Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has estimated that there are about 18,000 people supporting the far-right Reichsbürger movement — about 80 percent more than in 2016.
A BfV spokesman told Berlin's daily Tagesspiegel that 950 of them were classified as far-right extremists.
Read more: Reichsbürger and neo-Nazis infiltrating Thuringia gun clubs
BfV's 2016 annual report put the number of Reichsbürger, which roughly translates as "Citizens of the Reich," at 10,000, with 500 to 600 of them classified as right-wing extremists.
The term Reichsbürger is used as a label for a loosely connected group that rejects the legitimacy of Germany's government. The movement believes that the 1937 borders of the German Empire still exist and today's government is an administrative construct in a country still occupied by foreign powers. Many subscribe to far-right or anti-Semitic ideologies.
Read more: A guide to Germany's far-right groups
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The Reichsbürger movement in Germany
What do Reichsbürger believe?
"Reichsbürger" translates to "citizens of the Reich." The nebulous movement rejects the modern German state, and insists that the German Empire's 1937 or 1871 borders still exist and the modern country is an administrative construct still occupied by Allied powers. For Reichsbürger, the government, parliament, judiciary and security agencies are puppets installed and controlled by foreigners.
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The Reichsbürger movement in Germany
What do they do?
The Reichsbürger refuse to pay taxes or fines. They see their personal property, such as their houses, as independent entities outside the authority of the Federal Republic of Germany, and reject the German constitution and other legal texts, but also swamp German courts with lawsuits. They produce their own aspirational documents such as passports and driving licenses.
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The Reichsbürger movement in Germany
How much of a threat are they?
The Reichsbürger scene began to develop in the 1980s and is a disparate, leaderless movement that has grown to about 19,000 supporters, according to German intelligence officials. Of those, about 950 have been identified as far-right extremists and at least 1,000 have a license to own firearms. Many subscribe to anti-Semitic ideologies.
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The Reichsbürger movement in Germany
Who are its members? One was Mr. Germany
According to German authorities, the average Reichsbürger is 50 years old, male, and is socially and financially disadvantaged. The movement's members are concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of Germany. Adrian Ursache, a former winner of the Mister Germany beauty pageant, is also a Reichsbürger and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2019 for shooting and injuring a policeman.
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The Reichsbürger movement in Germany
Turning point
The case of Wolfgang P., who in October 2017 was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a police officer, is seen as a turning point for how German authorities deal with the extremist group. P., an alleged Reichsbürger member, shot at officers who were raiding his home to confiscate weapons. The case gained international attention and set off alarm bells over the escalation of violence.
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The Reichsbürger movement in Germany
What are the authorities doing about it?
German authorities were accused of long underestimating the threat. In 2017 for the first time Germany’s domestic intelligence service documented extremist crimes perpetrated by individual Reichsbürger. Since then there have been several raids on Reichsbürger targets and subgroups have been banned. Police and military have also probed whether they have Reichsbürger in their own ranks.
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The Reichsbürger movement in Germany
International parallels, conspiracy theories
Reichsbürger have been seen waving Russian flags, leading to allegations that they are funded by Russia with the aim to destabilize the German government. Germany's Reichsbürger are also compared to US groups such as "freemen-on-the-land," who believe that they are bound only by laws they consent to and can therefore declare themselves independent of the government and the rule of law.
Author: Samantha Early, Rina Goldenberg
But the steep rise in the reported number of Reichsbürger does not mean that the movement is drawing a similarly large number of new members, according to the BfV. Instead, investigations into the Reichsbürger scene, particularly since a member shot dead a police officer in Bavaria in 2016, have uncovered more people who have held such beliefs for some time but were not previously known to authorities.
The BfV spokesman told Tagesspiegel that about 1,200 supporters of the movement owned licenses to own weapons. The authorities have withdrawn weapon licenses from 450 Reichsbürger since the beginning of 2017.
ap/sms (dpa, AFP, epd)
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