Russia Seems To Have Been Involved
The American media doesn’t seem to have taken the thwarted plan by a far right group— as in QAnon, neo-Nazi, monarchist— all that seriously. Germany is taking it very seriously and this morning, the police have arrested 24 domestic terrorists and 1 Russian from the banned Reichsbürger movement across 11 German states, although primarily in the South. (Yeah… Bavaria is like Texas or Alabama.) The police are still looking for 27 more suspects. One was arrested in Austria and one was arrested in Italy.
The ringleader is Heinrich XIII, the 71 year old Prince of Reuss, from a minor aristocratic family, who wants to reinstate the monarchy, presumably with himself as the monarch or regent. The current head of the House of Reuss, Heinrich XIV of Greiz, says Heinrich XIII is "a confused old man caught up in conspiracy theories." It looks like the Russian government was colluding with the group.
Sounding a lot like U.S. crackpots Marjorie Traitor Greene and Lauren Boebert and believing that Germany is ruled by “the Deep State,” they planned to kill current government ministers. Heinrich XIII, a virulent anti-Semite, had established a council that would have been the new government. He’s in jail now. The Daily Mail looked into Heinrich XIII, who “was born on December 4, 1951, to father Heinrich I and mother Princess Woizlawa Feodora Reuss— another German royal who married into the Reuss bloodline.
Heinrich XIII— a real estate entrepreneur from Frankfurt— married an Iranian woman, Susan Doukht Jalali— who now goes by the name Princess Susan Reuss— and ascribed to his family's time-honoured naming convention with his own son, Heinrich XXVIII, who was born in 1991.
The House of Reuss was established in the late 12th century, and the rulers named every one of their male sons Heinrich— a tribute to Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI who bestowed upon them their titles and estates.
Each Heinrich was given a number after their name which went from 1 to 100 and then restarted from the beginning.
The Reuss bloodline ruled over the historic states of Reuss for hundreds of years until the German revolution of 1918, which resulted in the collapse of the German empire and brought about a new, democratic republic.
Heinrich's great-grandfather— Heinrich XXVII— was forced to abdicate his rule when Reuss was absorbed into the modern German state of Thuringia after World War I.
But the Reuss family descendants retained much of their wealth, including a series of castles and palaces.
One such castle— a neo-Gothic lodge in Saaldorf on land that used to belong to the House of Reuss— is the personal property of Heinrich XIII, and German authorities claim it was used to host many Reichsbürger meetings in which the members planned their violent coup against the German government.
According to German outlet MDR, one of the properties belonging to Heinrich XIII raided today by police serves as the business address for several corporate companies linked to a London-based asset management firm, which may have been used to raise funds for the Reichsbürger cause.
It should perhaps come as no surprise that Heinrich XIII, 71, became one of the Reichsbürger's principal figures.
In 2019, the Prince delivered a keynote speech at a Worldwebforum event in Zurich and for 15 minutes railed against the abolition of the German monarchy and the dismantling of his family's influence.
Heinrich recounted how his great-grandfather was forced to abdicate his rule when Germany became a republic, and waxed lyrical about days-gone-by when the people who lived under his ancestors' rule 'lived happy lives because the administrative structures were straightforward and transparent'.
'When things aren't going well... who are you supposed to turn to today? Your parliamentarian? Local, federal, EU-level? Good luck!' he quipped sarcastically. before going on to advocate for a return to a 'sovereign Germany'.
In July of this year, the current spokesperson for the Reuss bloodline— Heinrich XIV— told German media that his disillusioned relative was a 'confused old man who now gets caught up in conspiracy theory misconceptions', adding that he had begun distancing himself from his family around 14 years ago.
The plan was for an armed contingent, led by Rüdiger von Pescatore, the head of the Reichsbürger movement’s military wing, to storm the Bundestag. He had been an officer in the German military before being expelled for illegally selling East German weapons
Apparently, members of the German version of the American GOP— the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)— were involved including a former member of the Bundestag, xenophobic psychopath and QAnon devotee Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, Germany’s Marjorie Traitor Greene. She was slated to become the Justice Minister and she’s in jail now. There are 83 members of the AfD in the Bundestag today, making it the 5th largest party in the country.
hitler served only 2 years for his putsch attempt. hopefully germany remembers its own history and never lets this bunch out into daylight again.
any bets?
your parallels are apt except that 1933 bavaria would be more aptly equated to today's FL... the place where each of our fuhrers became politically powerful.
if only our versions of those asswipes could be put in prison too. but... nah... we have pussy democraps.