Attorney General Peter Frank has warned of a growing willingness to use violence in the Reichsbürger scene in Germany. “Large parts of this scene are ready for active violence or express their fantasies of violence against state representation more freely than before,” Frank told the “Welt am Sonntag”. “That makes these people dangerous from the point of view of state security.”
The federal prosecutor’s office assumes that there are around 23,000 Reich citizens in Germany, said Frank. The scene is very heterogeneous. “There are people and groups who want to restore the empire of 1871. Others want to set up kingdoms and principalities or return to a kind of original state in order to live independently.” All Reich citizens, however, rejected the free-democratic basic order and the democratic constitutional bodies.
“Due to the growing willingness to use violence, we decided to take a more robust approach last year,” said Frank. His authority attracts individual cases nationwide. Only thanks to fortunate circumstances and the good equipment of the police officers have there been no fatalities in various attacks by Reich citizens.
55 suspects after raid
The Attorney General also defended the early December raid against a group led by the Frankfurt businessman Heinrich XIII. Prince Reuss, where around 5000 police officers were on duty. The number of accused has increased from 52 to 55 people “who are suspected of having been members or supporters of a terrorist organization,” said Frank. 25 people are still in custody.
During the searches, “many storage media, such as laptops and cell phones, as well as written documents were secured,” said Frank. The evidence would now “also be evaluated from the point of view of whether the procedure could be extended to other suspects”.
The association had endeavored “to overthrow the existing state order in Germany by force and to replace it with its own form of government,” says Frank. A military arm wanted to bring about a violent overthrow.
Individual members of this military arm came “from the circle of the police and the armed forces, even if the majority of them were active in the security authorities a long time ago,” said Frank. However, the group wanted to “recruit more active people from the Bundeswehr and the police”. (AFP)
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