exclusive
There are children living in Germany who officially do not exist. They do not have a birth certificate, like BR-Research revealed that her parents belong to the “Reich Citizens” scene, which radically rejects the state and its legal form.
She did not register her daughter with the registry office, says a supporter of the “Kingdom of Germany” in a video on the group’s website. For a “happy”, “free”, “natural upbringing” it is completely unimportant whether the child has a birth certificate or not. The mother sees it as an advantage that the child “did not have to go for an examination”. According to media reports, the parents, who live in Thuringia, also did not fulfill their school obligation until neighbors alerted authorities to the girl’s existence.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution describes the “Kingdom of Germany” as a “sectarian community” and a “fantasy state”. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the extremist group is one of the groups with the largest number of members in the “Reich Citizens” and “Self-Government” scene. According to its own information, the “Kingdom of Germany” currently has more than 6,000 members.
Currently, BR-Research events are taking place in many places to recruit new supporters. The group’s self-declared goal is to create alternative state structures – with its own constitution and its own monetary system.
Defense of Constitution: “We have to look”
The girl from Thuringia is BRresearch, he is not the only child who lived under the radar of state institutions. “Even if there are only two children, it would be a significant problem for me,” says the President of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, in BR-Interview. He could not give concrete figures, but: In Thuringia, there are known “Reichsbürger” families in the lower double-digit range, in which the indoctrination of children plays a role.
However, this is only the bright spot, says the constitutional protection officer. “This is something we cannot look away from, but something we have to look at,” says Kramer. He himself travels a lot in the municipalities and informs authorities such as youth welfare offices about the phenomenon.
Early indoctrination of children
In the course of research for a ARD-Radio feature has the Bavarian Broadcasting the state offices for the protection of the constitution were asked about the topic. Eleven offices had responded by the time of going to press. Most of them had already dealt with the phenomenon of “Reich Citizen families”.
The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Lower Saxony is aware of individual cases in which “Reich citizens” tried to evade the issuing of birth certificates by the registry offices. Other offices such as Bavaria and Saxony assume that such cases do occur. In addition, “Reich citizens” tried to return the children’s identity documents, according to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Rhineland-Palatinate.
The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Baden-Württemberg writes that children are ideologically indoctrinated at an early age. The authority has, for example, received letters “that were issued in the name of the children of well-known members of the milieu and in some cases were even signed by them.”
Several constitutional protection agencies report cases in which “Reichsbürger” try to exempt their children from compulsory schooling. In Hesse, the constitutional protection agency is observing attempts in the “Reichsbürger” scene “with concern” to create alternative educational institutions.
Advertising for home births
With topics such as “education” or “children”, “Reichsbürger” and “Selbstverwaltunger” are recruiting new supporters. BR-Research shows that relevant Telegram channels with tens of thousands of subscribers explicitly advocate taking children away from state institutions. “If you have a baby at home – ALONE – and do NOT report it to the registry office,” says a channel of the QAnon conspiracy ideology, which is close to the Reich Citizens, “then this child does not exist.” It is a free person.
“Free” because, according to the conspiracy ideology of parts of the “Reich Citizens” scene, the Federal Republic of Germany does not even exist, but is a company. With the birth certificate, the “company Federal Republic of Germany” forces people into a kind of contract. In doing so, they would give up all rights – this is how Verena Fiebig describes the views. She is a scientist at the Competence Center against Extremism in Baden-Württemberg and researches “Reich Citizens” and “self-administrators”.
“From the perspective of ‘Reich citizens’, we enter the status of slaves through this birth certificate document,” said Fiebig. From an ideological perspective, it is plausible that ‘Reich citizens’ parents would try to avoid this document for their children.
Trend is upward
If children are systematically isolated – for example through alternative learning groups or educational institutions – from a scientific perspective, this quickly becomes a threat to the welfare of children, says the extremism researcher. Because the children are denied educational opportunities and live in isolation.
The creation of parallel structures is also known from the right-wing extremist scene, says constitutional protection officer Kramer – and well thought out. “You create the next generations who are then immediately brought into line and have never come into contact with a free democratic basic order, a constitution, human and civil rights.”
According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there are around 23,000 “Reich Citizens” and “Self-Governors” in Germany (as of 2022). According to state authorities, around 1,000 of them live in Thuringia, around 5,400 in Bavaria. In Saxony, 3,000 people are considered part of the scene. However, the resonance of the Reich Citizens is much larger: According to a representative survey by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is close to the CDU, five percent of Germans show a closeness to “Reich Citizens” ideology. Experts agree: the trend is upward.