The Coup Plotters Who Forgot to Close the Bridge: Germany

A few days ago, a 25-member far-right group was arrested in Germany on allegations of preparing a coup. The simultaneous operation at a total of 150 addresses in Germany, Italy and Austria, involving some 3,000 police officers, is described as the largest counter-terrorism operation to date. The number of detainees doubling within a short time and the weapons and ammunition found in the searches point to preparations for a wider coup.

That the coup group had been organising within the army and the police for years and holding fascist chats on social media was reported in the media years ago. According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the German police closely followed every step of the coup plotters. The group, known as the “Reichsbürger movement” and monitored since 2016, is claimed to have at least 21,000 sympathisers in Germany and, according to experts, is unfortunately only one of dozens of groups in the country enamoured of a coup.

The group acts on an imperial ideology. Its leader is an old man from an aristocratic family who rejects the German state. The so-called prince’s dream is to establish a monarchy again and to sit at the head of the kingdom. According to 71-year-old Prince Heinrich, his blue-blood family, which aspired to rule Germany, was forcibly removed from power after the First World War.

Prince Heinrich, whose ex-wife and the mother of his children is Iranian, made no secret of his admiration for Russia. Allegedly, he was trying to re-establish the old Germany by acting together with Russia. His closest associate is the Russian citizen Vitalia B. One of the issues he criticised most was that Germany had been reduced to the status of a US state and could never become independent. According to the statements of other group members, the most important problem is that Germany has been kept under control by foreign powers, especially since the Second World War.

Group members do not put number plates on their vehicles and refuse to pay taxes, because in their view the real Germany was destroyed in the First World War. Last year, a group member who had to apply for a passport insisted on registering his place of birth by its 1913 name, “Kingdom of Bavaria”, and ended up in court.

The coup group, found to have made preparations in many areas from taking control of the country’s internet infrastructure and IT systems to stockpiling weapons, was carrying out armed training under the guise of licensed sport shooting so as not to attract attention.

According to security experts, the group, which had no chance of carrying out a successful coup, would not have gone beyond an armed clash had it not been caught. Many people laugh when they look at the coup plans, but according to German MP Jürgen Hardt the idea of a coup is something to be taken seriously. Because, according to research, about 2,000 people in the group, which has 20,000 sympathisers, are willing to use weapons against state institutions.

The organisation’s logistics chief is a famous chef. Frank Heppner (62), a chef, is alleged to have been responsible both for recruiting members and for logistical support.

Another detained member is a former police officer. While in the police, he worked in a unit dealing with protecting the Jewish community from possible racist attacks.

Another detained member is the lawyer Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a former MP of the far-right party (AfD). Had the coup succeeded, she would have become justice minister. Her task when the coup began was to help the plotters take control of the parliament building as easily as possible.

Another notable member of the coup group is a soldier from the German special forces (KSK). According to Der Spiegel, the seized materials included everything from night-vision goggles to police equipment. According to Die Tageszeitung, the plotters’ death list contained the names of 18 people. One of them was Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

A group of intellectuals believes the coup allegations are entirely a PR exercise. In their view, the whole operation is nothing but a deep(!) intervention to steer German government policy.

Judging by what has appeared in the media, looking at the hidden weapons, the regular council meetings, the ideological obsessions, the division of tasks and the post-coup planning, it is striking that the Turkish translation of the coup preparation in Germany resembles not the 15 July theatre but Ergenekon. The group’s anti-American rhetoric, the Iranian family of the old prince at its head and his Russian associate add fuel to suspicions that something is fishy. (Update: the trial of Prince Reuss and his inner circle began in Frankfurt in May 2024.)

Another similarity is that a sick man yearning for monarchical power planned to have thousands use weapons and attack state institutions for his own rule, ready to sacrifice his own people.

What does not resemble Turkey is how Germany solved this problem. Because in a country democratic institutions were able to fight independently to the end against an organisation whose members included soldiers, police officers, businesspeople, MPs and senior state officials, the people know why a coup cannot happen and can laugh off these rumours.

As for the German coup plotters who planned every detail, for some reason they overlooked closing the Oberbaum Bridge that connects the two sides of Berlin!