Media group RND reported on Thursday that Germany’s Interior Ministry had outstanding arrest warrants against 189 suspects believed to be members of far-right groups that do not recognize the modern German state.
Authorities said the suspects were part of “Reichsbürger” (“citizens of the Reich”) or “self-administering” groups, who claimed to live either in the defunct German Empire, or on soil where they had declared unilateral independence within Germany. Has been announced to happen.
The figure was published on September 30, 2024, in response to a parliamentary request for information from the Socialist Left Party.
Why are those suspects wanted?
In total, 254 arrest warrants were opened against such suspects, some of whom faced more than one warrant, the ministry said.
There were 43 individuals wanted for at least one violent crime, and three accused of multiple violent crimes.
The ministry said 20 warrants were for violent political crimes, and another 77 for politically motivated non-violent crimes such as counterfeiting, coercion or inciting racial violence.
It classified the remaining warrants as “areas of general criminality without political motivation”.
German religious authorities say more than 20 of those sought are living abroad; Some of them have been at large for years.
The figures show that between the end of March and September last year, 93 new such warrants were issued against “Reichsbürger” or “self-administrators”.
What are Reich citizens and self-administrators?
“Reichsbürger” generally deny the legitimacy and existence of the modern German state and the dissolution of the defunct German Empire in 1918.
According to the Interior Ministry, his ideas about what and where the German state is are “in direct opposition to the territorial integrity of our neighboring states as well as to efforts for understanding between nations.”
The ministry said anti-Semitism has often been part of the ideology of some of the group’s members, including in some cases stances such as Holocaust denial.
Members of the second group, the “self-administrators”, claim to view their legal status in Germany as equal, but instead they base their argument on unilaterally declaring their possessions sovereign and independent.
“By their behavior, the self-administrators first want to resist other demands such as payment of taxes and eclosures,” the ministry said.
Several trials are underway across the country involving an alleged group of Reichsbürger accused of plotting to violently overthrow the government.
The most prominent defendant is Heinrich XIII Prince of Reuss, a descendant of German aristocrats and born a private citizen in 1951. The group is accused of plotting to install him as a future head of state.
MSH/DJ (EPD, open source)
