https://c.im/@cdarwin/112343734727327366 cdarwin@c.im - Ex-soldier, conspiracy theorist, astrologer and anti-vaxxer among the first of 27 people on trial for trying to violently topple the German government – led by Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss
One of the largest legal proceedings in German history is due to start on Monday with the first of three trials of a group of far-right conspiracists who planned to violently overthrowthe country’s parliament.
So sprawling is the network, so extensive their plans, that for a mixture of logistical and security reasons, the 27 people due in the dock have been split into three separate groups.
On Monday a group of nine, identified as the “military wing” behind the group ringleader, the self-proclaimed Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuss, 72, will be the first to go on trial in the southern city of Stuttgart on terrorism charges.
Nine others, including Reuss and other prominent members, go on trial in Frankfurt on 21 May.
Prince Reuss, an antisemitic businessman, descended from a formerly aristocratic family, founded the group with the express wish to violently eliminate the state order.
In the event of the coup’s success, he was due to be declared provisional head of a new German state, which would have redrawn the country according to its 1937 borders.
According to federal prosecutors, the group planned to enter the Reichstag in Berlin with armed support to arrest members of the Bundestag or parliament with the intention of “overthrowing the system”.
#Germany #FarRight #coup #Reuss
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/27/the-prince-the-plotters-and-the-would-be-putsch-germany-to-try-far-right-coup-gang?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
