The day had not yet dawned, on December 7, 2022, when the German police carried out One of the most spectacular raids in their history. That morning, twenty-five people were arrested in eleven of the country’s sixteen Länder, including former officers of the Bundeswehr – the German army – and a former member of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. ) and the descendant of an old family of the Thuringian aristocracy.
All belonged to the movement of Reichsburger (“citizens of the Empire”), a nebula that appeared in the 1980s and whose supporters – estimated at around 23,000, according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the German domestic intelligence services – do not recognize the legitimacy of the institutions of Federal Germany and dream of restoring the Empire of 1871. According to the press release from the public prosecutor’s office published on December 7, 2022, they were preparing to “violently enter the Bundestag with a small armed group” and launch a “armed attack against constitutional organs”. In other words, to commit a coup d’état.
A year and a half later, the conspirators have a court date. Accused of “participation in a terrorist organization”however, they will not all appear together, the authorities having decided, due to their number, to organize not one but three trials.
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The first, which opens Monday April 29 in Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg), brings together the members of the “military arm” of the cell. The second, which will begin on May 21 in Frankfurt (Hesse), will bring together the masterminds of the conspiracy. The third, which will take place in Munich (Bavaria) from June 18, will be that of the second knives. Initially, twenty-seven people were to be tried: the twenty-five arrested on December 7, 2022 plus two others who were arrested later. One having since died, there will ultimately be only twenty-six to appear.
Of the three trials, the most anticipated is that of Frankfurt, due to the social position of the accused and the role they played in the conspiracy which was foiled. There will be judged in particular the leader of the group, a 72-year-old Thuringian aristocrat known as Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuss, who, once the coup was successful, was supposed to be dubbed “regent” and take charge. of a provisional government. From the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, it was in the hunting lodge of this former entrepreneur who made a career in real estate and sparkling wine that the meetings devoted to planning the putsch were held.
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