A self-styled aristocrat, his Russian girlfriend, retired military officers and a former judge have gone on trial in Frankfurt on charges of plotting to violently overthrow the German state.
The defendants were among nine alleged conspirators – seven men and two women – who were led into the purpose-built court flanked by armed police officers on Tuesday for what has been described as the most important of three trials of suspected members of the anti-constitutional Reichsbürger scene.
Some of the defendants, variously dressed in hunting jackets, suits, hoodies and Burberry scarfs, waved and smiled at each other and chatted with their lawyers after being led to their seats.
One woman covered her face with a grey folder as cameras captured the defendants’ walking into court. Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, whose seat was marked with the sign “Prinz Reuss” and who is alleged to have been the group’s ringleader, appeared relaxed, nodding as his lawyer spoke to him.
Dressed in a dark jacket and trousers, navy pullover and open-necked shirt, the 72-year-old estate agent greeted fellow defendants before taking his place in court.
The group, referred to as the Patriotic Union, stands accused of high treason after plotting to storm the Reichstag. It allegedly aimed to take MPs hostage and show a shackled chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on television in expectation of winning over ordinary Germans. Had the alleged coup succeeded, Reuss was to have become Germany’s new chancellor.
The defendants were arrested in December 2022, when heavily armed forces stormed houses, flats, offices and a remote hunting lodge. Investigators had been surveilling the group for months.
All defendants deny the charges.
The trial was slow to get under way on Tuesday after several lawyers lodged complaints to the judge, Jürgen Bonk, in which they expressed their objections to the proceedings taking place at all.
Outside the court, Roman von Alvensleben, a lawyer for Reuss, told journalists he objected to the fact that, because there were three trials in separate locations, “it is almost impossible to follow the cases properly and to cross reference them,” he said.
Across the three trials, a total of 26 defendants are in the dock for their alleged involvement in the plot. A 27th, a 72-year-old who had been due to be on trial in Frankfurt, recently died.
A court in Stuttgart is trying the alleged military wing of Patriotic Union, while Frankfurt’s trial focusses on the alleged ringleaders. A trial in Munich, due to start in June will focus on the so-called “esoteric wing” of the organisation.
Of the hundreds of witnesses who have been called to give evidence, several are expected to appear before all three courts.
The Frankfurt trial is taking place in a purpose-built metal warehouse on the outskirts of Germany’s financial capital, with the public and press galleries separated from the main courtroom by a wall of bullet proof glass.
The group on trial is part of a growing movement known as Reichsbürger, or citizens of the Reich, now estimated by German authorities to number about 23,000, who refuse to acknowledge the legitimacy of the modern state and would like German borders to be redrawn to pre-1918 lines.
All three trials are scheduled to in theory last for months but are expected in practice to go on for a year or more.