(; ) or (; ) are several anticonstitutional revisionist groups and individuals in Germany and elsewhere who reject the legitimacy of the modern German state, the Federal Republic of Germany, in favour of the German Reich.
adherents typically espouse the belief that the German Reich was not succeeded by the Federal Republic of Germany under the principle of state succession. Instead, they hold that the Reich continues to exist in its pre-World War II or pre-World War I borders, and its legitimate government is one or another of the organizations.
have engaged in violence and criminal activities, and are monitored by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution as extremist organizations. The latter estimated that some 21,000 people belong to the movement in Germany . People suspected of having ties to the movement have been accused of planning a coup against the German government in 2022 and arrested on several occasions, most notably 25 in the same instance.
History The original (Commissary/Provisional Reich Government, KRR) was founded in 1985 by Wolfgang Gerhard Günter Ebel. The movement espouses conspiracy theories, antisemitism, and racism. The movement has been described as neo-Nazi in character, although The Economist reported in 2016 that adherents "draw ridicule even from neo-Nazis". Many supporters of the movement are also monarchists who support a restoration of the German Empire or Holy Roman Empire.
The German Federal Ministry of the Interior concludes that only a small part of the movement is part of the organized neo-Nazi milieu proper (for about 5%). Nonetheless, as the movement rejects the existence of the Federal Republic, it is very likely that members of the movement violate the legal order of the Federal Republic.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the so-called Querdenker-movement was formed in Germany. The only consensus of the movement was the rejection of government measures against the pandemic. Many Reich citizens were also part of the Querdenker-movement. and other right-wing extremists strengthened within this movement In 2021 the state office for the Protection of the Constitution in Lower Saxony published a study and came to the conclusion: "The mixing of corona deniers, Reichsbürger and right-wing extremists leads to a dangerous radicalization of corona denier and Querdenken-movement."
In December 2022, Germany arrested 25 people accused of planning a coup against the German government. Among the arrests was Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss, who in the event the coup succeeded would have become head of state.
On May 13, 2025, the German Federal government banned "Königreich Deutschland" ("Kingdom of Germany"), a Wittenberg-based movement founded in 2012 and believed to be the main Reichsbürger organization. Four of its leaders were arrested and searches were conducted in seven German states. On August 7 the same year, the Bavarian criminal police arrested three men suspected of belonging to the group. The arrests occurred in consequence of early-morning raids involving 300 investigators and targeting six individuals suspected of having taken part in a training event organized by the group in April 2022 at a shooting range near Bayreuth, which was believed by investigators to be in preparation for an attack on the Bundestag in Berlin. Electronic devices and weapons-regulated items were confiscated by officers for analysis in the raids.
Definition and theories A handbook of the state of Brandenburg classifies the movement as "extremist" according to the framework of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (). There, "extremist" refers to attitudes and ideologies that are directed against the basic conditions of a modern democracy and open society, such as the right of the people to elect their government democratically. The defines the movement as:
The movement is characterized by a rejection of the modern Federal Republic of Germany; denial of its legality and legitimacy; and denial of the authority of the federal, state, and local governments in Germany. believe that the political boundary of either the 1871 or 1932 borders still exist and that the modern Federal Republic of Germany is "an administrative construct still occupied by the Allied powers".
The movement has used some of the concepts and techniques of the One People's Public Trust, an American sovereign citizen movement operated by pseudolaw ideologue Heather Ann Tucci-Jarraf. In comparison to the Union of Slavic Forces of Russia movement in the former Soviet Union, religious scholar Roman Silantyev identified similarities between the two movements: +Reichsbürger movementWitnesses of the USSR1. The Federal Republic of Germany is not a sovereign state, but a private company (GmbH, or "limited liability company").1. The Russian Federation is not a sovereign state, but a kind of limited liability company (Closed Joint-stock company, or CJSC).2. The German Reich still exists today.2. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics still exists today.3. After the end of World War II, Germany did not sign a peace treaty.3. There are no legitimate documents on the liquidation of the USSR.4. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, which was transformed into a Constitution after the reunification of Germany, is not a (valid) Constitution. Only the Weimar Constitution and the Enabling Act of 1933 are valid. 4. The Constitution of Russia exists only in the form of a draft, and the 1993 Russian constitutional referendum was illegitimate. Only the Constitution of the Soviet Union, whether it be the 1936 constitution or the 1977 constitution, is valid.5. The German government is controlled remotely from the United States.5. The government of the Russian Federation is actually an offshore company registered in Delaware and controlled remotely from the United States.
