DThe Federal Prosecutor’s Office had 25 people from the so-called Reich Citizens’ Scene arrested in a raid on Wednesday morning. Around 3,000 officials are deployed in eleven federal states, a spokeswoman for the Karlsruhe authority told the German Press Agency. She accuses the accused of having prepared the overthrow of the state and replacing it with their own form of government.
The Karlsruhe authority announced on Wednesday morning that the basics had already been worked out. “The members of the association are aware that this project can only be realized through the use of military means and violence against state representatives,” the statement said. “This also includes committing homicides.” The federal prosecutor’s office had 25 suspects arrested in the morning.
A “military arm” should also “eliminate” the democratic constitutional state at the level of the municipalities, districts and municipalities, the federal prosecutor announced on Wednesday in Karlsruhe. The central body of the group is a “council”. Similar to the cabinet of a regular government, the body has departments such as justice, foreign affairs and health. “The members of the “Council” have met regularly since November 2021 in order to plan the intended takeover of power in Germany and the establishment of their own state structures,” said the federal prosecutor.
It is about a group of around fifty people from the so-called Reich citizens, militant lateral thinkers and esoterics. According to SWR information, they are said to have planned a coup and, from the investigators’ point of view, wanted to set up a new government led by a prince from the nobility, who is the leader of the group.
Investigations against KSK soldier
The investigations of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office are also directed against an active soldier of the Special Forces Command (KSK) of the Bundeswehr and several reservists of the Bundeswehr. The active soldier was deployed on the KSK staff, a spokesman for the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) told the German Press Agency on Wednesday.
It’s supposed to be a non-commissioned officer. Accordingly, his house and office in the Graf Zeppelin barracks in Calw, Baden-Württemberg, were searched. He had already been noticed in the Bundeswehr as an opponent of vaccination and was later reported from the troops. So far, however, no references to previous extremism incidents in the KSK have been discovered during the investigations.
“The MAD was involved in the investigations of the GBA in advance and shared its findings with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and with the Federal Criminal Police Office,” said the MAD spokesman. The active soldier is a member of the special forces command, but it is not a commando soldier. The reason for this is that parts of the logistics, support staff and the management of the association are also stationed in the barracks.
“In the course of the MAD’s undercover investigations, no connections between the accused soldier and previous investigation complexes in the KSK have been substantiated. However, the connections are still the subject of ongoing investigations,” the spokesman said.
According to SWR research, the suspects include doctors and a judge, who used to be a member of the Bundestag for the AfD, in addition to the former soldiers and police officers. As reported by the “Tagesschau”, among others, the group is said to have planned to abolish the constitutional order in Germany and found a state within the borders of the German Empire of 1871. A “shadow cabinet” is said to have already existed.
22 people were arrested, and there are also 27 other suspects, said the spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor. “We don’t have a name for this association yet,” she said. It’s probably based on conspiracy theories. According to the information, people were arrested in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Thuringia and one person each in Austria and Italy. There were also searches in Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. The federal prosecutor’s office wanted to start questioning the first arrested on Wednesday, the spokeswoman said.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann described the nationwide raid in the Reich Citizens’ Scene as an “anti-terrorist operation”. “Democracy is defensive: A major anti-terrorist operation has been taking place since this morning,” wrote the FDP politician on Twitter on Wednesday morning. “There is a suspicion that an armed attack on constitutional bodies was planned.”
Reich citizens are people who do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures. They often refuse to pay taxes. Often they are in conflict with authorities. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution ascribes around 21,000 followers to the scene. During a raid in 2016, a so-called Reich citizen shot four police officers in Georgensgmünd, Bavaria. One of them succumbed to his injuries in hospital. The special task force wanted to confiscate the hunter’s weapons.
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