BERLIN: German authorities expect further arrests in the coming days as they investigate a far-right group that prosecutors say is preparing to overthrow the state and install a former member of a German royal family as a national leader.
According to German prosecutors, a former parliamentary lawmaker from the far-right Alternative For Germany AfD was also indicted.
According to my experience, there is usually a second wave of arrests, according to Georg Maier, interior minister of the eastern German state of Thuringia. The leader of the alleged plot and her would-be regent is a minor aristocrat called Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, a descendant of the Royal House of Reuss in Thuringia. He is 71 and he is working as a real estate developer.
Neither the House of Reuss nor the Prince Reuss office responded to requests for comment.
On Wednesday, twenty-five suspected members and supporters of the group were arrested in raids involving some 3,000 security personnel that Maier described as unprecedented in modern German history.
Although right-wing groups have been on the rise in Germany, the discovery of the plot came as a shock to one of Europe's most stable democracies and largest economy.
It's not really comprehensible: You hear about such plans from other countries but for this to happen outside my front door? Melanie Merle, who lives close to the apartment in the financial capital Frankfurt, where Prince Reuss was arrested, said he was a victim of a crime spree.
She laughed. The government we have is not ideal but probably better than what they had planned.
Prosecutors said the group was inspired by the deep state conspiracy theories of Germany's Reichsbuerger and QAnon, whose advocates were among those arrested after the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021.
Members of the Reichsbuerger Citizens of the Reich do not recognize modern-day Germany and its borders as a legitimate state. Some are dedicated to the old German Reich empire under a monarchy, with some sharing Nazi ideas and believing that Germany is under military occupation.
Nineteen of the alleged plotters were remanded in custody on Wednesday, while another six were expected to go before a judge on Thursday, prosecutors said.
The number of suspects in the case now stands at 54, and that figure could rise further, according to Holger Muench, head of the federal police office.
Muench said police in their raids found equipment ranging from protective vests to crossbows, rifles and ammunition, as well as plans to build up a homeland protection command and evidence of recruitment.
Muench said that there were a dangerous mixture of people who are following irrational convictions, some with a lot of money, others in possession of weapons and a plan to launch attacks and expand their structures.
Thuringia Minister Maier singled out the far-right Alternative for Germany AfD Party, which is in the state parliament, as an interface for right-wing extremists and spreading fantasies about toppling the state.
People are scared, so the AfD takes advantage of that and offers simple solutions, said Maier, who is from the Social Democratic Party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The AfD condemned the efforts of the far-right group, and expressed confidence in the authorities' ability to bring clarity to the situation quickly and completely.