Germany charges 27 for plotting armed coup with Russia links

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German authorities have charged 27 people with crimes including terrorism, treason and attempted murder for their alleged involvement in last year’s plot to overthrow the government, revealing new details of their links to Russia.

The charges contain accusations of several meetings between plotters and Russian government officials in 2022 and their intent to involve Moscow in establishing Germany’s new rule.

“The accused belonged to a terrorist organisation founded at the end of July 2021 whose goal was to violently eliminate the existing state order in Germany and replace it with its own form of government,” the prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday.

All of the accused belonged to the extremist Reichsbürger movement — an eclectic grouping of conspiracists, racial ideologues and fantasists who reject the legitimacy of the modern democratic state and embrace ideas such as monarchy and pan-German nationalism.

Led by Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, scion of an aristocratic dynasty that ruled the east German province of Thuringia for 800 years, the 27 are accused of amassing considerable financial resources and stores of weapons to carry out a coup against the democratically elected government in Berlin.

The putsch was centred on an operation to storm the parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, in order to arrest parliamentarians, seize control of military radio and trigger a general insurrection across Germany, according to three indictments by the federal prosecutor filed in Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart.

After deposing the federal government, the plotters intended to contact the Russian government to negotiate a new order for Germany. A number of meetings were held and attempted between members of the group and Russian officials at diplomatic premises in Germany and at least one undisclosed location in Slovakia the indictments claim. 

After deposing the federal government, the plotters intended to contact the Russian government to negotiate a new order for Germany. Two meetings were held and two more were planned between members of the group and Russian officials at consulates in Leipzig and Frankfurt, the indictments claim.

“How the Russian Federation responded . . . has not yet been clarified,” the federal prosecutor said.

A meeting with the Russian consul in Leipzig and the two plotters of the group in charge of weapons procurement was scheduled for December, but never went ahead because the plot was uncovered first.

A Russian woman is among those charged. She facilitated the meetings with Russian government officials, the indictment says.

The Russian government has denied any involvement.

The Reichsbürger movement’s “concrete preparations” included weapons training and the recruitment of sympathetic fighters around the country, grouped into tightly organised regional cells.

The organisation had already gained access to the Reichstag building. One of those charged is Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a former MP for the hard- right Alternative für Deutschland party. She smuggled other conspirators into secure areas of the Reichstag so they could scope out the building and make attack plans.

The plot’s advanced nature triggered a huge police action last December.

More than 3,000 officers raided 150 premises across Germany, uncovering a stash of 380 firearms, 350 bladed weapons and 500 “other” weapons, as well as 148,000 rounds of ammunition intended for use in the plot.

Among those charged is a sharpshooter with “numerous” weapons and explosives permits. He shot and injured two police officers — one permanently — with an assault rifle when he was arrested.

Others include a member of the German military’s special forces command, who gave plotters access to military sites, and a lieutenant colonel, the former commander of a paratrooper battalion.

Of particular concern to investigators has been the extent to which the conspirators were able to successfully recruit current and former military officers and gain access to sensitive military sites.

German counter-terrorism officials estimate there to be roughly 25,000 people in Germany who are sympathetic to Reichsbürger ideas.