAnon cultists, and were opposed to vaccination and the requirement to wear a mask.
In August 2021, Reichsbürger and Querdenker protesters who were participating in a march against anti-virus rules staged a threat to take over the Reichstag in Berlin (they reached the stairs of the building and reached the door), which caused astonishment and indignation in Germany. Many carried anti-constitutional flags of the old Reich (black, white and red colors), the German empire from 1871 to 1918, which fell after the First World War. Others carried neo-Nazi symbology.
