Keep knowledgeable with free updates
Merely signal as much as the German politics myFT Digest — delivered on to your inbox.
9 males went on trial in Stuttgart on Monday charged with excessive treason and plotting a violent coup d’état, in a case that has highlighted the menace posed to Germany’s democratic establishments by far-right extremists.
The case in Stuttgart is the primary of three mammoth trials of 27 individuals in complete. They’re accused of conspiring to overthrow the German authorities, set up the aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss as nationwide chief and declare martial regulation.
The 9 accused in Stuttgart are alleged to have constituted the coup-plotters’ “army arm”. The political ringleaders go on trial in Frankfurt on Could 21, with a 3rd trial of lesser members of the conspiracy scheduled to begin in Munich on June 18.
Collectively the three trials mark one of many largest and most advanced units of authorized proceedings in Germany’s postwar historical past.
The accused emerged from the “Reichsbürger” or “imperial citizen” motion, a free union of conspiracy theorists, racists and fantasists who refuse to recognise the German state in its present kind and yearn for a restoration of the monarchy.
The Reichsbürger, who typically situation their very own passports and stamps and refuse to pay fines issued by native authorities, had been lengthy dismissed as innocent cranks. However public perceptions of the motion have hardened considerably for the reason that coup plot allegations first emerged in late 2022.
The 9, who embrace a number of former senior officers within the Bundeswehr (the armed forces), and one who belonged to an elite unit, stand accused of membership of a terrorist organisation and of “getting ready an act of excessive treason”.
One of many group, who shot and wounded policemen finishing up a search of his condominium in March 2023, faces a further cost of tried homicide.
Prosecutors allege the army arm had deliberate to grab energy utilizing weapons and had began to assemble a nationwide system of greater than 280 army items. They stated it was led by Rüdiger von Pescatore, a former lieutenant colonel and a paratrooper commander.
On the time of their arrest, the group had collected €500,000 in money from members and donors, prosecutors say, and constructed up a stash of 380 firearms, 350 bladed weapons and 148,000 rounds of ammunition.
The indictment says that after deposing the federal authorities, the plotters supposed to contact the Russian authorities to barter a brand new order for Germany. Members of the Reuss group additionally tried to satisfy Russian officers at diplomatic premises in Germany and not less than one location in Slovakia, prosecutors allege.
Andreas Singer, president of the Stuttgart courtroom, stated it was one of many largest nationwide safety trials in Germany’s postwar historical past, involving 5 judges, two substitute judges and 22 defence attorneys.
The Frankfurt trial entails Heinrich XIII in addition to a former choose and ex-lawmaker with the anti-immigrant Various for Germany, who prosecutors say was to function the nation’s post-coup justice minister.
