Authorities have detained four individuals belonging to a radical group aiming to overthrow the modern German state, as stated by the interior minister and prosecutors, marking the latest action against a far-right movement deemed a potential danger to democracy.
The operations targeting the Koenigreich Deutschland, or ‘Kingdom of Germany’, followed the interior ministry’s prohibition of the group.
Prosecutors indicated that this organization had created shadow institutions intended for a new state, aligned with the far-right ideology referred to as the ‘Reichsbuerger’ movement, meaning ‘Citizens of the Reich’.
Among the four individuals apprehended was the group’s self-proclaimed sovereign, according to the prosecutors.
Examination of the movement, which encompasses various conspiracy theories disputing the legitimacy of the current German state, escalated in December 2022 when authorities thwarted advanced plans for an armed coup.
Its followers believe that German democracy is a deceptive facade and assert that they are citizens of a monarchy that purportedly persisted after Germany’s defeat in World War I, despite its official abolition.
The goal of the decade-old ‘Kingdom of Germany’ faction, which claims to have approximately 6,000 supporters, is to detach from Germany and create a counter-state with its own police force and legal jurisdiction, according to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt.
“We are not discussing a group of harmless nostalgics, but rather a network of criminal structures,” Mr. Dobrindt informed reporters, emphasizing that their illicit economic network has long been a focus for German authorities. He noted that no weapons were confiscated during the operation.
Police executed four arrest warrants for suspects identified as Mathias B, Peter F, Benjamin M, and Martin S, omitting their surnames in accordance with German privacy regulations.
Prosecutors claimed that the four men were recognized as key leaders of the group, which had set up “pseudo-state-like structures and institutions,” including a bank and an insurance system, an agency issuing “fictional documents,” and its own currency.
Peter F was acknowledged as the group’s “supreme sovereign,” possessing authority and decision-making powers over significant areas of the group’s operations, according to the prosecutors.
