Postwar Germany’s first trial for high treason began on Monday in Stuttgart with nine men accused of membership of a paramilitary group planning a violent coup.
Stuttgart is the first of a three-leg legal marathon, with 18 further suspects set to appear at separate trials in Munich and Frankfurt.
Among the accused in Stuttgart on Monday: a former German soldier turned kitchen salesman and an electrical engineer turned “shamanic healer”.
High security as well as huge public and media interest meant Monday’s proceedings got under way with more than an hour’s delay at a custom-built court adjacent to the Stammheim prison where the notorious 1970s Red Army Faction (RAF) trials were held.
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While members of that terrorist group attacked the institutions of the German state from a Marxist-leftist position, the Stuttgart suspects today are accused of belonging to the far-right Reichsbürger – or “citizens of the Reich” – movement.
With an estimated 21,000-23,000 members in cells around the country, the Reichsbürger reject the modern German state and want a return to pre-1918 legal order of empire and monarchy.
The would-be monarch and head of their new German state – 71-year-old aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss zu Köstritz – will go on trial next month in Frankfurt for his alleged role in the plot.
Prosecutors say members of the paramilitary wing – on trial in Stuttgart – planned to storm the Reichstag parliament building on his signal.
In opening arguments, prosecutors said the nine Stuttgart defendants were involved in plot they knew would “involve violence” by cracking down on any resistance to the coup.
“They were sure that the German population would back them once they knew what was going on,” added the state prosecutor. “They were aware that their plans would involve violence.”
All of the nine on trial – middle-aged wearing casual sweaters and puffer jackets – deny the charges.
Intercepted calls and online chats indicate all were aware of detailed plans to divide up the country into 218 separate divisions or “homelands”, patrolled by their paramilitary divisions.
One defendant, an agricultural machine salesman identified only as Markus H and known to others as “Cowboy”, offered to acquire a tank, writing variously: “We are going to war – WAAAAR” and “If I should die, then with a sword in my hand.”
Another of the defendants, 47-year-old mechanic Markus L, is facing additional charges of attempted murder for shooting two arresting police officers with a machine gun in March 2003. Known in chat groups as “Punisher_Nr_1″, police recovered from his home 25 rifles, 47 pistols 47 knives and six hammers and other heavy tools.
Many of the plotters stand accused of buying into “deep state” conspiracy theories, in particular baseless claims by the QAnon online chat group that shadowy members of a political-media elite sacrifice kidnapped children to drink their blood.
On Monday the court set aside for now a motion by defence lawyers to halt proceedings. They argued that parallel processes – from next month in Frankfurt and from June in Munich – left their clients at a disadvantage. The Stuttgart trial is scheduled to continue with 48 further dates until at least January 2025.
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