The trial against alleged members of a group who called themselves “United Patriots” and are said to have planned a coup in Germany including the kidnapping of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) begins on Wednesday in the Koblenz Higher Regional Court. The four men, aged 44 to 56, and a 75-year-old woman are accused of founding or being a member of a domestic terrorist organization and preparing a treasonable operation against the federal government. The indictment is scheduled to be read out on the first day of the trial.
The four men were arrested over the past year and are being held in custody. According to the indictment, the group, which investigators assign to the so-called Reichsbürger milieu, is said to have worked out a three-stage plan: First, a power failure lasting at least two weeks should be caused by explosive attacks. Lauterbach was then to be kidnapped by force – “possibly after killing his bodyguards,” according to the Higher Regional Court. In the “civil war-like conditions” that were then allegedly triggered, the accused are said to have planned a meeting in Berlin to depose the government and appoint new “leaders”.
Nothing came of the group’s alleged plans – they got involved with an undercover agent when buying a gun. The four men were arrested in April 2022 at various locations in Germany. Firearms and ammunition, cash, gold bullion, silver coins and foreign currency were seized during nationwide searches.
The 75-year-old retired teacher was arrested in Saxony in mid-October 2022. She is said to have pushed in particular for the timely “restoration of the German Reich’s ability to act”, as can be seen from a detention review decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) published on Tuesday. She also wrote several documents that would have been needed for the group’s actions: letters to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Polish President Andrzej Duda and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as well as an “arrest warrant” against Lauterbach.
Lauterbach wants “hard, fair judgments”
“Proceedings and history have strengthened my confidence in our rule of law. I am very grateful to the officials who were involved in the arrest and to my bodyguards who are looking after me. They are risking their lives for us,” Lauterbach told the editorial network Germany . The alleged perpetrators “dramatically overestimated their own possibilities”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/.”It is absurd to believe that a government could fall just because one of its ministers was shot. I let myself in my work not irritated by these incidents. What worries me, however, is that such groups can form at any time and also have access to weapons.” To the Mirror Lauterbach said about the process: “I wish for hard, fair judgments.” Only harsh judgments could deter imitators.
The process also looks at how far the plans had progressed and who had a leading role in the group. “What should be taken seriously is when people start arming themselves, and especially arming themselves illegally, and making plans that just need to be implemented,” said Jan Rathje, a political scientist at the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS), which has been dealing with right-wing extremism and sovereignty of so-called Reich citizens for years.
With a view to the age of the 75-year-old accused, Rathje said: “One should not downplay the fact that older people can also be capable of terrorist acts, if only they get involved in the group planning.” During the pandemic and the protests against the corona measures, different milieus moved closer together. They would have the federal government as a shared enemy. “What is special about this case is that these sovereignist groups have also integrated elements of the US conspiracy narratives surrounding QAnon,” Rathje said. “So far we have not observed this in investigations into sovereignist groups.”
“The security situation in Germany is still extremely tense,” said the Parliamentary Secretary of the Greens parliamentary group, Irene Mihalic, and the Greens domestic politician Misbah Khan. The greatest threat is right-wing extremism driven by conspiracy ideologies. “Against this background, there is an urgent need for the Federal Ministry of the Interior to develop an overall strategy.” The entire federal government must be involved in this.