Nine suspects will face charges in Stuttgart over the attempted inauguration of the minor aristocrat and merchant Henry XIII, Prince Reuss.
Nine suspected members of a German far-right group accused of plotting to overthrow the government are on trial.
German prosecutors will open the hearing in the southwestern city of Stuttgart on Monday. The nine suspects are accused of planning a violent coup to install the minor aristocrat Henry XIII, Prince Reuss, as leader of Germany and to impose martial law.
The case alleges that the defendants – including former soldiers and judges, as well as a lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany – participated in the “military arm” of the German Reichsbürger, which promotes conspiracy-based theories of sovereignty.
The conspiracy was uncovered in late 2022 when police conducted a series of raids. The charges include high treason.
One person faces an additional charge of attempted murder in connection with shootings at police officers who were injured in the altercation as they searched Reuss’ home in March last year.
The 27 defendants are accused of planning the violent overthrow of the German government and accepting the likelihood of people’s deaths. The plan was to install Reuss as head of a new form of government.
The hearings will be split between three courts in three cities.
Real danger
The focus of the Stuttgart trial is said to be the group’s military wing, which is attempting to overthrow the state by force of arms. According to the indictments, they had begun to form 280 armed units.
Prosecutors said the suspects’ careful planning and stockpiles of firearms and cash meant they posed a real threat, according to Reuters news agency.
“They planned to infiltrate an armed group into the parliament building in Berlin, arrest MPs and overthrow the system,” they wrote. “They understood that seizing power would mean killing people.”
The defendants, aged between 42 and 60, are said to have joined the club in 2022 and worked in various roles for the military wing.
Hatred of democracy
According to prosecutors, the alleged conspirators – including right-wing hardliners and gun enthusiasts – represented a mixture of “conspiracy myths” that came from the global QAnon movement and the German Reichsbürger scene.
Similar to the Sovereign Citizens movement in the United States and other far-right, conspiracy-based movements in Europe, Reichsbürger believe that they are citizens of a former state – in this case the German Empire usurped by modern political structures before World War I .
Reich citizen groups are driven by “hatred of our democracy,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said before the trial began.
“We will continue our tough approach until we have completely exposed and dismantled the militant Reichsbürger structures,” she added.