German police raid ‘far-right terror group that planned to overthrow the government’ 

Police have today carried out sweeping raids against an alleged far-right terror group which aimed to overthrow the German government in a violent coup.  

Raids took place in 11 of Germany’s 16 states with 3,000 officers searching 130 sites including a forest palace in the state of Thuringia and arresting 25 people including a man who styles himself as Prince Heinrich XIII.

Cops also descended on the barracks of Germany’s special forces unit KSK, local media said, and on properties in neighbouring Austria and Italy. 

Prosecutors say the men belonged to various far-right movements allied under the Reichsbürger banner, which rejects the modern state in favour of the German Reich which existed from 1871 to 1918.

The men are accused of plotting a violent overthrow of the current government in favour of establishing a Principality ruled over by a monarchy and divided into ministries.

Members of the group had already selected who would be in charge of the various ministries, Bild reports, and had acquired a number of legally-purchased guns.

Former soldiers of the Bundeswehr were involved in the plans, Bild adds, which have been ongoing since at least November 2021. 

Suspects were arrested in the German states of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, Thuringia as well as in Austria and Italy.

A Russian national in among those detained. 

The suspects are accused of preparing, since the end of November 2021 at the latest, to carry out actions based on their ideology, according to the office.