Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.
German reports say the group of far-right and ex-military figures planned to storm the parliament building, the Reichstag, and seize power.
A minor aristocrat described as Prince Heinrich XIII, 71, is alleged to have been central to their plans.
According to federal prosecutors, he is one of two alleged ringleaders among those arrested across 11 German states.
The plotters are said to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] movement, which has long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist conspiracy theories. They also refuse to recognise the modern German state.
An estimated 50 men and women are alleged to have been part of the group, said to have plotted to overthrow the republic and replace it with a new state modelled on the Germany of 1871 - an empire called the Second Reich.
"We don't yet have a name for this group," said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office.
Three thousand officers took part in 130 raids across much of the country, with two people arrested in Austria and Italy. Those detained were due to be questioned later in the day.

BERLIN (AP) — Thousands of police carried out a series of raids across much of Germany on Wednesday against suspected far-right extremists who allegedly sought to overthrow the state in an armed coup.

Federal prosecutors said some 3,000 officers conducted searches at 130 sites in 11 of Germany’s 16 states against adherents of the so-called Reich Citizens movement. Some members of the grouping reject Germany’s postwar constitution and have called for the overthrow of the government.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann described the raids as an “anti-terrorism operation,” adding that the suspects may have planned an armed attack on institutions of the state.

Prosecutors said 22 German citizens were detained on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organization.” Three other people, including a Russian citizen, are suspected of supporting the organization, they said. A further 27 people are being investigated.

xandreu wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 5:36 pm

Darkcel wrote: ↑Wed Dec 07, 2022 5:03 pm WORLD WAR 3! WORLD WAR 3! WORLD WAR 3!

You may not be far wrong. If you look at world history, you will find that a major, world-changing event seems to happen on a fairly regular basis, around every 70-80 years or so, give or take. Once the people who remember the last catastrophic event die off, and most of the lessons learned die with them, another global disaster is usually not far behind them.

It's coming up to 80 years since the end of WWII, with pretty much all of the veterans now dead and buried. There is hardly anyone alive today who has a real living memory of the war. For the rest of us, it's just something we learn about in school, detached from the reality of it, almost as if it's merely an interesting story that make for some exciting movies.

I don't think I'm the only one who feels that things just aren't right at the moment, and something big is about to kick off. Whether the war in Ukraine starts to get out of hand, China invades Taiwan, a north Korean missile test goes wrong and hits a populated city somewhere... it does seem to me that the world seems to be itching for another fight.

The problem this time around is that the toys thrown out of the pram are much, much bigger.

Doc67 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 08, 2022 2:24 pm

An estimated 50 men and women are alleged to have been part of the group, said to have plotted to overthrow the republic and replace it with a new state modelled on the Germany of 1871 - an empire called the Second Reich.

"We don't yet have a name for this group," said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office.

I can think of a few names for them...

With so much time, effort and cost going into a huge police operation to arrest 50 people, they have given them more publicity than they would ever have got if they just ignored them.

The authorities should now publish, in full, all that they have got on them, secret recording and videos etc, just to show the world precisely what a bunch of vankers* they really are.

* @hanno , help me out with the translation please