Were they planning the violent overthrow of the federal government?: The alleged leadership clique of the Reich Citizens group around Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss must answer to the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court starting today. The charges are terrorism, high treason and also Russia’s role.
The invitation from the Russian Consul General Andrey Dronov in Leipzig seemed harmless. On June 13, 2022, a porcelain exhibition took place in the ostentatious villa with its bay windows on Turmgutstrasse. On the sidelines of the event, the chief diplomat is said to have had a confidential conversation with two illustrious guests: Henry XIII. Prince Reuss from Hesse and his girlfriend Vitalia B. had other things in mind than porcelain at the time.
The Hessian prince spoke as one of the two heads of a suspected terrorist organization from the Reich Citizens milieu. The group, which called itself the “Association,” apparently wanted to storm the Bundestag. They were also said to have planned a government coup in Germany.
At the meeting in Leipzig, the prince was apparently looking for allies in the Russian Federation for the coup plans. The nobleman is also said to have asked the Russians for help in getting back the family property in Thuringia that had been expropriated after the Second World War. This is what it says in the federal prosecutor’s indictment against the nine alleged key players in the “association”, which FOCUS was able to view online.
The trial against the alleged leadership clique begins today at the Frankfurt/Main Higher Regional Court. The criminal charges range, among other things, from the formation of a domestic terrorist organization that harbored murderous attack plans to the preparation of a treasonous operation against the federal government.
According to the findings, Prince Reuss, 73, acted as head of the political division, which was called the “Council” and was supposed to form a transitional government after a successful coup in order to initiate new elections after 180 days. The top of the military arm around the ex-paratrooper officer Rüdiger von Pescatore, 70, as well as some former soldiers from the Bundeswehr’s elite unit Special Forces Command (KSK) are also sitting in the Frankfurt dock.
The complex presents the judiciary with major challenges. The 27 defendants have to answer before three state security senates. The main hearing against other military conspirators began in Stuttgart at the end of April. The remaining defendants from the political branch are scheduled to appear in Munich in June. In total, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office has around 69 suspects on its list, and further charges will follow. Hundreds of firearms have been found in raids and arrests since December 7, 2022.
As FOCUS online learned, a number of procedural complaints from defense lawyers are to be expected right from the start of the Frankfurt trial against the alleged management team. Just a look at the press release from Prince Reuss’ lawyers suggests this. Thomas Tschammer and Roman von Alvensleben criticize, among other things, the division of the proceedings “between three court locations”. The lawyers see “the confidentiality of consultations at risk” and the emergence of transparent verdicts if three different OLG senates are to decide in the same complex.
The defense attorneys are convinced that in the trial against Prince Reuss, “the allegations will be put into perspective. We will prove that by Henry XIII. “There was never any danger to the continued existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and our client rejects violence.”
The investigations by the local security authorities suggest the opposite. The federal prosecutor’s indictment leads into the confused world of thoughts of militant Corona deniers, enemies of the republic from the Reichsbürger scene and so-called “QAnon supporters”. A highly dangerous mix that followed crude ideologies.
QAnon disciples seriously believe that pedo-criminal satanic elites are striving for a global dictatorship through a power apparatus known as the “deep state”. According to this, children are tortured in underground cellars. According to prosecutors, leading figures such as the alleged military leader of Pescatore were convinced that an elixir for eternal life would be extracted from the children’s bodies.
The “Deep State” was equated with the government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). According to this absurd doctrine, a secret military organization fought against the deep state. At the head of this imaginary “alliance” were former US President Donald Trump, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Chinese autocrat Xi Jinping. After the “Alliance” had “cleared” the highest level of politicians in Germany with ground forces, the military arm of the “Association” around the defendant von Pescatore was then supposed to carry out the further “cleaning operations”.
In the fight against the “Deep State,” Putin’s conspirators declared the Russian Federation to be the appropriate ally. According to the tenor, the German wolf and the Russian bear should form an unbeatable tandem.
At least five meetings of the organization around Prince Reuss
On June 13, 2022, Prince Reuss met with the Russian Consul General in Leipzig. The defendant is said to have sent his conversation partner a letter from his lawyer. The paper criticized the German judiciary, which refused to return the family assets. The prince let his Russian host know that he deeply distrusted the German state and was now relying on justice through foreign contacts.
In his absurd worldview, he assumed that the Allied victorious powers, including the Russians, were still in charge in Germany, since a peace treaty had never been concluded after the surrender of the Third Reich. In this respect, Prince Reuss asked that a Russian investigative commission look into the loss of his lands. In addition, Henry XIII wanted after the coup by the “Union” to start peace talks on behalf of the German Empire. Following the meeting in the Russian consulate, the prince enthusiastically announced that he had been assured of the restitution of his goods. To this day it is unclear what actually happened in the Russian Consulate General.
Further meetings with Russian diplomats are on record. A combatant from the inner circle of conspirators met with the Russian Consul General and his deputy in Frankfurt/Main several times in the fall of 2022. Despite the urgent warning from insiders to only meet at the Russian consulate in order to shake off the German secret services, state security guards observed meetings on December 4th and 5th in Baden Baden in the “Atlantic” and the next day in the “Belle Epoque” – both noble Hotels.
The co-defendant is said to have asked whether the Russians were prepared to “do something with them”. According to the prosecution, this meant the coordination of resistance groups, the use of intelligence resources and military training of fighters from the “association” in Russia. So far, however, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office has found no reliable evidence that the Russians controlled the terrorist group or responded to its advances.
This is evidenced by the conspirators’ unsuccessful attempts to contact Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for Kremlin leader Putin, in writing through an intermediary. According to prosecutors, Prince Reuss also wanted to use the same channel to establish connections with the notorious Russian rocker group “Nachtwölfe”. The cowl wearers are also active in this country. According to German intelligence services, rocker President Alexander Sergeyevich Saltostanov has close ties to the President of the Russian Federation.
To this day it remains unclear why the Russian diplomats did not inform the local authorities about the Reuss Group’s plans for a coup. From the perspective of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the Russian silence has a simple reason: According to its findings, Putin’s powerful domestic secret service FSB sees itself “in a systemic dispute with the states of the European Union, including the Federal Republic of Germany.” Against this background, Moscow’s agents have a lot of leeway in their operations against the West, according to the BND. In addition to the usual espionage, this also includes active influence on German politicians. In addition, according to the BND, Putin’s spies are trying to manipulate public opinion for the Russian agenda in order to mobilize the masses against it, for example in Germany.
According to German counterintelligence, Russian services use so-called proxies, specially placed agents of influence, as classic instruments. Moscow’s agents also maintain relationships in the underworld, such as with the “Night Wolves” rockers. The FSB is the main coordinator of the operations. According to German findings, the measures are coordinated directly with Putin’s presidential staff.
In the case of the contacts made by the German coup planners, the BND states that the Russians “could have used the alleged German terrorist group for further active measures at any time”. Even if this did not happen, the leaders of the coup group were known to the representatives of the Russian Federation. The BND assumes that the FSB was aware of the Reich Citizens’ group’s intentions and thus also the Kremlin.