Hate groupsBavaria wants tighter monitoring of Reichsbürger movement extremists
The government of the state of Bavaria wants the German federal government to monitor the far-right Reichsbürger movement more closely. The movement resembles the American sovereign citizen movement: It does not recognize the authority of the government in Berlin, and challenge the legality of the German political structure. The Reichsbürger claims that the last legitimate German government was the one elected in November 1932 – and which made Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933 – and that all German governments since the surrender of Germany on 7 May 1945 have been illegitimate.
The government of the state of Bavaria wants the German federal government to monitor the far-right Reichsbürger movement more closely. The German federal security services have so far opted not to do so.
The International Business Times reports that Germany’s domestic intelligence services have said that the 100 or so members of the movement are not dangerous, but there have been multiple attacks by Reichsbürger members on police officers last week, including one fatality.
The Reichsbürger movement resembles the American sovereign citizen movement: It does not recognize the authority of the government in Berlin, and challenge the legality of the German political structure.
“The Reichsbürger movement includes people who have been radicalized from discontent with the government to a real hatred for the state,” the leader of Bavaria’s intelligence agency, Burkhard Körner, told German news agency DPA.
“They aren’t all extremists that we’re seeing in the scene, but some of the people in it are certainly dangerous,” he added.
The Reichsbürger movement claims that the last legitimate German government was the one elected in November 1932 – and which made Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933 – and that all German governments since the surrender of Germany on 7 May 1945 have been illegitimate. Therefore, the Reichsbürger movement does not recognize the authority of the federal government, the Bundestag, or the police.
Moreover, the movement promotes the notion that the borders of Germany should be those which existed in 1937 — that is, a Germany which includes East Prussia (now divided between Russia and Poland) and Lower Silesia (now part of Poland).
Many Reichsbürger members carry fake ID cards, proclaiming them to be citizens of the “Kingdom of Germany.”
The Reichsbürger movement is fervently nationalistic, but it is difficult to describe it as neo-Nazi because there is an anarchistic, anti-authoritarian aspect to it. Thus, when two police officers arrived last week at a noisy wedding party of two members of the movement, held in small town in Saxony-Anhalt, the guests punched and kicked them, accusing the policemen of behaving like Nazis.
In Bavaria last week, one police officer was killed and three others wounded when the police raided the house of a Reichsbürger member in the town of Georgensgmünd. The police came to the house to repossess firearms the home owner, a movement follower, was keeping illegally, but a fire exchange ensured.
The Der Westen newspaper reports that illegal weapons possession by Reichsbürger members is a growing concern for the authorities.
Der Westenalso reports that Germany’s national police union, DPolG, has called for stronger measures to monitor the movement, prevent its members from making fake IDs, and bar Reichsbürger supporters from purchasing arms.
