Around 3,000 police officers were involved in a major raid against the “Patriotic Union” on December 7, 2022. 25 women and men were arrested that day on suspicion of plotting a coup.
What is the status of the proceedings?
The Federal Prosecutor General is currently investigating 69 people from the “Reuss Group”. 27 of them are in custody and, according to information from SZ, NDR and WDR, they will be charged before Christmas – at three higher regional courts. Ten defendants are scheduled to appear in court in Frankfurt, nine in Stuttgart and eight in Munich. Three mammoth processes that will probably take years.
Why does it take so long?
The amount of evidence is immense. Even before the Federal Prosecutor General took over the investigation in September 2022, several state criminal investigation offices, constitutional protection authorities and the Bundeswehr secret service MAD had already dealt with individual suspects. The investigators listened to phone calls and observed meetings for months. “Source TKÜ” (telecommunications surveillance) and online searches were used against some suspects. Spying software, so-called Trojans, were installed on smartphones in order to search them remotely and monitor communications that run via encrypted apps. The investigation files total more than 425,000 pages, or around 850 folders. The files must be printed three times so that each court receives one set. If you put these pages next to each other, the paper stretched from Berlin to Hamburg. Because of the sheer volume, the Federal Prosecutor General asked the BKA for administrative assistance in printing.
Did the group want to storm the Bundestag?
According to the investigation, former soldiers of the group spoke surprisingly openly internally about the plan to break into the Reichstag building and arrest government representatives and MPs. There was usually talk of 30 attackers. Apparently they received the order for this from Henry XIII. Prince Reuss, who is considered one of the ringleaders. In response to a request from SZ, NDR and WDR, his lawyer said: If Reuss had been involved in any way in plans to storm the Bundestag, “there would be reason to have his mental state examined.”
How specific were the plans?
The alleged plan is particularly explosive because the accused Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, as an AfD MP, was not only able to enter the Bundestag with her house ID without being checked, but was also able to bring guests with her – even after she left. She led co-accused through the buildings twice, including the two ex-KSK soldiers Maximilian Eder and Peter Wörner. In the latter case, investigators later secured a list of top politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The investigators were able to secure photos and videos from the visits on August 1st and 18th, 2021. Few people can be seen on it, but many local details: information signs, stairwells, underground connecting passages, parking spaces in the underground car park. At another appointment at the beginning of September, Wörner took photos from the outside, including the entrance to the subway at the Reichstag. Spying before an attack? Malsack-Winkemann vehemently denied this during her interrogation by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. At that time it was a matter of tourist tours.
There are statements from the accused that the plan was dropped in 2022. An accused Bundeswehr reservist told MAD: The group’s military chief, Rüdiger von Pescatore, spoke at a meeting in June or July 2022 that he wanted to storm the Reichstag directly. A colleague then had to hold him back – it was still too early. This fits with what the Hessian Office for the Protection of the Constitution heard in intercepted phone calls in August 2022 and made the officials nervous. Several suspects said that something would soon happen in Berlin. Malsack-Winkemann was asked by Reuß whether Rüdiger had already contacted her, to which she replied in the negative. The ex-MP noted in another conversation that the politicians would not be back in the Bundestag until September 5th. Finally, two of the alleged conspirators talk about how Pescatore and Malsack-Winkemann wanted to “go” – to the Bundestag.
Were the accused armed?
The investigators have seized a large amount of weapons and ammunition from the accused. In total there were at least 382 firearms, including pump guns and a machine gun. 13 of the 69 accused were legally allowed to own weapons as hunters, sport shooters and arms dealers; 73 pistols and rifles were registered to them. The investigators do not rule out the possibility that there are still undiscovered caches of weapons. That’s why they dug several times on the KSK site in Calw.