Authorities arrest self-proclaimed ‘king’ of Germany and ban his antisemitic group
The group, the “Kingdom of Germany,” is the largest organizing group of the Reichsbürger, or “citizens of the Reich” movement, which believes that the country’s Nazi-era 1937 borders still exist
Police perform a raid on suspected members of the Reichsbürger far-right group in Saaldorf, Germany, Dec. 7, 2022. (Bodo Schackow/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(JTA) — The German government banned a far-right antisemitic group that claims the German Reich still exists and arrested four of its leaders — including the self-proclaimed “king” of Germany.
The group, the “Kingdom of Germany,” is the largest organizing group of the Reichsbürger, or “citizens of the Reich” movement, which believes that the country’s Nazi-era 1937 borders still exist, and whose members often deny that the Holocaust happened. Germany lost territory following the defeat of the Nazis.
In a sting operation involving 800 police officers in seven German states, police arrested Peter Fitzek, 59, the leader of the group, along with three of his senior “subjects.”
Adherents of the group, which claims thousands of members, do not recognize the German state and have set up “pseudo-state-like structures and institutions,” prosecutors said, as well as their own currency, according to Reuters.
“They underpin their supposed claim to power with antisemitic conspiracy narratives,” Alexander Dobrindt, Germany’s interior minister, said in a statement.
In 2020, hundreds associated with the Reichsbürger movement attempted to break into Germany’s parliament building in Berlin before being removed by officers. In 2022, dozens of people suspected of plotting to overthrow the government were arrested.
The ban of the extremist group closely follows the formal classification by the German government of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known as AfD, as extremist earlier this month. The party’s members have a history of minimizing the Holocaust, and the classification received praise from a major German Jewish group.
