A German prince was among those arrested this week by security police and is believed to be a leader of a group suspected of wanting to violently overthrow the German government.
Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss was arrested by police Wednesday and is suspected to a leader in the “Reichsburger” (Citizens of the Reich) movement and is alleged to have been plotting to violently overthrow the German government, as the movement’s adherents do not recognize the validity of the current German constitution.
The aristocrat, whose family once ruled part of Thuringia, was one of the 22 alleged members of the group and three supporters arrested Wednesday, according to the German Federal Prosecutor. Another arrested was a former member of the German armed forces special forces unit, the KSK, the newspaper Die Welt reports.
Federal Prosecutor General Peter Frank stated that Wednesday’s action, which saw 150 different properties raided across Germany, was aimed specifically at a group within the Reichsburger movement looking to overthrow the German Republic “by using force and military means” and added the group wanted to create a new German army to enter the German parliament building, the Reichstag, by force.
German Army Claims to Have 200 ‘Far-Right Extremists’ Within Its Ranks
https://t.co/nQiKygmMUc— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 25, 2017
According to investigators, the group already possessed weapons and had significant financial funding, with one of the group said to be a Berlin regional court judge and former member of parliament for the populist Alternative for Germany (Afd) party Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, who sat in the Bundestag from 2017 to 2021.
Berlin Senator of Justice, Lena Kreck, a member of the Left Party, has previously expressed concerns about Malsack-Winkemann’s loyalty to the German constitution and called for her temporary retirement in June of this year, but the Administrative Court rejected the idea.
Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, meanwhile, is said to have been a “ringleader” of the group and has previously claimed Germany is not a sovereign state during a speech in 2019 in Zurich, has claimed Germany is a “tributary vassal state”.
Prosecutors also allege that Prince Heinrich has contact with a Russian citizen named Vitalia B., who supported the group. The Russian government has denied any involvement with the group, with the Russian Embassy stating, “Russian diplomatic and consular offices in Germany do not maintain contacts with representatives of terrorist groups or other illegal entities.”
The Reichsbürger movement has been under the observation of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic spy agency, since 2016 and the agency estimates as many as 21,000 people belong to the movement.
The Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK) of Frankfurt, an elite police tactical unit, was disbanded by the city government this week after chats emerged revealing officers in the unit making allegedly far-right remarks and statements. https://t.co/wytB3K6l9O
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 13, 2021
The group believe that the German constitution implemented after the Second World War is invalid and that one has to go back to before the First World War to find a legitimate German government. The group says the German empire founded in 1871, the so-called Kaiserreich, is the real Germany.
Germany’s current constitution, under Article 79 paragraph 3, or the so-called “eternity clause”, states that several aspects of Germany cannot be changed at all ever, including changing or restoring the republic to a monarchy, even by the German parliament or any other democratic process.
Wednesday’s raids, while the most significant, are not the first for those affiliated with the Reichsburger movement.
In 2017, German police carried out raids of 12 homes in six states as part of an investigation into a group with some members affiliated with the Reichsburger movement who plotted armed attacks on police, Jews, asylum seekers and other state representatives.
A year later in 2018, the BfV noted that while only around five per cent of Reichburger were far-right extremists, many were strongly attracted to firearms.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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