Latest news with #Reichsbürger
Epoch Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Epoch Times
Germany Bans Nationalist ‘Kingdom of Germany' Group, Carries Out Raids
The German government has banned the 'Kingdom of Germany,' or Königreich Deutschland, group and arrested four of its leaders. During operations that began early on Tuesday, 800 police officers in several German states searched properties linked to the organization and the homes of some of its leading members. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters in Berlin: 'We will take decisive action against those who attack our free democratic basic order. 'The members of this association have created a 'counter-state' in our country and built up economic criminal structures.' Dobrindt said the group's ideology was based on anti-Semitic conspiracy narratives. Kingdom of Germany, also known as KRD, was part of the Reichsbürger (citizens of the Reich) movement, which believes the current German state is illegitimate. Related Stories 5/8/2025 5/5/2025 The group maintains that Germany remains a monarchy despite the abolition of the position of kaiser, or king, after World War I. Many members of the Reichsbürger movement refuse to pay taxes or fines and do not recognize the state's parliament, laws, or courts. Kingdom of Germany was proclaimed by its leader Peter Fitzek—one of the individuals arrested on Tuesday—in Wittenberg, in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, in 2012. It claims to have 6,000 members, but the interior ministry said the real number was closer to 1,000. The interior ministry said the group's online platforms will be blocked and its assets confiscated. Not 'Harmless Nostalgics' 'This is not about harmless nostalgics, as the title of the association might suggest, but about criminal structures, criminal networks. That's why it's being banned today,' Dobrindt said. The office of Germany's federal prosecutor general said four individuals had been arrested based on warrants issued by the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice. The federal prosecutor general's office published a Authorities said the arrests took place in the town of Bad Dürkheim, in western Germany, and the districts of Mittelsachsen and Oder-Spree, in eastern Germany. The prosecutor general's office said police in Switzerland had also searched the residence of another suspect in the Swiss canton of Solothurn, following a request by the German authorities. 'The KRD considers itself a sovereign state under international law and seeks to extend its claimed 'national territory' to the borders of the German Empire of 1871,' the statement reads. 'The group's goal is to replace the system of the Federal Republic of Germany with its own.' It is not the first time the German government has taken action against the Reichsbürger movement. Supporters of the Reich Citizens group carry pre-1918 German flags in Potsdam, Germany, on Nov. 14, 2020. Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP In Two years later, nine members of the group, including property investor Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss, went on The trial heard that the plotters planned to install Reuss as a caretaker head of state. Among the other defendants were former army officers Maximilian Eder and Ruediger von Pescatore, and former judge and ex-parliamentarian Birgit Malsack-Winkemann. The German Empire, referred to as the Second Reich, collapsed after it was defeated by Britain, France, and the United States in World War I. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in November 1918 and went into exile in the Netherlands, where he lived until his death in 1941. The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler was known as the Third Reich, and after it was defeated in 1945, Germany was occupied by the armies of Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union. The western part of the country became the Federal Republic of Germany, and a communist state was set up in the Soviet-occupied east. Following the collapse of communist East Germany in 1990, the country was united and remains known as the Federal Republic of Germany. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
What is Germany's 'Reichsbürger' movement?
AP file photo The Reich sbürger, literally "Reich citizens," is the name given to a disparate movement of conspiracy theorists who deny the legitimacy of Germany 's post-World War II Federal Republic. Though there are overlaps with the far-right scene, Reichsbürger are marked out by their adherence to four often debunked claims: That the pre-war German Reich still legally exists, that the post-war Federal Republic of Germany does not have a valid constitution, that the Federal Republic is not a state at all, but in fact a private company, and that Germany is still under occupation by the Allies . Originally arising in the 1980s, the movement is made up of both organized groups and individuals across Germany, who manifest varying degrees of resistance to the state's administrative organs. Some Reichsbürger refuse to pay fines and taxes, ignore court orders, or declare their own "national territories," which they give names like the "Second German Empire," the "Free State of Prussia" or the "Principality of Germania." Reichsbürger sometimes print their own passports and driver's licenses, or even declare themselves monarchs. Just crackpots? For many years, Reichsbürger were dismissed as harmless cranks, and authorities simply ignored their often treasonous declarations. But that changed in the past decade as the movement became more prominent and began to show a more pronounced propensity to violence and far-right ideology. