“Reich Citizen” trial: From nobility to defendant: Reuß testifies in court

Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss is said to have been one of the ringleaders of a suspected “Reich Citizens” group – now he has testified in court for the first time. On the eleventh day of the trial involving him and eight other defendants, the Frankfurt real estate agent declared that he was a strict opponent of violence. “Of course I reject violence – but the prosecution is trying to accuse me of the opposite,” he said.

The 72-year-old, wearing a dark blue suit, sat down in the middle of the courtroom. Before the statement began, his lawyer Roman von Alvensleben pointed out the special situation – Reuß’s family was present. Before the trial began, the defendant was also allowed to greet his daughter. He bent down to her at the glass pane in the audience and press room. Back at his seat, he wiped tears from his face. His ex-wife also watched. She sat next to his daughter.

Reuss visibly moved

Reuss found it visibly difficult to speak. He paused repeatedly, close to tears, as he spoke about his family history, his four siblings, his parents’ lives and his youth. “I’m in a fragile state, I don’t know what’s happening, I honestly can’t tell you what’s wrong,” he said to the presiding judge, Jürgen Bonk. The judge interrupted the session three times – Reuss waved to his daughter several times with a smile.

In his two-hour-long account, he gave insight into his personal circumstances and career. His parents fled from Thuringia to Hesse during the Second World War. Reuß was born in Büdingen in 1951 – the fifth of six siblings.

He spoke of “violations of his psyche and soul” by teachers. One teacher once said to him, “You should all be expropriated.” School was generally not that important to Reuss. He often worked hard in his father’s pony breeding business and supplemented his pocket money by breeding canaries and parakeets. Later, he says, he built and designed furniture under the name “Linea Tredici” – Italian for “Line Thirteen”.

He was discharged from the German army due to the after-effects of riding accidents in his childhood. In this context, he repeatedly stressed that he abhorred violence and was often ill and in poor health. After two traffic accidents, he said, he almost had his leg amputated and was paralyzed. He also spoke about his studies in Hamburg and Munich and listed investments in and purchases of real estate and businesses, such as a fitness studio.

Reuß spoke extensively about his children and ex-wife. His first marriage had been a burden on him because it was not accepted by his family. “On the Reuß side, only marriages that took place in a Christian church were accepted as marriages,” he said. His ex-wife is from Iran. About his relationship with his co-defendant Vitalia B., he said: “It was a friendship that matured into an intimate relationship.”

Family property in Thuringia

With the “so-called reunification” of Germany, he became more and more concerned with a return to the family lands in Thuringia, which his father had already commissioned him to do. The restitution and proof of ownership for the estate of the House of Reuss had cost him a lot of energy and money. In the past 32 years until his arrest in December 2022, the family property had taken up the majority of his efforts. Among other things, he bought back the Waidmannsheil hunting lodge in Saaldorf, Thuringia. In 2022, Reuss also said he wanted to have the “Reuss tribe” recognized as an indigenous people examined.

Reuss did not provide any information on the charges, as these are currently excluded from the trial. He only briefly commented on the “Earth Alliance”, the alleged group on whose orders the “Reich Citizens” of the “Patriotic Union”, as the group around Reuss is said to have called itself, were supposed to launch the coup: “The alliance turned out to be a Trojan horse and did not cause anything.”

Continuation on Tuesday

Reuss’s statement was preceded by a rather “unusual procedure”, as Judge Bonk called it. After ex-soldier Maximilian Eder had reported on his personal circumstances over the past two days, further questions were planned for him on Friday. Eder’s lawyer Ralf Dalla Fini, however, announced that his client would not answer any questions. So the two of them sat on the witness bench, and Dalla Fini stated twice more that Eder would not answer any questions. She then stopped the questioning.

In Frankfurt, nine defendants are accused of being members of a terrorist organization or of supporting it. An armed coup was allegedly planned. The defendants knowingly accepted the risk of deaths, according to the prosecution. The defendants are presumed innocent until the verdict is reached. With two further trials in Munich and Stuttgart, a total of 26 alleged conspirators must answer for their actions in the complex.

According to the federal prosecutor’s office, the group had access to a massive arsenal of weapons. According to the indictment, military personnel were repeatedly recruited.

The trial will continue on Tuesday, July 2. The court will initially ask Reuß questions and hear further statements from the defendants Hans-Joachim H. and Johanna F.-J.