Accused German coup plotters go on trial over ‘plot to storm Reichstag’
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A German aristocrat accused of plotting to overthrow the state and take over as a new Kaiser has been put on trial for high treason.
Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, 72, appeared at a court on the western outskirts of Frankfurt on Tuesday morning under heavy security, as a dozen police officers and armed guards patrolled the grounds under barbed wire fences.
The alleged coup-plotter was dressed in a dark suit and jumper as he took a seat among the other defendants and their lawyers.
Prince Reuss, who claims to be a descendent of the 12th-century Reuss dynasty, and his co-conspirators are accused of plotting an armed coup against the German state.
According to an indictment, the conspirators had discussed plans to march into the national parliament in Berlin with an armed group to arrest MPs, on what they dubbed “Day X”.
An indictment suggests that the group discussed the death of Queen Elizabeth II as a possible omen that it was time for them to seize power.
Also on trial was a former judge and MP for the far-Right AfD party, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, who is accused of using her access to Germany’s parliament to “smuggle” co-conspirators into the area as part of their coup plans.
All eight suspects who appeared before the court in Frankfurt are members of the Reichsburger movement, which rejects the legitimacy of the modern German state and wishes to restore the rule of the German Empire established in 1871. The shadowy group is estimated to have around 23,000 members nationwide.
In addition to the hearings in Frankfurt, other key suspects are also on trial at courts in Stuttgart and in Munich, in Germany’s biggest and most complex terrorism trial.
The trial is expected to run until January 2025 but could last much longer due to its scale and complexity, with seven judges examining 700 folders of evidence in the Stuttgart proceedings alone.
In April, nine men accused of being members of the coup-plotters’ armed wing appeared in court in Stuttgart, separated from judges by bullet-proof glass. The accused, whose faces were hidden from TV cameras by police, shook their heads as the charges were read out.
Prince Reuss is a former wine producer, property developer and fan of conspiracy theories. His lawyers have insisted that he is not a violent criminal and suggest that he has been caught up in a fanciful plot which he did not fully understand.
But the case is being taken extremely seriously by German authorities as the group possesses a “massive arsenal” of weapons and counted among its members both serving and ex-soldiers, including a veteran of the German equivalent of the SAS.
The plot was foiled in a string of dramatic raids in 2022, as police commandos arrested dozens of alleged plotters across 16 German states. At one address in southern Germany a suspect, now on trial in Stuttgart, shot and injured a police officer. He is facing an attempted murder charge in addition to treason.
Last year’s arrests followed the largest German police investigation in decades, with 300 detectives working on the case. The trial continues.
