Aristocrat, who was arrested in Frankfurt's West End district on Wednesday morning, has been described by prosecutors as the ringleader of the terror group plotting to overthrow the government. If their plan had succeeded, he had envisioned himself as the leader of a revolutionary government.
Heinrich, a descendant of the noble House of Reu, who ruled parts of Thuringia, in eastern Germany, for about 800 years in a digital business summit in Zurich in 2019, delivered a 16-minute speech at a digital business summit in Zurich infused with far-right conspiracy theories.
After thousands of years of rule he complained that his dynasty had been dispossessed after the first world war, a conflict brought about by foreign powers. He claimed that the dark forces behind the great wars of the 20th century were the Rothschild dynasty and Freemasons.
Heinrich said it has never been sovereign since Germany surrendered. In August this year, the current head of the House of Reu Greiz, Prince Heinrich XIV Reu of Greiz, distanced himself in strong terms from his relative, describing him as a confused old man who left the family 14 years ago.
The German media reported that Heinrich XIII had recently earned his living with property deals and the production of sparkling wine.
The 69-year-old retired army officer has been described by the prosecutors as the aspiring leader of the terror group's military arm Between 1993 and 1996, Von Pescatore was a commander at paratrooper battalion 251, which was later submerged into Special Forces Command KSK. He was expelled from the military over the unauthorised sale of weapons from the stocks of the old East German army.
In the year 2019 an internet user with Von Pescatore's name made comments on a website that claimed to expose secret Freemason plots behind major events in world history. The commenter said that he was writing from Brazil and that the truth will only become accessible to mankind after system change.
In the post-coup shadow cabinet that the terrorist group had started to plan, the crucial justice ministry was reserved for Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, 58, who was arrested by police at her apartment in Berlin's Wannsee district on Wednesday morning.
Malsack-Winkemann has been a member of the far-right party Alternative f r Deutschland AfD since it was founded in 2013 on an anti-euro ticket. As a member of the Bundestag between 2017 and 2021, the lawyer once claimed migrants were causing billions of dollars in excess costs to the German health system because they were unable to read instruction leaflets on their medication, a claim dismissed by pharmacists as lacking a basis in fact.
The newspaper Die Zeit reported that Malsack-Winkemann was a supporter of conspiracy theories with a particular obsession with the QAnon cult. She is believed to have two firearms, a holder of a gun licence.
A disciplinary tribunal rejected a Left party plea to stop Malsack-Winkemann from returning to her former, supposedly impartial role as a judge at a Berlin district court. At the time, her spokesperson had insisted that she was part of the very moderate wing of the AfD.