Reichsbürgerbewegung

The German Reich within its 1937 borders

Reichsbürgerbewegung ("Reich Citizens' Movement") or Reichsbürger ("Reich Citizens") 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.

They maintain that the German Reich (or, occasionally, Prussia)^[1] continues to exist in its pre-World War II borders, and that it is governed by a Kommissarische Reichsregierung (KRR, Provisional Reich Government), or Exilregierung ("government in exile").^[2] There are a number of competing KRRs, each claiming to govern all of Germany.

Arguments

The self-described Reichsbürger ("Reich citizens") 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.^[3] The judgement held that the 1949 Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz) 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.^[4]

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 today—since 1990—fully identical to it.^[5] 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 Guenter Ebel,^[6] a former 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 AG (the latter being based in Nevada, USA).

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. Temporarily a restored Reichstag existed as well as several Reich Ministers, state governments, and a Reichsgericht.

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 (though by no means all) KRRs have links to far-right extremist or neo-Nazi groups,^[1] 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.^[2] In one instance, Wolfgang Ebel's KRR issued an "excavation permit" to the Principality of Sealand (a micronation), 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.^[7] Similarly, in 2002 Ebel's KRR "sold" the Hakeburg, a manor in Kleinmachnow south of the Berlin city limits that had been owned by the German Reichspost (and therefore, according to Ebel, by his KRR) to one of the two competing governments of Sealand, thus creating, in their view, an enclave of Sealand in Germany.^[8]

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.^[9] 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.^[2]

Wolfgang Ebel's original organization, in particular, continues to attempt enforcing its asserted authority through attempts at intimidation.^[7] 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.^[7] Ebel has also admitted owning a "government helicopter" painted in the national colours, but has denied using it for intimidating fly-overs.^[7] 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.^[7]

Interaction with law enforcement authorities

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. Four police officers were wounded. One of them later died from his wounds.^[10] The police officer who was killed is the 65th Bavarian police officer to be killed since 1945.^[11] The weapons confiscation followed the revocation of the alleged murderer's firearms permit and his repeated refusal to co-operate with local authorities.^[12] German authorities expressed concern at the escalation in violence. The event attracted international attention.^[13] Bavarian ministers called for increased surveillance of the "right-wing extremist" movement.^[14]

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.^[15][16]

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 in Brandenburg. Most Reichsbürger are male, over 50 and socially disadvantaged; and many adhere to right-wing, anti-semitic and Nazi ideologies.^[17]

The following is a non-exhaustive list of KRRs that have received media coverage.^[18]

• Fürstentum Germania, based at Krampfer Palace, established 2009, claims 300 adherents.^[19]
• Interim Partei – Das Reicht^[9]
• Zentralrat Souveräner Bürger, based in an inn in Schwanstetten^[20]
• Ur, based in Elsteraue. Its leader Adrian Ursache was injured in a 2016 shootout with police.^[21]

See also

• Sovereign citizen movement – a somewhat similar movement operating mainly in the USA

Footnotes

External links

• Schmidt, Frank (2007). "KRR FAQ" (in German). Retrieved 2009-03-25,  a KRR database.