Germany Raids Far-Right Group Accused of Plotting Coup

Security forces in Germany carried out sweeping raids against an alleged far-right terror group that aimed to overthrow the German government in a violent coup.

Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany, including far-right and ex-military figures who allegedly planned to storm the parliament building, the Reichstag, and seize power.

Raids took place in eleven of Germany’s sixteen states with three thousand officers searching 130 sites, including a forest palace in the state of Thuringia. Twenty-five people were arrested, including a 71-year-old man, who styles himself as Prince Heinrich XIII.

Prosecutors said the group planned to install him as Germany’s new leader, and he had contacted Russian officials with the aim of negotiating a new order in the country.

A female judge, identified by prosecutors as Birgit M-W, was also detained during the raids. She is said to have links with the far-right Alternative for Germany party.

Known by its German acronym AfD, the party has increasingly come under scrutiny by German security services due to its ties with extremists.

Cops also descended on the barracks of Germany’s special forces KSK unit, local media said, along with properties in neighboring Austria and Italy.

50 people are alleged to have been part of the plot for a coup in Germany

An estimated fifty men and women are alleged to have been part of the group, said to have plotted to overthrow the republic and replace it with a new state modeled on the Germany of 1871, an empire called the Second Reich.

“We don’t yet have a name for this group,” said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office. The federal prosecutor’s office said the group had been plotting a violent coup since November 2021, and members of its central “Rat” (council) had since held regular meetings.

They had already established plans to rule Germany with departments covering health, justice, and foreign affairs, the prosecutor said. Members understood they could only realize their goals by “military means and violence against state representatives,” which included carrying out killings.

Investigators are thought to have got wind of the group when they uncovered a kidnap plot last April involving a gang who called themselves United Patriots.