The trial of nine members of the so-called 'military arm' of the Stuttgart began on Monday Reich citizen, the group led by Heinrich Prins Reuss that was arrested in December 2022 for plotting a coup. It is the first of three criminal trials against the group, and will last until at least January 2025. According to the indictment, the nine men, aged between 42 and 60, were members of a terrorist organization plotting a violent coup.
The Stuttgart-Stammheim site has a long tradition of trials against terrorist organizations; one of the courthouses and part of the prison was built specifically to house members of the far-left terrorist organization Red Army Faction (RAF) in the 1970s.
The trial against the Reichsbürger is spread over three courts in Stuttgart, Munich, and Frankfurt. In May, the trial against the leaders of the group, including Heinrich Prins Reuss and the leader of the 'military arm', former commander of the Bundeswehr Rüdiger von Pescatore, will begin in Frankfurt. In Munich the more spiritual department of the self-proclaimed 'Patriotic Union', with the prosecution of, among others, an astrologer and a clairvoyant. With a total of 27 defendants and a file spanning around 400,000 pages, it is one of the most extensive state security trials in modern Germany.
'Conglomeration of conspiracy theories'
The nine men appeared behind glass in the heavily secured courtroom in Stuttgart, and could only communicate with their lawyers via a microphone. They believed in a “conglomerate of conspiracy theories,” according to the Public Prosecution Service. Part of their beliefs was the belief in one deep state, in pedophile elites who run the world, mixed with the typical German Reichsbürger conspiracy theory that the current Federal Republic considers illegitimate. Reich citizens consider the German Empire, which collapsed in 1918 at the end of the First World War, to be the last legitimate state.
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The military arm of the Reichsbürger group was tasked with pushing through the coup by force throughout Germany. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the group planned a network of 286 'Heimatschutzkompanien', a kind of thugs. Two of them were said to have already been established when the organization was dissolved in December 2022. The defendants had already collected 500,000 euros for their plans, as well as a large arsenal of almost 400 pistols and rifles, a few hundred knives and other weapons, and 148,000 rounds of ammunition. There was a list of names of politicians and other dignitaries who, in the language of the putschists, would have to be “purged,” murdered or kidnapped on the day of the coup.
One of the suspects, Markus L., has also been charged with attempted murder. L. was arrested in March 2023 at his home in Reutlingen, just below Stuttgart, and shot at the officers several times with a semi-automatic pistol. Two of them were injured. For the public prosecutor, the action is proof that the Reich citizens do not shy away from violence.
Often former soldiers
A number of Reichsbürger from the military arm were previously professional soldiers. One sixty-year-old suspect was part of a NATO unit in Afghanistan, according to German media. Another was a paratrooper. Former soldiers are found in Reichsbürger circles at an above-average rate, according to German commentators because they are used to thinking about rigorous forms of taking over power.
The defendants will remain in Stuttgart-Stammheim prison for the duration of the trial. For a conviction, the Public Prosecution Service will have to demonstrate that the network had advanced and concrete plans. In Germany, forming a terrorist organization carries a prison sentence of up to ten years.
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