Historical revisionism
The self-described maintain that the Federal Republic of Germany is illegitimate and that the Reich's 1919 Weimar Constitution (or an earlier constitution) remains in effect. The use a variety of arguments. One of them is a selective reading of a 1973 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court concerning the 1972 treaty between West and East Germany.
In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany") and the German Democratic Republic ("East Germany", GDR) were established. The constitution of the Federal Republic mentioned a Germany and a German people beyond the Federal Republic. An example is article 23 (old version):
During the first twenty years, the Federal Republic tried to isolate the GDR. After this goal seemed to be no longer feasible, the Federal Republic of Germany entered into the Basic Treaty with the German Democratic Republic to establish diplomatic relations and limited cooperation between the two German states. The Christian Democratic opposition in the Federal Republic rejected the treaty. The state of Bavaria even appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court asserting that the Basic Treaty violated the constitutional objective of re-unification.
The judgement of the Court on 31 July 1973 ruled that the Basic Treaty does not violate the constitution because it does not make a German re-unification impossible. In its judgement, the Court also declared:
The usually only cite the part that the German Reich survived the collapse. They remain silent on the Court's statement that the Federal Republic is identical to it. Therefore, many members of the movement typically conclude that the German Reich still "exists" and that the Federal Republic of Germany is not an actual sovereign state but a corporation created by Allied nations after World War II.
Consequently, many groups claim that they have restored the governmental bodies of the German Reich and now act as the official German government (of the German Reich). In practice, a group of had a meeting that elected the office holders of the Reich (e.g., Reich chancellor, Reich President). As there are several of such groups, there are several people in Germany who claim these offices.
Some groups maintain a different point of view. According to them, the Weimar constitution was not legitimate and therefore the older imperial constitution of 1871 is still in effect.
Still other groups have created, in their point of view, German sovereign states without historical precedent, for example a Kingdom of Germany or a regional entity. Other groups do not operate under the label of a 'restored' or new German state but call themselves simply (). They reject the Federal Republic and claim that their house is a sovereign entity.German Federal Ministry of the Interior: Topthema Reichsbürger , 2022, last seen December 7, 2022.
Antisemitism According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, some of the groups and individuals hold antisemitic views. One example is the organization , which was prohibited in March 2020. It promotes the idea that Jews and Muslims have no human rights nor a right to property.
A handbook of the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung holds that most views of the have an antisemitic core. Usually the use antisemitic codes, such as those from the Eastern Coast or the Rothschilds. Antisemitic conspiracy theories are attractive for the people in the movement because they provide a simple explanation of the world by dividing humanity into friends and foes. A group of enemies of the people is made responsible for wars and poverty.
Membership , Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), estimated that movement membership had grown by 80% over the previous two years, more than estimated earlier, with a total of 18,000 adherents, of whom 950 were categorized as right-wing extremists. This marked an increase from BfV's 2016 estimate of 10,000 adherents and 2017 estimate of 12,600 adherents. The increase in numbers may be attributable to more adherents becoming known to authorities, rather than an actual increase in the number of adherents. The heterogeneity of the movement and its division into many small groups that are often independent of one another make it difficult to estimate the number of active .
adherents are scattered around Germany, but concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of the country, in the states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bavaria. BfV has estimated that there are 3,500 adherents in Bavaria and around 2,500 in Baden-Württemberg.
Adherents tend to be older, with most aged 40–60 years old and an average age of over 50. The majority are male and socially disadvantaged. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which monitors far-right activities in Germany, states that adherents are "often isolated" and "completely cut off from reality". German counter-extremism official Heiko Homburg states that the movement is an amalgamation of right-wing extremists, esoterics, and sovereign citizens, and that the movement attracts conspiracy theorists, the economically troubled, and "people who are a little mentally disordered".
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. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's federal domestic security agency, has monitored since November 2016, and the security services of individual states have been monitoring the activities of the group for longer.