In raids conducted across Germany, 25 persons were detained on suspicion of planning to topple the government.
The group of far-right and ex-military leaders allegedly planned a “Day X” invasion of the Reichstag and takeover of power.
Prince Heinrich XIII, a 71-year-old minor aristocrat, is alleged to have played a key role in their schemes.
He is one of two alleged ringleaders among those detained in 11 German states, according to federal authorities.
The radical Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] movement, which German authorities have long targeted for violent attacks and racial conspiracy theories, is rumored to be among the plotters. They also refuse to acknowledge the state of modern Germany.
Other suspects are associated with the QAnon movement, which thinks that a fictitious “deep state” of hidden forces manipulating politics controls their nation.
Germans were told by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser that law enforcement would use all available legal means “against the opponents of democracy.”
The organization, which is thought to have included 50 men and women, is accused of plotting to topple the republic and replace it with the Second Reich, an empire modeled after Germany in 1871.
A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office stated, “We don’t yet have a name for this organization.
Two people were detained in Austria and Italy as a result of the 130 raids conducted by 3,000 officers across the majority of the nation. Later in the day, questions would be asked of those who had been detained. As many as eight of the arrests happened in the Baden-Württemberg state in the southwest.
Following a significant anti-terror operation, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann stated that an alleged “armed attack on constitutional bodies was planned.” The probe will look at the “abyss of a terrorist threat from the Reichsbürger sphere,” the interior minister claimed afterwards.
The central “Rat” (council) of the gang, according to the federal prosecutor’s office, has been regularly gathering since November 2021 in order to organize a violent takeover.
The prosecution claimed that they had already created plans to dominate Germany through departments for health, justice, and foreign policy. Members were aware that using “military tactics and violence against state leaders,” which included killing people, was the only way to achieve their objectives.
When they unearthed a kidnapping scheme involving a gang going by the name of United Patriots in April of last year, investigators are believed to have learned about the group.
