Local sources are reporting that over 3,000 police officers raided the offices of a far-right group that was plotting to overthrow the German government, replacing it with a "Second Reich" - a state modelled on the Germany of 1871. Two people were also detained in neighboring Austria and Italy.
While a police spokesman said authorities had yet to name the group, approximately 50 individuals had taken part in its activities. Some of its members had apparently belonged to the militant Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] organization as well as elite units of Germany's armed forces.
The group was allegedly planning to rule the country with the help of a shadow government and a military arm after eliminating the state's democratic institutions.
The federal prosecutor's office said the group had been planning the attack since November of 2021 and that plans were already in place for running the country.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said that a suspected "armed attack on constitutional bodies" had been averted after more than 130 raids were conducted nationwide.
According to reports, the organization was led by a 71-year-old man named Prince Heinrich XIII and had planned to seize power by storming the Reichstag.
In a speech in 2019, Heinrich said his family dynasty could be traced back to 900 AD and that under their rule, people led "happy lives" because the governing institutions were "straightforward and transparent."
"If things didn’t work well you just went to the prince," he said. "Who are you supposed to turn to today?"
According to Heinrich, Germany was forced into being a "vassal state" following its surrender to the Allies at the end of WWII.
Investigators may have detected the group when they uncovered a plot to abduct Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. The group had allegedly planned to create conditions ripe for a "civil war."
A member of the lower house of parliament from a far-right party is also suspected of taking part in the organization.
German police raided the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in late September.
Public prosecutors seized hard drives, mailboxes and file folders while searching the party’s national headquarters in Berlin, Deutsche Welle reported.
Investigators were reportedly interested in the email account of ex-AfD chair Jörg Meuthen.
Meuthen, who sits in the EU parliament but had his parliamentary immunity removed, and others in the party stand accused of falsifying statements in reports to parliament, according to Italian media.
The co-leaders of the AfD, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, called the raid a “highly unusual and extremely disproportionate measure to intimidate the AfD."
In May, a court ruled that Germany's domestic intelligence agency could place the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party under observation due to suspicions of extreme-right sympathies, rejecting a suit filed by the party.
The AfD currently holds 79 seats in the German Bundestag.