Germany Raids Self-Appointed ‘Kingdom’ in Right-Wing Crackdown

(Bloomberg) — More than 800 German law-enforcement officers took part in raids across the country as part of wider efforts by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s new administration to crack down on extremism. 

Sites in seven states were searched and four individuals were arrested on Tuesday as authorities targeted the “Kingdom of Germany” — the biggest group of the Reichsbürger movement, which rejects the legitimacy of the democratic state and aims to reestablish the German Empire. 

“These are not harmless nostalgics, as the title of the organization might suggest,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said at a press conference in Berlin. “These are criminal structures, it’s a criminal network. And that’s why it’s being banned today.”

Combating political extremism has taken on added urgency in Germany after right-wing criminality climbed 23% to nearly 29,000 incidents in 2023. The new government has pledged to take a tougher stance against political movements that undermine domestic security and the rule-based order in Europe’s largest economy. But the crackdown is also highly charged. 

The domestic intelligence service designated the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, an extremist movement earlier this month. The biggest opposition party is level with Merz’s conservative bloc in the polls, and allegations of silencing political opponents has heightened tensions with US President Donald Trump’s administration. 

The Kingdom of Germany group was founded in 2012 and aims to establish a counter-state and secede from the Federal Republic of Germany. For this purpose, properties were acquired and sub-organizations were founded, such as a Royal Reichsbank and the German Healing Society, to raise funds. The group has roughly 6,000 supporters, according to its own description, while the interior ministry estimates it has about 1,000 active members. 

The group is part of an active anti-establishment movement in Germany. Three years ago, German authorities carried out a large raid targeting right-wing extremists linked to the Reichsbürger. Authorities said the nationwide operation thwarted a domestic terrorist group planning to violently overthrow the government. The arrests included a former AfD lawmaker.

Alongside the raids in Germany, a house in the Swiss canton of Solothurn was searched as well, helped by local police. 

The members of the Kingdom of Germany “persistently undermine the legal system and the Federal Republic’s monopoly on the use of force,” Germany’s new interior minister  said in the statement. “This cannot be tolerated in our constitutional state.”

(A previous version misspelled the group’s name in one instance.)

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