The police raid was apparently the largest in postwar German history. Early on Wednesday morning, some 3,000 officers from various branches of federal and regional law enforcement swept across 11 of Germany’s 16 states as well as locations in Austria and Italy, arresting at least 25 people — including a Russian woman — and questioning many more. Some of the suspects were heavily armed, a few even had training in the German army’s special-operations units. One, an elderly aristocrat known as Heinrich (Henry) XIII, had already been designated as Germany’s next leader.
With this crackdown, it appears, the Germans disrupted plans for a full-bore putsch. Fittingly, putsch is a German word that migrated into English. The Weimar Republic survived several attempted coups until it succumbed in 1933. The U.S. used to think it was immune to such sedition, until it too had to withstand an attack on its Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Can this really be happening? Are our democracies really under such existential threat from loonies, extremists and domestic terrorists?
Yes, the danger is real. The lesson from Germany this week, as from the U.S. since that Jan. 6, is that the crazies are getting more radical and infecting one another across borders with their conspiracy theories and violent fantasies.
The QAnon subculture of mad ravings, according to early reports from this week’s raid, certainly formed part of the mental backdrop of the suspected plotters. But its various figments and narratives had merged, as such poppycock tends to do, with an older and homegrown genre of German extremism.
This is the movement of so-called Reichsbuerger, or “Imperial Citizens.” Distinct from Neo-Nazis, these Reichsbuerger — estimated to number in the tens of thousands — believe that the Federal Republic of Germany does not actually exist. Some think the FRG is a limited-liability company set up by the Allied victors of World War II and controlled by Jews. Others have different theories. But all deny that the republic has any legitimacy. As so often in recent years, I am once again shocked but not surprised. Did we really think that the spread of conspiracy theories, the dumbing down of public discourse, the radicalization of the political fringes and the constant infiltration of our societies with disinformation would have no lasting effects on our democracies?
Instead, they’re convinced that the Reich, the German Empire, has never ceased to exist in both law and spirit — and within the borders of either 1871 or 1937 — and that it is theirs to liberate from the “deep state” of compromised bureaucrats.
In the past, these phantasms were usually cause for amusement or bafflement more than concern. At traffic stops, for example, Reichsbuerger will produce driver’s licenses issued by the Reich — that is, by their own network. When hauled into court, they’ll theatrically disdain the authority of the judge. They’ll publicly pledge allegiance to their true leaders, a changing cast of imperial chancellors, princes and kings.
What’s come to light this week, however, is that the movement is — or was, if you’re optimistic — well-armed, prepared and determined to seize power, with Heinrich XIII slated to take over. The Reichsbuerger apparently had plans to kidnap Germany’s health minister — known for his hawkish Covid policies — and to execute his secret service detail, among other public figures. They also appear to have intended to attack the Bundestag. Moreover, the network seems to have contacts with, if not support from, Russia.
As so often in recent years, I am once again shocked but not surprised. Did we really think that the spread of conspiracy theories, the dumbing down of public discourse, the radicalization of the political fringes and the constant infiltration of our societies with disinformation from the Kremlin and other propaganda organs would have no lasting effects on our democracies?
With the first person plural I do mean all of us, from the U.S. to Brazil, Hungary, the Philippines and beyond. Democracy is under threat not just geopolitically but also domestically. Another thing the Germans showed this week is that they’ve understood this reality, and have learned the lessons from their own past. Since World War II, they’ve built what they called a wehrhaft — or fortified — democracy. Let that word join putsch as an export into English.
About the author: Andreas Kluth is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering European politics. A former editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist, he is author of “Hannibal and Me.”
