Germany’s Interior Ministry had outstanding arrest warrants against 189 suspects deemed members of far-right groups that do not recognize the modern German state, media group RND reported on Thursday.
Authorities said the suspects belonged to the “Reichsbürger” (“Citizens of the Reich”) or “Selbstverwalter” (“self-administrators”) groups, which claim to be in the defunct German Empire or on lands they unilaterally declared. Be self-employed in Germany.
The figure was published on September 30, 2024 in reaction to a parliamentary request for data from the Socialist Left Party.
According to the ministry, a total of 254 arrest warrants have been issued against these suspects, some of whom are the subject of more than one arrest warrant.
There were 43 other people wanted for at least one violent crime and 3 charged with violent crimes.
The ministry said 20 of the arrest warrants were for violent political crimes and 77 for politically motivated nonviolent crimes, such as forgery, coercion or incitement to racial violence.
He classified the remaining orders as “general domain without political motivation. ”
The German government estimates that more than 20 of those wanted live abroad; some of them have been at the giant for years.
According to the data, between the end of March and September last year, 93 new arrest warrants of this type were issued against the “Reichsbürger” or the “Selbstverwalter”.
The “Reichsbürger” denies the legitimacy and way of life of the modern German State, as well as the dissolution in 1918 of the extinct German Empire.
Its concepts about what and where the German state is are “directly against the territorial integrity of our neighboring states and against efforts to achieve understanding between nations,” according to the Interior Ministry.
Anti-Semitism is also a component of the ideology of some members of the group, the ministry said, adding in some cases positions such as Holocaust denial.
Members of the other group, the “Selbstverwalter”, claim that they view their legal status in Germany in the same way, but base their argument on the fact that they have unilaterally declared their sovereign and independent ownership.
“With their behavior, Selbstverwalter want above all to resist paying taxes and other demands like foreclosures,” the ministry said.
A number of trials similar to those of an alleged Reichsbürger organization accused of plotting to violently overthrow the Reichsbürger are taking place across the country.
The most prominent defendant is Heinrich XIII Prince Reus, a descendant of German nobility born a private citizen in 1951. The group are accused of plotting to install him as head of a future state.
MSH/DJ (EPD, open source)