Germany, Right-Wing Extremism | German far-right on trial for coup plots

The defendants had come a long way in their plans to establish a nationwide militia to crush the opposition to the coup, the prosecution claimed during the first day of the trial.

Their willingness to use violence was proven when one of them met the police with a barrage of bullets when they came to arrest him, which led to a police officer being seriously injured, the prosecution said.

The nine on the dock are accused of membership in a terrorist organisation, high treason, and one case of attempted murder.

Led by aristocrat

The case is the first of three trials against 27 of the network’s members. Due to large crowds outside the court building, the case started an hour later than planned on Monday.

The Reichsbürger network, which is led by the aristocrat Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, denies that the modern German state is legitimate. They believe the old German Reich, the state that was finally dissolved by the Allies after the end of World War II in 1945, still exists.

In December 2022, German police carried out raids all over Germany and arrested people from the movement who they believed, among other things, intended to carry out an armed attack on the German National Assembly. The prince himself stands accused in another trial.

Convinced of support

The nine defendants in the first trial looked somber as they took their seats behind thick glass panes on Monday. From their arrest until now, they have not been able to communicate with each other, and have been detained in prisons all over South-West Germany.

According to the prosecutor’s office, those who planned the coup d’état believe that Germany is ruled by the “deep state”, and that they would receive support from, among other things, the American and Russian authorities if they seized power.

– They were convinced that the German population would support them when they found out what was going on. They were aware that their plans would lead to violence, said one of the prosecutors in the case.

Disputes charges

All of the nine who appeared in court on Monday dispute the charges against them.

Germany’s intelligence service put members of the Reichsbürger network under observation in 2016. According to them, the network includes around 21,000 members.

– It shows the strength of our constitutional state that the largest terrorist network of “Reichsbürgere” we have encountered so far is now on trial and must answer for its militant plans to commit a coup, said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser to the TV channel ZDF.

Due to the scope of the case and the number of witnesses and suspects, it is expected that the trials related to the Reichsbürger network will take a long time, perhaps up to several years.