German authorities have arrested 25 people suspected of plotting to stage a coup d'etat through military means to reinstate a monarchy under Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss zu Köstritz, who was among those detained Wednesday morning in Frankfurt.
Also taken into custody were an elite soldier and a woman judge who sat in the Bundestag for the AfD party, in addition to a Russian national.
German Public Prosecutor's Office said in a statement that those apprehended were suspected members and supporters of a terrorist organization. It was also reported that a total of 52 people were sought for their involvement in the plot. The alleged ringleaders have been identified as Henrich XIII and Rudiger.
The arrests have taken place in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, and Thuringia, while two people have been arrested in Austria and Italy, respectively. Police raids have also been performed at 130 properties nationwide.
Those arrested are suspected of being members of a domestic terrorist organization, the Prosecutors said. The defendants belong to a terrorist organization founded at the latest at the end of November 2021 that aimed to overthrow the existing state order in Germany and replace it with its own form of government, which would have been hatched.
The members of the association are aware that this project can only be achieved through military and violent means against state representatives, which includes committing homicides, the Prosecution statement went on.
The defendants are united by a profound rejection of state institutions and the free democratic order in Germany, it added.
The suspects were also said to follow a conglomeration of conspiratorial myths of so-called Reichsburger and QAnon ideologies.
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