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Pernas e pés inchados: Isso ajuda a drenar o fluido do edema aartedoherbalismo Undo Some hoarded firearms, and in 2016, the Reichsbürger Wolfgang P. shot dead a Bavarian state police officer during an attempt to confiscate his cache of weapons. That same year, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), officially put the Reichsbürger movement under observation. The BfV, charged with tracking extremist groups of all stripes inside Germany, estimated in 2022 that there were around 23,000 Reichsbürger (2,000 more than in 2021), over 5% of whom it classified as far-right extremists. The BfV has also recorded a steady increase in crimes committed by Reichsbürger since 2019, and several thousand firearms permits have been revoked by German authorities in the past few years. The potential threat of the Reichsbürger movement became most spectacularly apparent on December 7, 2022, when a series of police raids uncovered an alleged plot to overthrow the German government. The plot is said to have included a plan to raid the German parliament, arrest the chancellor, key ministers, and opposition leader, and install an interim government to negotiate a new state order in Germany with the Allied powers of World War II . Some 25 people were arrested and 380 firearms were found. Three major trials, on terrorism and conspiracy charges, began in late April 2024. Trials are underway in Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart and are still ongoing. A burden to the state Most Reichsbürger are males aged between 40-60, though some observers believe there is a bigger female proportion of Reichsbürger than in the far-right extremist scene at large. The movement also became increasingly radicalized during the COVID-19 pandemic, when their beliefs gained support from the "Querdenker" movement, who protested against pandemic restrictions imposed by authorities. Despite rejecting the official system, Reichsbürger sometimes inundate German courts with floods of motions and objections filed against court orders and payment demands issued by local authorities. This has placed extra bureaucratic burdens on local authorities, who are required to process every properly filed request. Beyond the extra senseless work, many local counselors and politicians have reported verbal and physical abuse from Reichsbürger. Reichsbürger theories — and why they're not true No peace treaty: Reichsbürger claim that Germany is not an independent state, but a private company created by the victorious allies after World War II. The lack of a peace treaty is among the arguments cited as "proof" for this theory. Indeed, at the end of World War II, Germany surrendered but did not conclude a peace treaty, as there was initially no German government that could have signed it. This allows the Reichsbürger to argue that the Federal Republic of Germany has never been a sovereign state but is in fact still under occupation. Though West Germany and East Germany were both universally recognized as states, this argument technically had some legitimacy until 1990, as the Allies did legally keep some level of control over German affairs. But when the "Two Plus Four" treaty, between the two Germanys and France, the UK, the US, and the Soviet Union, was signed to regulate German reunification, the Allies relinquished all remaining rights and recognized Germany's sovereignty. Germany's transitional constitution: When West Germany implemented its Basic Law (Grundgesetz) in 1949, the term "constitution" was deliberately avoided because Germany was divided and the two Germanys did not recognize each other's legitimacy. Since the West German Basic Law could not cover all the German people, it was framed as being provisional. In 1972, the two German states improved relations and accepted their borders without fully recognizing each other, which made things complicated for the Basic Law. West Germany' s Supreme Court then pronounced a judgment that the Reichsbürger point to until this day: "The Basic Law assumes that the German Reich survived the collapse in 1945 and did not perish either with the capitulation or through the exercise of foreign state power in Germany by the Allied occupying powers, nor later; this follows from the preamble, from Article 16, Article 23, Article 116 and Article 146 of the Basic Law. [...] The German Reich continues to exist, still possesses the legal capacity, but is not itself capable of acting as a total state for lack of organization, in particular for lack of institutionalized organs. " But again, the Two Plus Four Treaty put an end to the transitional nature of the West German Federal Republic. Similarly, the Basic Law was made legitimate for all of Germany by a change in the wording of the final Article 146 to state, "This Basic Law, which, since the achievement of the unity and freedom of Germany, applies to the entire German people, shall cease to apply on the day on which a constitution freely adopted by the German people takes effect. " Nevertheless, Reichsbürger insist that this was a sleight of hand never approved by a referendum of the German people, that the provisional Basic Law only ever applied to West Germany, and is therefore illegitimate. Germany is just a company: Finally, the "Reichsbürger" hold on to the theory that Germany is just a limited liability company and that its inhabitants are just its employees. They often refer to the " Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH " (Federal Republic of Germany limited liability company). Such a company does indeed exist, but it is a property of the federal government that takes care of the state's money and capital market transactions. Also, it was not founded shortly before reunification in 1990, as is often suggested, but at the end of 2000.
