The aim was to end democracy “by force and military means”, according to the German federal prosecutor’s office
The astonishment in Germany was general. The discovery last Wednesday of a far-right conspiracy to stage a coup in the country and end the democratic system surprised by how far along the plans were, but also by the curious makeup of those who tried to pull it off. A motley crew of well-placed professionals, more reminiscent of an esoteric political sect than of a revolutionary command.
In an unprecedented operation in Germany, more than 3,000 police officers were responsible for dismantling the organization and arresting the 25 hard core people, while another 29 men and women are under investigation. That day, more than 130 simultaneous registrations were made in 11 federal states, as well as in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel and in the Italian city of Perugia.
Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (BKA) had been watching them for months. Listen to your phone calls, track the movements of your accounts, monitor your movements and meetings, and follow your channels on social networks. With all this, it was clear to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office that in the vicinity of the so-called “Reichsbürger” – literally the “citizens of the Reich” – a terrorist organization had been formed with the aim of changing the German political system for an authoritarian one through a coup d’état against the legislative authority.
The members of the conspiracy prepared an armed attack on the Reichstag, the historic seat of the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, to take members of the federal government and lower house deputies present in the plenary hostage. The prosecutors in charge of the case do not rule out that there may have been deaths in that case among “representatives of the current system”. The group’s goal was to eliminate democracy in Germany “through the use of force and military means,” said federal prosecutor general Peter Frank.
The discovery of weapons in fifty of the searches conducted, the establishment of an “armed wing” within the organization and the presence among its members of active duty military or in the reserve of the Special Forces Command (KSK), the elite unit from the Bundeswehr, the federal army and police officers have confirmed the danger of the group.
A judge affiliated with the ultra-nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) who was a member of the Bundestag in the last legislature, a commercial airline pilot, an haute cuisine professional, a lawyer, an operator, a businessman and a well-placed doctor. are also among the detainees. All members of the upper middle class. And they are all supporters of the “Reichsbürger”, militants of the so-called “Querdenker” movement, nonconformists who protested the measures of the federal government during the pandemic, or supporters of the “QAnon” conspiracy cult, originating from the United States and who think, among other things, that the ruling elite kills children to get a rejuvenating serum.
“What is decisive for the success of a conspiracy story is not the truth value, but the ability to resolve contradictions credibly,” explains psychiatrist Philipp Sterzer in his book ‘The Illusion of Reason’. Those who follow conspiracy theories “are people who are in a permanent apocalyptic state,” explains social psychologist and conspiracy ideology expert Pia Lamberty. “They are convinced that deeply evil powers have a secret plan and that the world must be rid of them. They feel privileged, chosen ones who are able to recognize that danger. The corollary of this view is that the whole must be conquered, and violence is a legitimate means for this. They see themselves fighting against the greatest evil,” adds the expert, who describes the detained group as “extremely dangerous.”
At the head of them all, an extravagant nobleman of neo-Nazi ideology, anti-Semite, conspiracy theorist, and aspired to lead the future coup government. Prince Heinrich -Henry- XIII of Reuss, aged 71, descendant of a family with more than eight centuries of ancestors and owner in the Thuringia region of a hunting lodge, a palace with a crenellated tower from the early 19th century where the conspirators meet . The idyllic spot was attacked on Wednesday during the major raid by a unit of the GSG-9, the anti-terrorist commandos of the Federal Police. The prince was awakened at 6 a.m. and detained at his residence in Frankfurt, where he successfully manages real estate transactions. His family, with numerous branches, has disowned him. A statement from the Reuss House Families Association highlights that what could be considered the clan’s “black sheep” is a “bitter old man” who defends “erroneous opinions based on conspiracy theories”.
Prince Henry XIII of Reuss is considered one of the leaders of the ‘Reichsbürger’ movement. These defend the validity of the legislation of the Imperial Empire, the Second Reich, not Adolf Hitler’s Third. They claim that the Federal Republic is not sovereign and is still dominated by the powers that won World War II. They deplore the bottom-up manipulation of the world by big Jewish capitalists and claim, among other things, that World War I fundamentally benefited American business and commercial interests.
Some 21,000 Germans are considered “Reichsbürger,” according to data from the internal intelligence services of the Federal Office for the Defense of the Constitution. Many are in conflict with the judiciary, the treasury and the German administrations. Some declare their independent residence and issue documentation of made-up kingdoms and lands, when they fail to crown themselves kings of their country in all the pomp or register their vehicle with a number plate befitting their new nation. But what worries the security forces most is that many are legally armed.
The operation to dismantle the extremist group was accelerated after investigators learned that the aristocrat and his circle of conspirators planned to raise a “shadow army” to carry out their plans, and that they had launched a discreet campaign to recruit followers among members of the German armed forces and law enforcement. As head of the organization’s “armed wing” and candidate for defense minister, the federal prosecutor’s office has identified 69-year-old Rüdiger von Pescatore, commander of a special parachute battalion in the 1990s, a forerunner of what is now the KSK. In those years he used his rank of lieutenant colonel to seize weapons from the army and police of the extinct German Democratic Republic. Then 165 rifles and pistols disappeared and only 11 were found. Pescatore was sentenced to two years in prison on probation and saw his military career come to an end.
Peter Wörner, a 54-year-old former paratrooper who served under Pescatore’s command and until now was a survival trainer in extreme situations, also belongs to the ‘shadow army’. A kind of German Rambo who moves in neo-Nazi environments. But an active KSK member, a 58-year-old sergeant with several missions in Afghanistan, was also arrested.
The idea of the coup leaders to take the Reichstag by force of arms has precedents. In the summer of 2020, and on the sidelines of a major demonstration against government measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic, a group of “Reichsbürger” militants and “QAnon” supporters were about to take the building by storm . There was a time when only three officers defended the entrance. Only the arrival of police reinforcements prevented the raid on the building.
The plans now were to storm the Reichstag with two dozen armed men and women, take the deputies present hostage, arrest and handcuff members of the federal government, and take power with the support of a large part of the population who , they thought, would revolt. against the current system, according to researchers at the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA).
The hard core of the organization was equipped with iridium satellite phones for secure communications. And financially he had no problems. During the house searches, more than 130,000 euros were seized, as well as kilos of gold and silver. They also had influential supporters such as Alexander Q., identified by police as an associate and key figure of one of the most far-reaching channels of the “QAnon” movement in Germany. With more than 131,000 Telegram subscribers, he regularly spreads stories about kidnapped children taken from ‘Adrenochrom’, a supposed rejuvenating serum.
Source: La Verdad
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