Europe’s rightward shift spans populist parties to extremist groups. One of the most obscure – but no less dangerous – is Germany’s Reichsbürger movement: a network that denies the legitimacy of the German state, has plotted a coup, and is spreading beyond Germany’s borders.
Just recently, German police detained three individuals suspected to be involved in a 2022 coup d’état tied to aristocrat entrepreneur-turned-conspiracy theorist Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss.
Their arrests thrust the Reichsbürger (“Citizens of the Reich”) or Selbstverwalter (“self-administrators”) – a blend of extremists, conspiracy theorists, and armed zealots – back into the spotlight.
Authorities place them within a fragmented ecosystem that hides in digital thickets.
Between kings and a coup d’état
In 2012, Peter Fitzek – a former chef and karate teacher – declared himself king of the “Kingdom of Germany.” His self-styled state boasted its own currency, bank, and insurance system. Last May, the Reichsbürger-affiliated project was banned and Fitzek taken into custody.
In late 2022, a group calling itself the Patriotic Union, embedded within the Reichsbürger scene, allegedly planned to overthrow the federal government and install Reuss as head of state. Not with torches and pitchforks but with bullets and explosives.
According to prosecutors, the group raised about €500,000, amassed a “massive arsenal of weapons,” and drafted a new constitution for a post-coup state. The plan included storming the German parliament – copying the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol – and dismantling democratic institutions. Authorities classified the group as a terrorist organisation.
In 2024, nine core members were charged with high treason, attempted murder, and plotting the coup. Among them was Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a former far-right MP for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and long-standing judge at the Berlin Regional Court – still serving on the bench at the time of her arrest. Twenty-seven others have already stood trial.
The Deutschland GmbH
Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution defines Reichsbürger as “persons and groups who ‘deny the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and reject the entire legal system.’”
The assemblage is heterogenous. Its ideological sources range from monarchism and antisemitism to esotericism and outright fascism, making the movement difficult to untangle. Active since the 1980s and monitored since 2016 as an anti-state network, Reichsbürger factions span monarchists to radical libertarians.
Some claim the German Empire still exists within its 1871 or 1937 borders; others insist Germany is merely a corporate entity – “Deutschland GmbH” – still under Allied control. Many refuse to pay taxes, reject official documents, and sometimes violently confront authorities – up to lethal attacks, such as the 2016 shooting of a police officer, which first pushed the movement from eccentric nuisance to security threat.
Language, too, fuels their conspiracy: the word Personalausweis – German for identity card – is twisted to suggest that citizens are mere “staff” of a company called Germany.
Around 30 identifiable groups are believed to be part of the larger network. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which campaigns against right-wing extremism, antisemitism and racism, has described the heterogenous network as one of “mystical misanthropy.”
Growing bigger
The movement swelled during the protests against coronavirus protection measures, then fed off anger over the war in Ukraine and its economic fallout.
“Many elements of the ideology prevalent in the ‘Reichsbürger‘ […] scenes are compatible with these protests,” according to the German interior ministry, where spirituality, vaccine scepticism, and anti-democratic narratives converge.
Like other groups seeking to duck state surveillance, the Reichsbürger thrive in echo chambers, especially on Telegram, pumping out videos, livestreams, and other radicalised self-affirmations.
Germany’s latest domestic intelligence report estimated that there are around 26,000 Reichsbürger nationwide, 5% of which are labelled right-wing extremists. Overall, the report recorded 40,700 right-wing extremists, 37,000 left-wing extremists, and 27,200 Islamists.
The movement – mainly found in rural areas – has an unusually high share of women compared to other extremist groups, standing at 27%.
Beyond Germany
Though rooted in German history, the Reichsbürger mindset is seeping across borders.
A study for Austria’s interior ministry found “close ideological kinship and similar radicalisation patterns” between the Austrian and German Reichsbürger scene. Conspiracy claims like “Company Austria” are borrowed from the German playbook, along with the central aim: rejecting the alpine republic as a constitutional state.
Joint investigations by Der Spiegel, Der Standard and MDR Investigativ uncovered links between the German “Saxon Separatists” and Austrian extremists, including a connection to the Austrian interior ministry involving a person authorised to run explosives workshops.
Even Switzerland, often praised for its tradition of direct democracy and self-governance, is not immune.
Observers caution it could turn into a new base for Reichsbürger fleeing Germany’s crackdown. The recent ban of the so-called “Kingdom of Germany” underscored those ties: one of the trusted confidants of the self-styled ‘king’ Fitzek is Swiss. Local conspiracy groups echo the anti-state worldview, though they lack the myth of a restored German Reich.
Experts warn of an emerging transnational ecosystem of mutually reinforcing movements. Some borrow symbols, rhetoric, and narratives across borders; others grow in parallel, shaped by similar grievances and online radicalisation pathways. Like a mycelial network connected digitally, fragmented groups may feel increasingly capable of action.
“We will certainly see more such groups […] because this radicalisation in these groups has progressed so far […],” said Johannes Kieß, who researches extremism at the University of Leipzig.
“People are actually prepared to use violence and want to take action, meaning they actually want to put the resistance narrative into practice.”
(vib, cs)
