Germany: Shots fired at police in Reichsbürger raids

Authorities on Wednesday carried out searches linked to the far-right extremist Reichsbürger scene across eight German states and in neighboring Switzerland.

A policeman was injured after shots were fired during one of the operations against the group, which was said to have been planning a coup against the German government. 

What we know so far

According to media reports, the officer was injured in a raid in the town of Reutlingen in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg. 

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted that 20 properties had been searched and highlighted the danger posed by armed members of the group.

"A police officer was shot. That shows how dangerous these missions are. The weapons authorities are obliged to disarm Reichsbürger [members]."

The shot is believed to have been fired by a man who was not a suspect in the raids, but who has since been taken into custody. No other arrests were reported to have been made during the swoops. 

The raids on Wednesday were said to have been directed against five suspects believed to belong to a terrorist organization. Officials said the individuals were from the cities of Munich and Chemnitz, the Hannover region, and Switzerland. 

Police also searched the premises of 14 people who were not suspects.

A total of 25 suspects were taken into custody after raids in December against members of the Reichsbürger movement. They are accused of membership of or support for a terrorist association and aiming to topple the German state.

At the time, officials said they believed that the network extended further and that more arrests would be made.

What is the Reichsbürger movement?

The Reichsbürger movement consists of a diffuse set of groups that do not recognize the authority of the German state. 

Members of the Reichsbürger movement deny the existence of Germany's post-World War 2 Federal Republic. They believe the current state is no more than an administrative construct still occupied by the Western powers — the US, the UK, and France. For them, the German Empire founded in 1871 still exists and so do Germany's pre-WW2 borders.

A substantial number of the self-proclaimed "Reichsbürger," which translates as "Citizens of the Reich" are not averse to violence to reinstate the Reich.

The movement is made up of a number of small groups and individuals, located throughout Germany. They do not accept the legality of the Federal Republic of Germany's government authorities. 

One of the alleged ringleaders of the apparent coup attempt, now in custody, is Heinrich XIII, who uses the title Prince Reuss of Greiz. The 71-year-old from the central state of Hesse is believed to have chaired the group's central committee with the aim of becoming a "future head of state" in the event of a coup.

Undercover book author: Raids are 'way too late and way too little' 

DW spoke to Tobias Ginsburg on Wednesday, who wrote a 2018 book based on several months spent undercover among Reichsbürger and other German extremists. 

Ginsburg said that the clampdown by authorities was "way too late and way too little," saying this was demonstrated by the fact that many suspected members are people of means, often with important jobs. 

"These people ... arrested now are not like fringe-y, dopey neo-Nazis or conspiracy theorists," Ginsburg said. "These are policemen, members of the German army, stuff like this. Normal people who believe those far-right fascist ideas."

He said it was difficult to sum up the group or its beliefs, not least because it was misleading to think of one single organization. He said it was more a mixture of conspiracy theories and resentments dating all the way back to 1945 that had gained more or less traction in smaller or broader parts of German society. Still, asked to sum up the group's worldview, he said it was as predictable as it was difficult to isolate. 

"It's the same fantasy every far-right activist has," Ginsburg said. "It's the idea of a homogeneous society without 'the other,' 'the foreign one,' 'those up there,' the elimination of 'the enemy within' — stuff like this."

Ultimately, in their view, he said it rested on the idea of the modern German state being "not a real, not a legitimate state, but just an evil construct, something sinister made by 'the vengeful Jewry,' made by 'those evil Allies' after 1945."

Senior Social Democrat politician Ralf Stegner, meanwhile, was asked whether the group was best described as a "bunch of right-wing loonies" or a "dangerous terrorist organization," and told DW: 

"Or maybe they are both," Stegner said. He went on to say that 100 years ago in Germany, after the failed 1923 Munich Beer Hall Putsch that led to the imprisonment of a young Adolf Hitler, few would have foreseen at the time that Hitler would be leading the country around a decade later. 

"What I'm saying is, you never know. And you'd better be cautious. And you cannot guess just [by] looking at peculiar people that they cannot be dangerous," Stegner said, also alluding to the well-paid and high status jobs held by several of the Reichsbürger suspects as a sign of the group having an impressive "network." 

rc, msh/rt (dpa, Reuters)

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