They're coming to take me away, ha ha
Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.
The group of far-right and ex-military figures are said to have prepared for a "Day X" to storm the Reichstag parliament building and seize power.
A man named as Heinrich XIII, from an old aristocratic family, is alleged to have been central to their plans.
According to federal prosecutors, he is one of two alleged ringleaders among those arrested across 11 German states.
The plotters are said to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] movement, which has long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
They also refuse to recognise the modern German state.
(Emphasis mine.)
Now. Did this coup attempt have any chance of succeeding? No, of course not. Germany in 2022 is not Germany in 1933, or even 1923 during Adolf Hitler's infamous Beer Hall Putsch. Today's Germany is firmly democratic, and a fringe group wasn't going to succeed in this farcical endeavor.
This is not to say that the German authorities overreacted. Not in the least. Any threats to the democratic order, no matter how farcical, have to be treated with seriousness. And the ringleaders do give pause:
As well as a shadow government, the plotters allegedly had plans for a military arm run by a second ringleader identified as Rüdiger von P.
They were made up of active and former members of the military, officials believe, and included ex-elite soldiers from special units. The aim of the military arm was to eliminate democratic bodies at local level, prosecutors said.
Rüdiger von P is suspected of trying to recruit police officers in northern Germany and of having an eye on army barracks too. Bases in the states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria were all inspected for possible use after the government was overthrown, officials said.
(Emphasis mine.)
The fact that this group was trying to subvert military and police members is reason enough for the seriousness with which federal authorities took this plot. This is especially true in light of recent reports of the German military being penetrated by right wing extremism.
But can we pause for a moment and bask in the idea that a ridiculous aristocrat with a ridiculous name thought he was going to overthrow a modern democratic state and become deutscher Kaiser? It is, really, as ridiculous as the idea of a former German corporal launching a coup attempt in Bavaria. The difference is that in the interwar period democracy in Germany was ephemeral and had the resiliency of a twig; not so much in modern Germany.
And, sadly, the US has a role in this:
Other suspects came from the QAnon movement who believe their country is in the hands of a mythical "deep state" involving secret powers pulling the political strings.
The fringe group behind this, the Reichsbrüger (Citizens of the Reich) has also been influenced by Covid conspiracy theories, which also had their genesis and greatest support in the US. To paraphrase the old saw which was once applied to France: When America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold.
We're in for a long fight. Fueled by social media, conspiratorial groups are legion. The vast majority are harmless. But it only takes one or two to upend the world. And we'll be unwinding the threads for decades, sadly.
But, fortunately, there likely won't be a Kaiser Heinrich I.
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