Germany bans the far-right 'Kingdom of Germany' group and arrests 4 of its leaders

BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Tuesday banned the far-right organization “Kingdom of Germany” as a threat to the country’s democratic order and arrested four of its leaders in raids across several states.

The group is part of the country’s so-called Reich Citizen, or Reichsbürger, movement that claims the historical German Reich still exists and refuses to recognize the current democratic government or its parliament, laws and courts. Members also refuse to pay taxes or fines.

About 800 police officers launched raids Tuesday on the group’s properties and the homes of its leading members throughout the country.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, in announcing the ban on the group, said its members have underpinned their claims to power using antisemitic conspiracy narratives that cannot be tolerated.

“The members of this association have created a 'counter-state' in our country and built up economic criminal structures,” Dobrindt said. “We will take decisive action against those who attack our free democratic basic order."

Among those arrested Tuesday was the group leader Peter Fitzek. He proclaimed the “Kingdom of Germany” in the eastern town of Wittenberg in 2012 and says it has around 6,000 followers, though the Interior Ministry says it has about 1,000 members The group claims to have seceded from the German federal government.

“This is not about harmless nostalgia, as the title of the association might suggest, but about criminal structures, criminal networks," the minister told reporters later in Berlin. "That’s why it’s being banned today.”

The group's online platforms will be blocked and its assets will be confiscated to ensure that no further financial resources can be used for extremist purposes, Dobrindt said.

The group gave no immediate public comment, and generally declines to interact with media outlets.

It's not the first time that Germany has acted against the Reichsbürger movement.

In 2023, German police officers searched the homes of about 20 people in connection with investigations into the far-right Reich Citizens scene, whose adherents had similarities to followers of the QAnon movement in the United States.

Last year, the alleged leaders of a suspected far-right plot to topple Germany’s government went on trial on Tuesday, opening proceedings in a case that shocked the country in late 2022.