Anti-Semites and pan-Germans, at the forefront of anti-Covid measures and against the German federal state. They are the Reichsbürger militants, literally ‘Citizens of the Reich’. A galaxy that experts define as ”nebula” and which theorizes the need for German borders to return ”to the Empire of 1871 or 1937”. According to the movement, the current German government is nothing more than ”a puppet in the hands of foreign powers” and the Federal Republic ”conspires against its own people”. Government and parliament are therefore controlled by ”foreign powers”, according to the Reichsbürger, as well as the judiciary and security agencies.
In daily practice, the militants of the group systematically refuse to pay taxes and fines, as explained by Die Welt. Private property, such as one’s home, is considered an ”independent entity outside the authority of the Federal Republic”. Furthermore, they do not recognize the German constitution or federal laws, so much so that they self-produce their identity documents and driving licenses.
The Reichsbürger was born in the 1980s and now has around 20,000 supporters, according to German intelligence. Of these, around 950 have been identified as far-right militants and at least a thousand have firearms licenses. Many of them espouse anti-Semitism. According to the German authorities, the ‘typical militant’ of the archipelago is a ”man, aged 50, socially and financially disadvantaged”. But, as the Tagesspiegel points out, the leader of the movement is a woman, Heiche Verding, head of ‘United german peoples and tribes’. The sub-group was dissolved by the German authorities two and a half years ago.
The group is mainly widespread in eastern and southern Germany. Its members include former Mr Germany beauty pageant winner Adrian Ursache, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2019 for shooting and wounding a policeman. Among the most serious violence was the one involving Wolfgang P. who in October 2017 was sentenced to life imprisonment for killing a police officer in Bavaria. The victim was conducting a raid on his home where over 30 handguns were found. This episode changed the way the German authorities dealt with the extremist group and attracted international attention.
German authorities have long been accused of underestimating the threat posed by the Reichsbürger. Only in 2017 did German intelligence document the group’s extremist activities for the first time. Since then several raids have been conducted on members of the galaxy and many sub-groups have been banned. According to the German media, they were preparing for the so-called ”day X” in which the overthrow of the institutions should have taken place”.
