PUTSCH PLOT
Far-right plotters led by Prince Heinrich XIII planned armed coup & had asked RUSSIA to help them take over Germany
A GERMAN aristocrat is at the centre of a Russian-linked plot to violently overthrow the government and install himself as leader so he could bring about the return of the Second Reich.
Prince Heinrich XIII has been arrested along with 24 others in a series of dramatic police raids across Germany.
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Some 3,000 cops searched 130 sites across the country in one of the largest search operations in history.
The prince is believed to have led the plot with a former paratrooper commander - so far named only as Rüdiger v. P.
The duo are reported to have been ringleaders in plan to violently storm the German parliament building, the Reichstag.
Rudiger and Heinrich hoped to be installed as the rulers of the new regime.
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Heinrich is also alleged to have reached out to Russia officials for their help in the coup - and one of the arrested individuals is Russian.
Mad tyrant Vladimir Putin is known to be seeking to destabilise Western governments, especially Germany, amid the war in Ukraine.
Russia's embassy in Germany denied any involvement in plot, saying they didn't work with "terrorist groups".
Other former military figures are also believed to have working with Heinrich and Rudiger.
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And one of the police raids took place at a barracks of Germany's special forces unit KSK in the southwestern town of Calw.
Plotters are reported to have included members of the extremist Reichsburger, or Reich Citizens, movement and believers in QAnon.
And they have been described in German media as dubbing themselves the "Patriotic Union".
Heinrich - an entrepreneur who worked in property, wine and the arts - was arrested at his office in Frankfurt.
His family have distanced themselves from him in the "clearest possible terms" after he publically met with far politicians in August.
It is reported he left the family 14 years ago - and he was described by the House of Reuss as a "confused old man".
The plotters are alleged to have wanted to recruit members from the German police and state defence force, the Bundeswehr.
It is estimated up to 50 men and women were part of the group.
And their overall aim was to replace modern Germany and restore the Second Reich.
The members of the association are aware that this project can only be realized through the use of military means
Federal Prosecutor
The Second Reich was the German Empire which ruled from 1871 before being defeated by the British and their allies in World War 1.
Germany's defeat saw the Kaiser abdicate and the monarchy collapse - leaving a weakened state known as the Weimar Republic.
The republic was eventually overtaken by Adolf Hitler, leading to World War 2.
Federal Prosecutor's Office officials said the plotters wanted to overthrow the state order in Germany and replace it with their own.
"The members of the association are aware that this project can only be realized through the use of military means and force against state representatives," the statement said.
"This also includes the commission of homicides."
The plotters believed their new government would be propped with the support of the Russia and the US.
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Prosecutors said 22 German citizens were detained on suspicion of "membership in a terrorist organisation" after sites in 11 of Germany's 16 states were searched.
Three other people, including a Russian citizen, are suspected of supporting the group, they said.
Public broadcaster ZDF reported a former member of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, was part of the plot.
And the KSK unit has in the past been scrutinised over alleged far-right involvement by some soldiers.
Federal prosecutors declined to confirm or deny that the barracks were searched.
Prosecutors said those detained are alleged to last year have formed a terrorist organisation with the goal of overturning the existing state order in Germany and replacing it with their own form of state, which was already in the course of being founded.
The suspects were aware that their aim could only be achieved by military means and with force, prosecutors said.
They are alleged to have believed in a conglomerate of conspiracy theories consisting of narratives from the so-called Reich Citizens as well as QAnon ideology, according to a statement by prosecutors.
They added that members of the group also believe Germany is ruled by a so-called deep state.
Prosecutors identified the suspected ringleaders as Heinrich XIII P R and Ruediger v P, in line with German privacy rules.
Der Spiegel reported that the former was a well-known 71-year-old member of a minor German noble family, while the latter was a 69-year-old former paratrooper.
Federal prosecutors said Heinrich XIII P R, who the group planned to install as Germany's new leader, had contacted Russian officials with the aim of negotiating a new order in the country once the German government was overthrown.
He was allegedly assisted in this by a Russian woman, Vitalia B.
According to current investigations, there is no indication however that the persons contacted responded positively to his request, prosecutors said.
A further person detained by police Wednesday was identified by prosecutors as Birgit M W.
Der Spiegel reported that the woman is a judge and former lawmaker with the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
'ANTI-TERROR OPERATION'
The party, known by its German acronym AfD, has increasingly come under scrutiny by German security services due to its ties with extremists.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann described the raids as an anti-terrorism operation, adding that the suspects may have planned an armed attack on institutions of the state.
He tweeted: "Since this morning, a major anti-terror operation has been taking place.
"The Federal Public Prosecutor is investigating a suspected terrorist network from the Reich citizen milieu.
"There is a suspicion that an armed attack on constitutional bodies was planned."
The Sun Online previously exposed how QAnon and other far-right conspiracy theories were surging across Europe - with much of the baseless beliefs taking hold in Germany.
Disinformation experts warned the continent has become a "fertile ground" for the same type of conspiracies that have taken hold in the US after the isolation of Covid.
QAnon - the belief that the world is run by a Satanic cabal at war with Donald Trump - became mixed with the Reich Citizens, or Reichsburgers.
The far-right group claim the pre-World War 2 Reich still exists and deny the authority of the modern state.
The Sun Online uncovered German-language websites linked to the Reich Citizens - which claimed Germany is "still occupied" and there was "no peace" following World War 2.
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reported tracked a German-language Telegram channel that celebrated the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 as an act "for all of us".
And a chilling report by the campaign group (GTTO!) found Germany had the most active far-right chatter online in Europe.
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