Twenty-five people were arrested Wednesday in Germany for a suspected far-right terrorist plot to overthrow the government.
In a massive police raid at 130 different sites across Germany, nearly 3,000 officers searched and detained members of a group that allegedly planned to storm the Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building, in an armed coup, BBC News reported.
The 25 people arrested are suspected to be affiliated with a terrorist group of around 50 people. According to prosecutors, the group was founded in 2021 and was “driven by violent coup fantasies and conspiracy ideologies” to plot to overthrow the government and install a new order.
Prosecutors also stated that members of the terrorist group “follow a conglomerate of conspiracy myths consisting of narratives of the so-called Reichsbürger as well as QAnon ideology,” per The Associated Press.
What is the ‘Reichsbürger’ movement?
The Reichsbürger, or Citizens of the Reich, movement is a “radical and violent” ideology that refuses to recognize Germany’s current government, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle News.
Members of the movement have “long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist conspiracy theories,” BBC News reported.
The suspects in the raid were tied to the both the Reichsbürger movement and QAnon and believe that the German government is run by the “deep state.”
Who is Prince Heinrich XIII?
Prince Heinrich XIII, a German aristocrat from a minor noble family, was arrested Wednesday as part of the police raid.
The aristocrat is one of the suspected ringleaders of the group alongside Ruediger v. P, a former paratrooper per DW News.