Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government, multiple news outlets report. The group of far-right and ex-military figures are said to have prepared to storm the parliament building, the Reichstag, and seize power. A minor aristocrat described as Prince Heinrich XIII, 71, is alleged to have been central to their plans. According to federal prosecutors, he is one of two alleged ringleaders among those arrested across 11 German states. BBC reports that the plotters are said to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich) movement, which has long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist conspiracy theories. They also refuse to recognise the modern German state. Other suspects, according to the BBC, came from the QAnon movement who believe their country is in the hands of a deep state. An estimated 50 men and women are alleged to have been part of the group, said to have plotted to overthrow the republic and replace it with a new state modelled on the Germany of 1871 - an empire called the Second Reich. We don't yet have a name for this group, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office told BBC. Germany’s Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted that a major anti-terror operation was taking place and a suspected armed attack on constitutional bodies was planned. The federal prosecutor's office said the group had been plotting a violent coup since November 2021 and members of its central Rat (council) had since held regular meetings. They had already established plans to rule Germany with departments covering health, justice and foreign affairs, the prosecutor said. Members understood they could only realise their goals by military means and violence against state representatives, which included carrying out killings. Investigators are thought to have got wind of the group when they uncovered a kidnap plot last April involving a gang who called themselves United Patriots. The prosecutors described the group, which they did not identify, as being influenced by the ideologies of the conspiracy group QAnon and a right-wing German conspiracy group called the Reichsbürger, or Citizens of the Reich, which believes that Germany’s post-World War II republic is not a sovereign country but a corporation set up by the victorious Allies. Many of those arrested had military training and included former German soldiers, including from the army of the former East Germany, and were known to have been heavily armed with weapons acquired illegally, according to The New York Times.
