A piece of judicial history begins. It could have been used as material for a film: Men ready to use violence, ex-soldiers and a female politician, a group of people united by their hatred of the state legal order procure hundreds of weapons, train enemy lists, invade the Reichstag and want to overthrow the German government. These are the charges leveled against members of the Nazi organization “Citizens of the Reich” around Henry the 13th, Prince Reuss. The team’s first trial begins today Monday in Stuttgart. Judicial history will once again be made in the courtroom of the Stuttgart Court of Appeal in Stamheim, where members of the RAF terror group were once tried. “This is one of the biggest state security trials in German history,” says the court’s president, Andreas Singer.

In three different trials

But let’s go back to December 2022. Police raid apartments and houses in various states and abroad. They arrest “Reich Citizens” around Prince Roisme on suspicion of plotting a coup by force of arms in Germany. The large-scale anti-terror raid resulted in the indictment of 27 suspects by federal prosecutors. The charge they face is intent to overthrow by force the existing state order in Germany and replace it with their own form of government. The group is said to have had access to a huge arsenal and to have accepted the possibility of casualties during the implementation of the coup plans. Henry XIII Prince Royce was to act as head of state. Former Berlin judge and former AfD MP Birgit Malzach-Winkemann would take over the justice ministry. Among the defendants is a soldier of the Special Forces Command (KSK) of the German armed forces. The would-be coup plotters would form a transitional government to negotiate a new state order in Germany with the victorious Allied powers of World War II. The so-called “Reich Citizens” claim that the German Reich (1871-1945) continues to exist, hence the name. They do not recognize Germany as a country and its laws. The case surrounding Prince Reuss is so voluminous that the courtroom in Stuttgart is not enough. “We don’t want to have a mock trial in some gym, we have to get down to business and put our weight on people,” explains Chief Justice Singer. For this reason, the accused will be divided into three groups and there will be three trials. In Stuttgart the so-called military branch, in Frankfurt the alleged leaders from May 21 and in Munich the other members from June 18. “The fact that three higher district courts are simultaneously dealing with a single terrorist organization, which has not even been judicially established, is highly unusual,” says Singer. Hearings are likely to prove complex and expensive. Defendants in one trial may be called as witnesses in the other trials as well. Each court must gather its own evidence and reach its own decision. “It’s also possible that there could be conflicting decisions in the end,” Zinger says, although observers think that’s unlikely.

Draconian security measures

The expectation is that the Federal Prosecution Service, as the prosecuting authority, will maintain oversight and hold the threads together. “The federal attorney general is the connecting link, the arm,” says Chief Justice Singer. Only the trial in Stuttgart is of such a scale that it would exceed in capacity most courts in the country. Nine defendants, five judges, two deputy judges and no fewer than 22 defense attorneys. Plus draconian security measures. Defendants will be seated behind thick glass and will be able to speak to defense attorneys via microphone. Singer talks about 400,000 documents for the Royce team, filling 700 folders. The defendants in the Stuttgart court are said to have joined the organization in 2022 and participated in its military arm. This arm was to effect the overthrow of the polity by force of arms. To this end, he had already begun to set up a network throughout Germany of more than 280 militarily organized units, the so-called “Internal Security Units”. Number 221 had assumed responsibility for the Freudenstadt and Tübingen areas. It is important to point out that the presumption of innocence applies to the accused until a decision is issued.

Regarding the general environment of the “Reich Citizens”, the president of the court Zinger emphasizes: “These are not nice uncles who have some strange ideas. The increasing number of accusations against the “Reich Citizens” and far-right extremists is part of a disturbing social development”. This is also shown by the Reutlingen shooting case, which the Stuttgart court intends to focus on when the trial begins today: the defendants include the man who allegedly fired several times with a rapid-fire semi-automatic at police task force officers during an investigation at his home on March 22, 2023, injuring two of them.

Editor: Irini Anastasopoulou