Germany Bans Reich Citizen Gr 05/13 06:53

   

   BERLIN (AP) -- The German government has banned the largest "Reich citizen" 
group, an extremist far-right organization that calls itself the "Kingdom of 
Germany" and seeks to undermine the country's democratic order, and arrested 
four of its leaders.

   Since early Tuesday, 800 police officers in several states have been 
searching the association's properties and the homes of leading members.

   "The members of this association have created a "counter-state" in our 
country and built up economic criminal structures," Interior Minister Alexander 
Dobrindt said, adding that the members of the group underpinned their supposed 
claim to power with antisemitic conspiracy narratives --- a behavior that the 
country can't tolerate.

   "We will take decisive action against those who attack our free democratic 
basic order," Dobrindt added.

   The so-called Reich citizen, or Reichsbrger, movement doesn't recognize 
Germany as a state. Many of them claim that the historical German Reich still 
exists and ignore the country's democratic and constitutional structures such 
as parliament, laws or courts. They also refuse to pay taxes, social security 
contributions or fines.

   The "Kingdom of Germany" was proclaimed by its leader Peter Fitzek -- who 
was among those arrested on Tuesday -- in the eastern town of Wittenberg in 
2012 and says it has around 6,000 followers, though the interior ministry said 
that the group has about 1,000 members. It claims to be a "counter-state" that 
seceded from the German federal government.

   "This is not about harmless nostalgics, as the title of the association 
might suggest, but about criminal structures, criminal networks," the minister 
told reporters later in Berlin. "That's why it's being banned today."

   The group's online platforms will be blocked and its assets will be 
confiscated to ensure that no further financial resources can be used for 
extremist purposes.

   It's not the first time that Germany has acted against the "Reichsbrger" 
movement.

   In 2023, German police officers searched the homes of about 20 people in 
connection with investigations into the far-right Reich Citizens scene, whose 
adherents had similarities to followers of the QAnon movement in the United 
States.

   Last year, the alleged leaders of a suspected far-right plot to topple 
Germany's government went on trial on Tuesday, opening proceedings in a case 
that shocked the country in late 2022.