On Tuesday, the German security authorities launched a major nationwide crackdown on the Reich Citizens' Association “Kingdom of Germany”. The Federal Ministry of the Interior banned the group for illegal and unconstitutional activities, while the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office had its self-proclaimed king Peter Fitzek and other suspected ringleaders arrested. Hundreds of officers searched properties belonging to the group in seven federal states.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the “Kingdom of Germany”, founded by Fitzek and others in 2012, is the largest Reichsbürger group in Germany. According to its own information, it has around 6,000 followers. The organization, which operates as an association, does not recognize the Federal Republic of Germany as a legitimate state and operates its own pseudo-state structures. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, it embeds its activities in “anti-Semitic conspiracy-theoretical disparagement of state institutions” and claims the right to secede. This includes, among other things, demands for border shifts at the expense of neighboring states. In addition, the association is profit-oriented and conducts its own prohibited banking and insurance business, among other things.
“The members of this association have created a ‘counter-state’ in our country and built up economic criminal structures,” explained Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt (CSU). “In this way, they are persistently undermining the legal system and the Federal Republic's monopoly on the use of force.” According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, searches were carried out in Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. These were used to search for evidence and to confiscate the association's assets. Numerous sub-organizations were also affected by the ban. The measures were the result of close cooperation with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, other federal authorities and the federal states.
According to the federal prosecutor's office, Fitzek and three other suspected ringleaders were arrested. As the “so-called Supreme Sovereign”, Fitzek had “control and decision-making power in all essential areas”, the authorities explained in Karlsruhe on Tuesday. It had taken over the proceedings against the suspected inner leadership of the group, which is classified as a criminal organization, due to its particular importance. The arrests of Fitzek and the other suspects were made in Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony and Brandenburg. The suspects were to be brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe on Tuesday and Wednesday. He was to issue their arrest warrants.
The self-proclaimed kingdom is campaigning “for the system exit from the Federal Republic of Germany and the annexation” of territories to its own alleged sphere of power, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office explained. It had “established pseudo-state structures and institutions”, issued its own currency and operated a registration office with fictitious identity documents. The association had financed itself primarily through prohibited banking and insurance transactions for its members as well as donations and the recruitment of companies. These were promised the opportunity to operate free of VAT and social security contributions.
“The Kingdom of Germany considers itself to be a sovereign state within the meaning of international law and is striving to extend its claimed ‘state territory’ to the borders of the German Reich of 1871,” the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office went on to explain. Fitzek had founded the now banned group at his home in Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt, from where it continued to expand in the following years. Members acquired properties, for example. Fitzek stood trial several times and was imprisoned for unauthorized insurance transactions, among other things. He promised followers an interest-free monetary system. He founded fantasy institutions with names such as “Königliche Reichsbank” and “Deutsche Heilfürsorge”.
"We have a defensive democracy," said Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) on Tuesday in response to the ban on the association. The state was taking decisive action against Reich citizens who were making themselves comfortable in a "bizarre parallel world" "at the expense of the general public". Saxony's Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) declared that the self-proclaimed "King of Germany" had now been "checkmated" by the authorities.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the case of the "Kingdom of Germany" also involves criminal offenses such as incitement of the people, forgery of documents by issuing false identity documents and other "disobedience offenses" typical of Reich citizens. The federal and state interior ministries can ban associations if they serve criminal purposes and violate the constitution and the idea of international understanding. Any further activity is then prohibited. The founding of substitute associations is illegal.
The Reichsbürger scene consists of various groups and unorganized individual representatives. Its members do not recognize the Federal Republic of Germany as a legitimate state. There are overlaps with right-wing extremists and supporters of conspiracy ideologies, and parts of the Reichsbürger scene are considered to be prepared to use violence. There have already been fatal attacks on police officers and violent coup plans that were thwarted by the security authorities.
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