The raid shortly after St. Nicholas Day 2022 was a bombshell: “Reichsbürger” are said to have planned a violent coup in Germany. There are still operations in this connection.
The plaster is peeling off, the blinds are down, masked and armed police officers are standing in front of the old gate that may once have led to a wine cellar: A raid against suspected supporters of the suspected terrorist group around the “Reich Citizen” ideologue Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss has alarmed the community of Althengstett in the northern Black Forest.
Photos of the action and speculation about gunshots, deaths and injuries were spread on social networks, said Mayor Rüdiger Klahm (independent) in the afternoon. Because of a lack of information, the population could not be reassured at first. In the meantime, reports of secret weapons depots belonging to the “Reich Citizens” are also circulating.
Two people under suspicion: supporting a terrorist organization
At the end of the day, the accusation remains that a 73-year-old man and a 63-year-old woman from Baden-Württemberg provided the “Reich Citizens” group around Prince Reuss with premises in Saxony for recruitment events at the turn of the year 2021/2022. The woman is also said to have given a car to one of the alleged ringleaders, Rüdiger v. P., in autumn 2021. They are accused of supporting a domestic terrorist organisation, says a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
There were no arrests. A large police force has been searching seven properties and three plots of land in Baden-Württemberg, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein since the morning, as the spokeswoman for the Karlsruhe authority explained. The “Spiegel” was the first to report.
According to dpa information, the living quarters of the two suspects in Althengstett and Bad Teinach-Zavelstein (both in the Calw district) were searched, as were properties there. It could take some time before the measures are completed.
A neighbor in Althengstett reports that she saw blue lights on the street from her bathroom. A policeman waved to her and showed her to get away from the window. Shortly afterwards there was a loud bang. The glass door of the house shattered. She cannot imagine that her neighbor has committed a crime, the woman insists. An over 80-year-old man says he saw everything from his armchair watching TV. “It was all very matter-of-fact, they cordoned off the street, hardly anyone here noticed.”
So far dozens of arrests and three trials
The so-called Reich Citizens in Germany claim that the German Reich (1871-1945) still exists. They do not recognize the Federal Republic and its laws.
The group around Prince Reuss became publicly known as a result of a large-scale anti-terror raid shortly after St. Nicholas Day 2022 in several federal states and abroad. Dozens of people have since been arrested in connection with this. The accused are said to have intended to overthrow the political system in Germany. They knowingly accepted deaths, the prosecution says.
They are said to have already drawn up the basic structures for their own state order. Prince Reuss was to have served as head of state. Departments had also already been allocated: former AfD member of the Bundestag and former Berlin judge Birgit Malsack-Winkemann was to have been responsible for justice. A former officer of the Bundeswehr’s Special Forces Command (KSK) is also among the accused.
The main defendants are to be held accountable in three trials at the Higher Regional Courts in Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart and, from June 18, also in Munich. In Frankfurt, an official from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) testified about Reuss’s personal circumstances. The case included details such as Reuss’s shareholdings in companies, his internet presence and clubs, the number of his cars, as well as his finances, accounts and places of residence. The defense repeatedly intervened.
In Stuttgart, the military part of the suspected terrorist group is the main accused. According to the indictment, this group was supposed to use armed force to implement the planned takeover. To this end, the establishment of a Germany-wide system of 286 militarily organized units, so-called homeland defense companies, has already begun. The “Homeland Defense Company No. 221” is said to have been responsible for the Freudenstadt and Tübingen areas. The Calw district is also located in the region.
Special forces and ordnance experts in action
More than 700 officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office, the Federal Police and the state police of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein were involved in the search operations.
According to the spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, this also includes special units from the federal government and the state of Baden-Württemberg. The measures in Baden-Württemberg are being supported by forces from the state’s bomb disposal service and in Saxony by forces from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief. Heavy equipment is also being used, it was said.
The Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office carried out two raids against the Reich Citizens’ scene in the Erzgebirge district. According to reports, the searches took place in Seiffen and Pockau-Lengefeld. The background to the raids was the proceedings against Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuss. Further details were not initially known.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