Russia Today
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Germany arrests ‘King Peter'
German authorities have banned an extremist group known as the 'Kingdom of Germany' and arrested four of its top members, including the group's self-declared 'king,' Peter Fitzek. The secessionist group had declared itself a 'counter-state' governed by an absolute monarch. The Kingdom of Germany is affiliated with the Reichsburger (Reich Citizens) movement – a far-right conspiracy-driven network that denies the legitimacy of the modern German state. According to Germany's domestic intelligence agency, around 25,000 individuals are actively involved in Reichsburger groups across the country. Adherents claim that the historical German Reich continues to exist and refuse to recognize Germany's government, including its parliament, laws, and judicial system. Members of the group also reject state obligations such as paying taxes or fines. Around 800 police officers carried out raids on Tuesday, targeting properties linked to the group and the residences of its key members across Germany. 'These extremists created a counter-state in Germany and ran criminal financial operations,' Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stated when announcing the ban. 'They reinforce their bogus claim to power with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,' he added. The minister told reporters that the Kingdom of Germany's activities were far from 'harmless nostalgia,' despite what its name might imply. He explained that the ban was imposed because authorities were dealing with 'criminal structures' and 'criminal networks.' Founded in 2012 in the eastern German city of Wittenberg, the Kingdom of Germany gained notoriety for operating unlicensed banking services and promoting its own parallel legal system. Fitzek, the group's leader, who once ran unsuccessfully to enter parliament, styled himself as 'King Peter I' and appointed two deputies along with a finance minister to support his self-declared rule. The Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe said Fitzek, as the 'so-called supreme sovereign,' had 'control and decision-making power in all key areas.' The authorities added that the Kingdom of Germany regards itself as a sovereign state under international law and aims to expand its so-called national territory to match the borders of the German Empire as they stood in 1871. In 2022, German authorities arrested members of a group linked to Reich Citizens that included a former MP and ex-military personnel for allegedly plotting to storm the parliament, overthrow the government, and install aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss as the new head of state.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Self-proclaimed 'king of Germany' arrested in plot to overthrow government
The self-styled "king" of Germany and three of his senior "subjects" were arrested for attempting to overthrow the state, according to media reports. Peter Fitzek, 59, was taken into police custody during morning raids conducted Tuesday in seven German states, the BBC reported. Fitzek's group, the Reichsbürger, or "citizens of the Reich," has also been banned by the government. Trump Celebrates Conservative Party Win In Germany The group's aim is to establish the Königreich Deutschland, or "Kingdom of Germany." "I have no interest in being part of this fascist and satanic system," Fitzek previously told the news outlet in a 2022 interview. Read On The Fox News App Reichsbürgers reportedly have their own currency, flag and identification cards and want to set up separate banking and health systems. The Reichsbürger undermined "the rule of law," said Alexander Dobrindt, Germany's interior minister, by creating an alternative state and spreading "antisemitic conspiracy narratives to back up their supposed claim to authority," the news report states. Germany's New Leader Looks To Distance Europe From Trump He said the group finances itself through crime. Fitzek, who claims to have thousands of "subjects," denied having violent intentions but also called Germany "destructive and sick." In 2022, dozens of people associated with the Reichsbürger were arrested for plotting to overthrow the German government in Berlin. They were accused of planning a violent coup, which included kidnapping the health minister in an effort to create "civil war conditions" to bring down German democracy, according to the BBC. Once dismissed as eccentric by critics, the group is now seen within Germany as a serious threat as the far right has grown politically over the past decade, the report article source: Self-proclaimed 'king of Germany' arrested in plot to overthrow government
Fox News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Self-proclaimed 'king of Germany' arrested in plot to overthrow government
The self-styled "king" of Germany and three of his senior "subjects" were arrested for attempting to overthrow the state, according to media reports. Peter Fitzek, 59, was taken into police custody during morning raids conducted Tuesday in seven German states, the BBC reported. Fitzek's group, the Reichsbürger, or "citizens of the Reich," has also been banned by the government. The group's aim is to establish the Königreich Deutschland, or "Kingdom of Germany." "I have no interest in being part of this fascist and satanic system," Fitzek previously told the news outlet in a 2022 interview. Reichsbürgers reportedly have their own currency, flag and identification cards and want to set up separate banking and health systems. The Reichsbürger undermined "the rule of law," said Alexander Dobrindt, Germany's interior minister, by creating an alternative state and spreading "antisemitic conspiracy narratives to back up their supposed claim to authority," the news report states. He said the group finances itself through crime. Fitzek, who claims to have thousands of "subjects," denied having violent intentions but also called Germany "destructive and sick." In 2022, dozens of people associated with the Reichsbürger were arrested for plotting to overthrow the German government in Berlin. They were accused of planning a violent coup, which included kidnapping the health minister in an effort to create "civil war conditions" to bring down German democracy, according to the BBC. Once dismissed as eccentric by critics, the group is now seen within Germany as a serious threat as the far right has grown politically over the past decade, the report said.
