Early on Tuesday morning, raids were carried out in different German states, targeting an organization calling itself the Kingdom of Germany) (KDR). It is part of a loosely organized movement that claims to want to overthrow the German government and democracy in order to reinstate the historical empire.
A 59-year-old man who has appeared as the group's leader has been arrested along with three close associates.
In 2012, the man crowned himself king of Germany in Lutherstadt-Wittenberg in a widely reported ceremony where he was awarded a crown and a scepter. Since then, he has built up the movement with a base on a farm in the Saxon countryside in eastern Germany.
German law does not apply there, they have claimed. There are also livestock, a dairy, and a group of "subjects", reports Tagesschau.
Thousands of members
The group is said to have around 6,000 members. They have formed an alternative form of state-building with economic structures, according to Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. The minister notes that their power claims also lean on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
The Reichsbürger movement as a whole is a loosely organized network of right-wing extremists, weapon enthusiasts, and various conspiracy theorists who want to overthrow the republic and replace it with a German empire in the style of the one that existed before the wars.
"We will take action with force against those who attack our free and democratic social order", announces Dobrindt.
German authorities have long warned about the movement's right-wing radical methods. They refuse to pay taxes and have also organized large-scale contacts in order to overwhelm the bureaucracy.
Shootouts have occurred
In December 2022, dozens of people were arrested in a hundred raids across Germany, accused of having long-term plans for a coup within the framework of the Reichsbürger movement. According to a major terror indictment, they wanted to overthrow the government and install a new regime, led by a 72-year-old right-wing extremist nobleman who refers to himself as a prince.
German police have made repeated raids against individuals linked to the movement and on several occasions, it has led to shootouts. There, police officers have been injured and on one occasion, one was killed.
