‘Disturbingly advanced’: Horror details emerge after failed coup plot

Disturbing new details have emerged after a far-right terrorist group plotted to overthrow the government of a European nation.

Germany’s battle against fascism is faltering.

New details of a disrupted coup plot reveal plans were well advanced for a full-frontal assault on the nation’s government.

And the revelation comes as the “suspect” Alternative for Germany (AfD) right-wing populist political party takes second place in national opinion polls.

Germany’s Federal Court has been told a female former politician and hard line AfD political party member had led three members of the far-right terrorist organisation Reichsbürger (Reich Citizens) on a guided tour of the nation’s parliament house – the Reichstag.

In December, 3000 police swept through houses and workplaces in Austria, Germany and Italy to arrest 25 people for plotting to “eliminate the existing state order in Germany … using violence and military means”.

Reichsbürger is an offshoot of the Sovereign Citizen movement.

Its dogma rejects democracy and the legitimacy of existing governments, laws and regulations. Instead, it wants to create a new monarchy and enforce its anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology.

Authorities have told the Federal Court that the September tour was used by the Reichsbürger operatives to photograph and video routes through Berlin’s Reichstag building and nearby government offices.

The planning of the armed coup was found to be disturbingly advanced at the time of the arrests, documents submitted to the court claim. This included details of a feudal system of government intended to replace the German Federal Republic.

Visitors snap photos of one another outside the Reichstag, seat of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

The politician – who has not been named – reportedly served in government between 2017 and 2021 and had been a judge in Berlin. She had retained the privilege of taking up to six visitors through the Reichstag complex.

“Everyone involved in this operation knew that it could only be carried out by using deadly force of arms against the police and security forces of the German Bundestag (parliament),” the prosecution document states.

The revelation comes after the most successful far-right party since World War II topped 21 per cent support in national opinion polls. That puts the AfD party second only to the ruling centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at 27 per cent.

The next German federal election is in 2025.

Insurrection threat

Reichsbürger’s plans called for 16 highly-trained former police and special forces troops to force their way into the Reichstag to kill and capture members of the government, prosecutors say.

Maps detailing priority targets and traffic chokepoints had been prepared. Assault weapons, ammunition and restraint devices had been stockpiled.

A former parachute battalion commander was arrested for involvement in the coup plot. Another was a former politician who was found with a semiautomatic sniper rifle, a telescopic sight and 7000 rounds of ammunition.

Their stated aim was to establish the group’s ringleader, Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, as Germany’s new king. He is a descendant of the House of Reuss, which ruled part of eastern Germany before the revolution of 1918.

“It is a scenario that seems, at best, bizarre, considering the stability of these democratic structures that have anchored Germany over the past 75 years,” notes political analyst Thomas Falk.

Assault weapons, ammunition and restraint devices had been stockpiled. Picture: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

“Yet the ridicule the movement received until now allowed it to metastasise, and the German authorities have yet to find a coherent solution for this threat.”

Reichsbürger members reject taxation and refuse to comply with court orders, insisting the current system of government is “illegal”. They also deny the validity of government documentation, such as licences and passports.

One police officer applied for an ID card identifying himself as a citizen of the “Kingdom of Prussia” in 2021. He was suspended.

German police and military personnel form a disturbingly high proportion of the nation’s far-right extremist groups. Prosecutors this week allege to have caught six trainee officers in three police districts sharing Nazi propaganda and child pornography.

Interior Minister of the German state of Nord Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, said the officers had been stood down pending trial.

“Young civil servants, like older ones, must stand up for justice, law and the values of our constitution without a shadow of a doubt,” he stated.

But German police are not immune from the fallout of extremist attitudes.

In 2016, a Reichsbürger activist killed one special forces officer and injured two others in a shootout near Nuremberg after refusing to hand over his unlicensed weapons.

German special police forces detain Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss after searching a house in western Germany during raids against members of a far-right "terror group" suspected of planning an attack on parliament. Picture: Boris Roessler/dpa /AFP

History repeats

“Germany has understood that the right is the future,” AfD leader Alice Weidel told Italian newspaper La Repubblica recently.

“The voices are getting louder.”

At the same time, an AfD national conference called the European Union a “failed project”. Instead, it wants a “Confederation of European Nations” to take its place.

The party is also campaigning on an anti-climate change platform, accusing left-wing and Green parties of fraud and economic ruin.

“Their politics is a race towards the abyss,” Weidel stated.

“Factors such as economic and industrial lag, greater scepticism of immigration and refugees, a stronger affinity toward Russia, and a less entrenched set of mainstream parties have helped give the AfD an edge in the east,” Emily Schultheis wrote for Foreign Policy.

“Still, in a country whose Nazi past has led to stronger guardrails against the far right than in some other European countries, a national government including the AfD remains extremely unlikely.”

But AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla told the AfD national conference in Magdeburg at the weekend that he expected to win three state elections in eastern Germany next year.

“We could take on government responsibility,” he added, while floating the idea of standing a contender for the position of Chancellor at the next federal election.

According to Germany's prosecutor general, the group is driven by a mix of conspiracy theories and far-right ideology, including influence of the Q-Anon and Reichsburger movements. Picture: Carsten Koall/Getty Images

The AfD emerged on the German political scene a decade ago as a right-wing eurosceptic party capitalising upon disillusionment with mainstream politics.

But analysts say it has since grown to encompass Q-Anon-style conspiracy theorists.

The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency says the AfD has been deemed a “suspected case” of extremist, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional behaviour.

President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) Thomas Haldenwang told German news agency DPA on Tuesday that the AfD’s parliamentary candidates were promoters of “far-right extremist conspiracy theories”.

This includes the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which asserts all Western governments are colluding in a plot to eradicate the white ethnic group through immigration.

This “once again confirmed our assessment that there are strong anti-constitutional currents within the party, whose influence is increasing,” said Haldenwang.

The AfD responded by attacking the neutrality of the intelligence agency, which is constitutionally compelled to resist the rise of Nazi-style extremists. It accuses Haldenwang of participating in a “party-political smear campaign”.

Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @JamieSeidel