On Wednesday, thousands of police officers conducted raids on accused far-right radicals who were planning an armed takeover of the government over much of Germany. Twenty-five persons, according to officials, were detained.
According to federal prosecutors, 130 locations across 11 of Germany’s 16 states were searched by 3,000 officers.
The size of the operation was extraordinary, even though police operations targeting the extreme right are not uncommon in the nation, which is still sensitive to its dreadful Nazi past.
According to Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, the raids were an “anti-terrorist operation,” who suggested that the suspects may have plotted an armed attack on government facilities.
The group was “motivated by violent coup fantasies and conspiracy ideas,” according to Germany’s top security official.
According to the prosecution, the accused are associated with the so-called Reich Citizens movement, whose members oppose the post-World War II constitution of Germany and have called for overthrowing the government.
Twenty-two German residents were held by police on suspicion of “participation in a terrorist organization,” according to the prosecution.
According to them, three more people, a Russian national, were detained on suspicion of aiding the group.
Twenty-seven more people were being looked into.
According to the German media publication Der Spiegel, the KSK barracks in the town of Calw in the southwest of the country were among the places searched.
The unit has already come under fire for potential far-right activity by several soldiers.
The barracks were searched, but federal prosecutors would neither confirm nor refute that.
Prosecutors claimed that in addition to detentions in Germany, one individual was held in the Italian city of Perugia and another in the Austrian town of Kitzbuehel.
According to prosecutors, those arrested are accused of forming a “terrorist organization” last year to overthrow the German government and replace it with one already established.
According to the prosecution, the suspects knew their goal could only be accomplished using force and military methods.
Prosecutors claim that some of the group’s members had made “real preparations” to storm the federal parliament of Germany with a small armed force.
To ascertain whether any suspects can be held accountable for treason, they claimed that “the details (of this scheme) still need to be explored.”
According to the statement, the organization is accused of believing in a “conglomerate of conspiracy theories consisting of narratives from the so-called Reich Citizens as well as QAnon doctrine.”
Members of the group, according to prosecutors, also think that a “deep state” controls Germany; former President Donald Trump made similar unfounded allegations about the United States.
The prosecution identified the alleged ringleaders as Heinrich XIII P. R. by German privacy laws, and Ruediger v. P. According to Der Spiegel, the former was a well-known 69-year-old former paratrooper, and the latter was a 71-year-old member of a small German aristocratic family.
Heinrich XIII P. R., the man the organization intended to install as Germany’s new leader, allegedly contacted Russian officials to negotiate to establish a new regime in that nation once the German government was overthrown.
He claims that Vitalia B., a Russian woman, helped him with this.
Prosecutors stated that there is “no indication” that the people contacted in response to his request had done so favorably.
Another person held by the police on Wednesday was identified by the prosecution as Birgit M.-W., according to Der Spiegel.
She is a judge and a former politician for the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Due to its connections to extremists, the party, known by its German abbreviation AfD, has been under increased surveillance by German security authorities.
Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, the co-leaders of the AfD, denounced the alleged plans, which they said were just made aware of by the media.
They said, “We have complete faith in the authorities involved and demand a prompt and thorough inquiry.”
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