Europeans be concerned about the “Reich Citizens” movement in Germany.
The German Federal Police announced without warning last Wednesday morning the arrest of 25 people who they said were members of a right-wing “terrorist” organization and were arrested for plotting to seize power in the country.
Germany’s public prosecutor said the “terrorist” group, known as the Reich Citizens’ Movement, planned to seize official German buildings, including the Bundestag (German parliament).
The German prosecutor’s office added that in this operation, which is considered one of the largest operations against right-wing extremists in Germany, a Russian citizen is among those arrested.
The Kremlin quickly denied any connection to the group, declaring that German security operations against “citizens of the Reich” were an internal matter.
Citizens of the Reich or “Reichsberger” is a far-right organization that does not believe in the current borders of Germany or the borders of 1949, and believes that the borders of Germany are the same as the borders of 1937, which includes parts of Poland and France. The members of this movement believe that the real Germany started in 1871 and continued until the end of the Nazi era.
The members of the Reich movement do not recognize the institutions of the German government and consider the current German government illegal, and therefore do not accept German official documents and its courts and do not pay taxes and fines. Various German data show that the number of members of this organization is increasing and reached 15,600 people in 2018.
The rich state of “Bayern” (the south of the country) is the largest concentration of this organization, followed by “Baden-Wittemberg”, then the state of “North Rhine-Westphalia” is in third place, and the data of the German authorities shows the current number of members of this movement. About 100 thousand people announced.
