Reichsbürger movement


Reichsbürgerbewegung or Reichsbürger is a label for several groups and individuals in Germany and elsewhere who reject the legitimacy of the modern German state, the Federal Republic of Germany. The Reich Citizens' Movement are often connected to far-right and antisemitic positions. In 2016 a Reichsbürger shot dead an officer of Spezialeinsatzkommando in Georgensgmünd, Bavaria, while police wanted to disarm him. Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz is observing the movement.
They maintain that the German Reich continues to exist in its pre-World War II borders, and that it is governed by a Kommissarische Reichsregierung, or Exilregierung. There are a number of competing KRRs, each claiming to govern all of Germany.

Arguments

The self-described Reichsbürger maintain that the Federal Republic of Germany is illegitimate and that the Reich's 1919 Weimar Constitution remains in effect. Most of their arguments are based on a selective reading of a 1973 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court concerning the Basic Treaty between West and East Germany. The judgement held that the 1949 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany itself assumes that the Reich, as a subject of international law, despite the German Instrument of Surrender and the Allied occupation, had survived the collapse of Nazi Germany, but is incapable of acting as a state because it lacks any organization, such as governmental authorities.
The Reichsbürger do not, however, cite the Court's further holding that the Federal Republic is not a successor state to the Reich, but, as a West German state at that time partially, and—since 1990—fully identical to it. Instead they claim to have restored the governmental bodies of the German Reich and to be capable of acting on the basis of the Weimar Constitution.

History

The original Kommissarische Reichsregierung was founded in 1985 by Wolfgang Gerhard Günter Ebel, a former Deutsche Reichsbahn traffic superintendent in West Berlin. Ebel, who appointed himself Reich Chancellor, claimed to be acting on the authority of the Allied occupation authorities. Some of the members of his "cabinet" later fell out with Ebel, and established provisional governments of their own with names such as Exilregierung Deutsches Reich or Deutsches Reich Aktiengesellschaft.
KRRs engage in activities such as issuing currency and stamps, as well as promoting themselves through the Internet and other media. Where the number of their adherents allows, they also emulate the "re-established" institutions, such as courts or parliaments, of the Weimar Republic or of earlier German states. A restored Reichstag temporarily existed as well as several Reich Ministers, state governments, and a Reichsgericht.

Membership

, German authorities said that membership had grown by 80% over the past two years, more than estimated earlier. Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, estimated that there were about 18,000 people who supported the far-right Reichsbürger movement, the largest number of supporters, about 3,500 Reichsbürger members, being in Bavaria. Some members have organized to build armed militia.

Activities

As of 2009, there was no reliable count of the number of KRRs then existing, but the KRR FAQ, an online registry maintained by a German jurist, lists some 60 persons or organizations associated with operating competing KRRs. Several KRRs have links to far-right extremist or neo-Nazi groups, and are under observation by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Some KRRs are ready to issue, for a fee, "official" documents such as building permits, and driving licences, which their adherents or gullible citizens may attempt to use in everyday life. In one instance, Wolfgang Ebel's KRR issued an "excavation permit" to the Principality of Sealand, who then had men dig up a plot of land in the Harz region in search of the Amber Room for two weeks, until the landowner hired a private security service to drive them off. Similarly, in 2002 Ebel's KRR "sold" the, a manor in Kleinmachnow south of the Berlin city limits that had been owned by the German Reichspost to one of the two competing governments of Sealand, thus creating, in their view, an enclave of Sealand in Germany.
KRR adherents have also on occasion refused to pay taxes or fines, arguing that the laws providing for such sanctions have no constitutional basis. In the ensuing judicial proceedings, they refuse to recognize the courts as legitimate. Some also pursue their activities abroad. In 2009, after Swiss authorities refused to recognize the "Reich Driving Licence" of a German KRR adherent, he unsuccessfully appealed the case up to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland.
Wolfgang Ebel's original organization, in particular, continues to attempt enforcing its asserted authority through attempts at intimidation. According to Ebel, his "government" has issued more than 1,000 "arrest warrants" against people who have disregarded documents issued by the KRR. These warrants inform the addressee that, once the Reich Government is in power, they will be tried for high treason, for which the penalty is death. Ebel has also admitted owning a "government helicopter" painted in the national colours, but has denied using it for intimidating fly-overs. Several attempts to prosecute Ebel for threats, impersonating a public servant and so forth have failed because, according to German prosecutors, all courts have found him to be legally insane.
On 22 May 2017, the Bundesverfassungsschutz estimated the number of people affiliated with the movement at 12,600. The agency has been monitoring the group since November 2016, and the security services of individual states have been monitoring the activities of the group for longer. However, the heterogeneity of the movement, the division into many small groups that are often independent of one another, poses a difficulty for the states and federal government when estimating the number of active Reichsbürger.

Interaction with law enforcement authorities

On 25 August 2016, Adrian Ursache, a self-proclaimed Reichsbürger and former Mister Germany violently resisted the eviction of his house. The original eviction was scheduled for 24 August 2016, with the official justification for the eviction being the liquidity issues of his household. When the German police arrived on scene they encountered a group of around 120 people, who were staying on Ursache’s and his in-law’s property. To Ursache his property was part of the state of "Ur", proclaimed by him. After the first eviction attempt failed, the German police returned with a special response team the day after. When the eviction started, Ursache began firing at them, lightly injuring two officers. Ursache was shot and rushed to a hospital. The trial for attempted murder began on 9 October 2017.
On 19 October 2016, in Georgensgmünd near Nuremberg, a self-described Reichsbürger fired on a special response unit of the Bavarian Police when they attempted to confiscate his 31 firearms. Three police officers were injured. One of them later died from his injuries.
The weapons confiscation followed the revocation of the murderer's firearms permit and his repeated refusal to co-operate with local authorities.
German authorities expressed concern at the escalation in violence. The event attracted international attention.
Bavarian ministers called for increased surveillance of the "right-wing extremist" movement. On 23 October 2017, Wolfgang P. was sentenced to imprisonment for life.
There were renewed calls for more serious measures against the movement, including revocation of firearms permits and seizure of their weapons, following disciplinary action against police officers with alleged connections to the movement. On 27 October 2016, a Bavarian police officer was suspended from his duties because of his connections to one of the Reichsbürger movements. There have been allegations of similar kind against other police officers in different states of Germany as well.

List of ''Reichsbürger'' groups

The numerous small groups and individuals making up the movement are mainly active in the states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bavaria. According to German authorities, there are a few hundred adherents in Germany, of which 150 to 200 are in Brandenburg. Most Reichsbürger are male, over 50 and socially disadvantaged; many adhere to right-wing, anti-semitic and Nazi ideologies.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of KRRs that have received media coverage.