exclusive
A year ago, investigators nationwide took action against a suspected terrorist organization of Reich citizens. Charges are now to be brought. Research by WDR, NDR and SZ provide insights into one of the most complex terrorist trials in post-war history.
It is the morning of December 7th, 2022, when masked special police forces storm a house in Frankfurt’s Westend and shortly afterwards lead out a man in a tweed jacket and with graying hair in handcuffs: Heinrich XIII. Prince Reuss, 72 years old, entrepreneur and, according to the Federal Prosecutor General, co-founder of a terrorist organization. He and his supporters are said to have worked towards another state.
Since then, the man who is considered the “ringleader” and has remained silent about the allegations has been in custody. Just like 26 other accused.
Charges are imminent
Charges will now be brought against these 27 as soon as possible – for founding, joining and supporting a terrorist organization. There is also an investigation into treasonous enterprises against the federal government. A total of 69 people are currently considered defendants in the complex of proceedings.
Several higher regional courts in Frankfurt am Main, Munich and Stuttgart, and probably many other courts nationwide, will hear the allegations. The main accused are to be indicted by the Federal Prosecutor General, and the cases of the alleged supporters will be handed over to public prosecutors’ offices in the federal states – a procedure that is probably unprecedented in terms of its scope. The investigation files are more than 425,000 pages long.
World of madness
Joint research by WDR, NDR and “Süddeutscher Zeitung” provide an insight into a world in which investigators made many concrete preparations – and great madness, which was fed by various conspiracy myths and Reichsbürger beliefs circulating around the world.
The very recruitment of suitable candidates who were accepted into the prince’s inner circle apparently had supernatural aspects: Reuß surrounded herself with a seer and an astrologer, who had also introduced other people to the group whom she had previously advised astrologically for years – including the former AfD member of the Bundestag, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, and a top chef. Other candidates are said not to have survived an astrological test.
Alleged liberation of children from earth tunnels
An initial check is said to have been carried out by a man named Marco van H., who, according to investigators, played a central role in the suspected terrorist organization. On May 27, 2022, the man from Pforzheim is said to have come to Bad Lobenstein in Thuringia and introduced himself to the prince’s shadow cabinet in the Waidmannsheil hunting lodge.
This is the “council” that was supposed to take power in Germany after a coup, with Prince Reuss as head of state. According to the investigators’ findings, he is said to have told the “Council” that he had freed children from underground tunnels for the so-called “Alliance”.
“Secret Army” operating worldwide
According to some of the suspects, the “alliance” was a supposedly global secret army, which supposedly included both terrestrial and supernatural fighters who were preparing a global takeover of power. According to the investigators, the ideas associated with the “Alliance” were deeply anti-state and anti-democratic.
This alleged secret organization probably played a decisive role for the group: that Marco van H., according to information from WDR, NDR and SZ, for example, ex-AfD member of the Bundestag Birgit Malsack-Winkemann in her extensive statement to investigators lasting several days, should have ensured with the “Alliance” that the Reuss group would accept the prince and his future ministers as a transitional government after a coup. Neither Marco van H. nor Malsack-Winkemann’s lawyers responded to requests.
Accused denies allegations
The former Berlin judge Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, but also other defendants, deny the group’s terrorist objectives, which the federal prosecutor’s office accuses them of: also that they themselves carried out violent acts and wanted to put the German government in a coup. This, argues the ex-MP, should have been taken over by the “Alliance”. The group itself knew about military tribunals and a planned global overthrow of the “Alliance” and, for example in certain Telegram groups, waited for supposed signs. However, they did not want to carry out a violent coup themselves.
This is also how the lawyer of the still imprisoned Prince Reuss presents it, who spoke to him upon request WDR, NDR and SZ commented on the allegations for the first time: It is always said that one should “take action after the Alliance intervenes. Since the ‘Alliance’ did not exist, nothing would have happened here.” The investigators should see it differently.
building of “Homeland Security Companies”
Despite these ideologies, which often seem delusional, they take the group’s efforts extremely seriously, especially since parts of the group worked on paramilitary-organized command structures. During searches of former and an active Bundeswehr soldier, police officers found Powerpoint presentations, drawings and documents about plans for the establishment of homeland security companies.
Their purpose is described in detail in a document: In addition to the “active surveillance of urban areas”, they should also be responsible for the “neutralization of counter-revolutionary forces from the left and the Islamic spectrum” and for the “prevention of partisan activities”.
One of the key participants is said to have been a Bundeswehr soldier who was active in the Special Forces Command (KSK) in Calw until his arrest. He is said to have already developed concrete plans for exactly how the companies would be structured and, together with others, planned to purchase radio equipment, weapons, ammunition and vehicles.
When investigators stormed the soldier’s house a year ago, they not only found plastic handcuffs and 22 balaclavas on him, but also a stamp with the inscription “Heimatschutzkompanie 161, Christian-Ritter-von-Popp-Straße 25, 95448 Bayreuth.” In reality, this is the address of the Bayreuth Federal Police Department. The defendant’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
What particularly struck the investigators was that the accused repeatedly tried to win soldiers and police officers over to their plans. Only in isolated cases did those spoken to report this to their offices or other security authorities.
Contacts in the organized right-wing extremist scene
Not only were the accused planning a nationwide organization, they also had experienced and very well-trained men in their ranks: including the former KSK soldier Peter W. Investigators had already extensively monitored the man in Thuringia in 2016 after he was a member of the right-wing extremist “European Action “, whose writings promoted, among other things, revolutionary resistance through small cells, is said to have trained at a forest bivouac. The investigation was stopped.
W. is said to have been one of the most important men in expanding the “military arm”. He is said to have boasted to a possible comrade-in-arms that they wanted to storm the Bundestag with 30 people. On his cell phone there were photos of Bundestag properties that he is said to have visited at least twice with like-minded people. The investigators suspect that he wanted to spy on the property.
Peter W. later claimed that the order to prepare a storm on the Bundestag had come from Prince Reuss. His lawyer informs at the request of WDR, NDR and SZ with: If the prince “had been involved in any way whatsoever in plans to storm the Bundestag,” said the lawyer, “there would be reason to have his mental state examined.” Peter W.’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Who should storm the Reichstag?
The alleged plan is particularly explosive because Peter W’s co-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 in autumn 2021. The investigators were able to save photos and videos from August 1st and 18th, 2021 on visitors’ cell phones. You can see information signs, stairwells, underground connecting passages and parking spaces in the underground car park.
Malsack-Winkemann stated that this was a normal tourist tour. She did not know three of the participants before. She also stated that she only became part of the “council” around Reuss about six months later. During the interrogation, she vehemently denied having actively participated in plans to storm the Bundestag.
It is also not clear whether and how seriously the storming of the Reichstag was pursued in 2022. Several suspects later said that the plan had been dropped – or that the “Alliance” should have carried out this task too.
However, an accused reservist told the Military Counterintelligence Service: The ex-soldier and alleged military chief of the group, 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 for that. Rüdiger von Pescatore’s lawyer also did not respond to a request.
To this day, the investigators take the group and its plans and structures so seriously that they have now used excavators to dig for hidden earth deposits several times on a KSK military site in Calw. The suspicion: Weapons and ammunition from ancient times could still be stored there, which a suspect could have hidden there.
A mammoth task for the judiciary
The trials against the Reichsbürger network, which could probably begin in early summer 2024, are likely to last several years.
The prosecutors have great hope for the evidence that makes it clear that it was definitely a structured network, sometimes even with hierarchies and precisely defined functions. The so-called “non-disclosure agreements” that numerous defendants signed are particularly evidence of this. More than 130 of them were found during various searches.