exclusive
Starting today, so-called Reich citizens are coming together for a supra-regional networking meeting. Research by BR and MDR show connections to groups suspected of terrorism.
They want to discuss “Possible Paths into the German Reich” and are calling the event “Future Congress”: Starting today, so-called Reich citizens want to gather in a hotel in Wemding, Bavaria, for a supra-regional networking meeting. According to the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, this weekend’s event is one of “the largest meetings” of “Reich citizens” in Germany.
According to information from BR and MDR a “Reichsbürger” network that has already organized two so-called “future congresses” in Thuringia. These were attended by between 100 and 200 participants. Security circles expect a similar number in Bavaria. The research of BR and MDR show connections to groups suspected of terrorism.
The event was advertised for weeks in an internal group on Telegram. The program shared there shows that, in addition to a “flag march,” lectures by well-known figures from the “Reichsbürger” scene are planned. These have titles like “What is German? (on the contrast between Christian and Jewish)” or “The solution for us all”.
Networking and financial interests
Burkhard Körner, President of the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said BR and MDR: “It’s about temporary networking, but it’s also about financial interests.” Participation in the event costs 350 euros, including accommodation and meals.
“Reich citizens” deny the existence of the Federal Republic, they reject its democratic order and the Basic Law. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution attributes 23,000 people to the scene in Germany, including 5,500 people in Bavaria alone. In March, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is close to the CDU, published a representative study that showed that five percent of Germans showed closeness to the “Reichsbürger” idea.
For the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Körner, a big problem is the scene’s “affinity with weapons”. Numerous weapons are repeatedly found during raids.
Venue: Used several times by AfD
The congress is to take place in a hotel in the small Swabian town of Wemding. The hotel has been a venue for the AfD several times since 2018. Members of the state parliament and the Bundestag gave speeches there. According to security authorities, meetings of the esoteric scene and “Reich Citizens” meetings also took place in the hotel.
When asked, the hotel operator writes: “Everyone who behaves properly and pays their bill is our guest.” The Greens and church representatives have also held events in the hotel. “Right-wing extremists have never been here before,” said the hotelier.
Martin Drexler, CSU, mayor of the city of Wemding, only found out about it through an inquiry BR and MDR from the “Reich Citizens” meeting. “Democracy, the rule of law, human dignity and compliance with fundamental rights are the fundamental principles of our Basic Law,” he says, “we condemn anyone who questions these principles and call on them to refrain from these activities.” A ban on the meeting had been considered by the authorities, but it was not legally enforceable, it is said.
Organizer: “Holocaust just an assertion”
According to the research, Lothar W. from Munich is one of the organizers of the congress. Lothar W. is also listed as a speaker. In a video announcing the event, W. says that there have been “several wars of annihilation against the German people” in history.
He is particularly radical in a Telegram group that he manages as an administrator. He writes there something like: “Of course we want to go back to 1871, so why am I defending the 3rd Reich? Well, it’s about the honor of our ancestors.” In a message he writes that the Holocaust is a claim that he will dissect “numerically, scientifically, architecturally, resource-wise and temporally.” Inquiries about this from BR and MDR He doesn’t answer the content – not even the one about his role at the congress.
Political scientist: “Extreme right-wing ideology”
Hans-Joachim M. plays a central role in the events. He is one of the most influential actors in the “Reichsbürger” scene and is considered the keynote speaker at the congress. He is a speaker on the program four times, including the programmatic lecture “Possible Paths into the German Reich”.
In the run-up to the congress, a video of him was distributed on Telegram in which he gave a preview of his input there. In it he calls himself the “grandfather” of Congress and says that Germany is occupied – by the Americans and the Poles.
The “Reichsbürger” scene is ideologically and organizationally heterogeneous. Observers of the scene see Hans-Joachim M. as someone who can bring actors with different views together.
According to political scientist Jan Rathje from the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS), the first two “future congresses” showed that not only Reich citizens were present there, “but also people we know from classically organized right-wing extremism and neo-Nazism. This means that there are bridging spectrums at work here that are trying to bring an extreme right-wing ideology to a broader mass of people interested in conspiracy ideology.”
Links to suspected terrorists
It is “particularly problematic” that there are connections between the central actors of the third “Future Congress” and the network behind it and two “Reichsbürger” groups that have recently been suspected of terrorism. These are the so-called “Reuss Group” and the association that is said to have planned to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach.
For the first “Future Congress” in October 2022, according to information from BR and MDR Heinrich Reuß was expected to attend, but he did not appear. Reuss is considered the ringleader of the “Reichsbürger” group named after him, which the Federal Prosecutor General has accused since December 2022 of wanting to “overcome the existing state order in Germany” as a terrorist organization.
To do this, they pursued plans for an armed attack on the Bundestag. A photo that BR and MDR from the second congress in June 2023, proves that one of the accused from the proceedings against the “Reuss Group” took part.
The main speaker at the congress in Bavaria, Hans-Joachim M., explained in a lecture the day after the raid against the group that he knew those arrested: “I know some of these putschists,” he said, who were this “Berlin Babylon “want to take over”.
Organizer does not comment
It is not the only radical “Reichsbürger” group with which Hans-Joachim M. was in contact. The Federal Prosecutor General accuses the so-called “United Patriots” of planning to overthrow the political system. They are said to have planned, among other things, to kidnap Health Minister Lauterbach.
Hans-Joachim M. was at the meeting where the kidnapping was discussed. He told the news portal “t-online” that he said “nonsense” about the idea of the kidnapping and then went to smoke a cigarette.
The respondents did not answer the question of how the organizers of the congress and Hans-Joachim M. distanced themselves from these terrorist efforts.