In Germany, Far-Right Plotters of an Improbable Coup to Go on Trial

Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss, the obscure aristocrat who wanted to become German chancellor, and eight men and women who planned to bring him into power by violently overthrowing the government, will go on trial on Tuesday in Frankfurt.

Nearly a year and a half after a spectacular nationwide raid involving 3,000 police officers at 150 locations that the authorities say foiled a bizarre, far-right plan to seize power, the prince and the plotters will start facing justice. It is expected to be one of the most complex court cases since West Germany tried Auschwitz concentration camp commanders in the 1960s.

In a temporary courtroom hastily built on the outskirts of Frankfurt, the nine accused will see each other for the first time since most of them were arrested in December 2022. In that time, prosecutors have analyzed thousands of files and chat exchanges and hours of witness testimony to prepare a case they hope will show just how dangerous the would-be insurrectionists — including several retired elite soldiers, a police officer and a former federal far-right lawmaker — were.

Members of the group, who called themselves the “United Patriots,” believed the government was run by pedophilic, illegitimate politicians who had access to a network of underground military bases. The plotters believed in the existence of a secret alliance, prosecutors say, consisting of sympathetic foreign intelligence services, including ones belonging to the United States and Russia, would help the group overthrow the deep state once a signal was given.

The accused are part of a group within the Reichsbürger movement, which believes the modern German state is illegitimate. Long seen as merely a nuisance for not following local laws and refusing to pay taxes, the members of the movement, which the authorities believe number at least 23,000, have become increasingly radical over the years.

“The militant ‘Reichsbürger’ are driven by hatred of our democracy,” Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our security services will continue their crackdown until we have fully exposed and dismantled militant ‘Reichsbürger’ structures.”