Germany bans far-right secessionist “Kingdom of Germany” group, arrests leaders including self-declared “sovereign”

German authorities have banned the far-right group Königreich Deutschland (“Kingdom of Germany”) and arrested four of its senior members in nationwide raids, according to a Tuesday Reuters report citing the country’s Interior Ministry and federal prosecutors. The action is part of a broader effort to dismantle extremist movements associated with the Reichsbürger (“Citizens of the Reich”) ideology, which rejects the legitimacy of the modern German state and promotes the creation of a parallel monarchy.

Among those detained was the group’s self-declared “supreme sovereign,” identified as Peter Fitzek — the self-proclaimed Peter I — who prosecutors said had decision-making authority over the group’s operations. The suspects — Fitzek, as well as three others named only as Mathias B., Benjamin M., and Martin S. — are accused of establishing shadow-state institutions, including a bank, insurance system, currency, and an entity that printed fictional documents.

Founded over a decade ago, the Kingdom of Germany claims to have around 6,000 supporters and seeks to secede from the Federal Republic and establish an independent counter-state with its own police and legal system. Prosecutors said the group had created “pseudo-state-like structures and institutions” to support that goal.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt emphasized that the arrests were not about dealing with fringe idealists, but with a dangerous extremist network. “We are not talking about a group of harmless nostalgics, but about criminal structures and a criminal network,” he told reporters, adding that the group had long been under scrutiny for its economic activities. No weapons were found during the operation, Dobrindt added.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, has monitored the broader Reichsbürger movement since 2016, when one of the secessionist group’s members fatally shot a police officer during a raid. In December 2022, German authorities disrupted an advanced plot to carry out an armed coup, further heightening concern over the movement’s threat to democratic stability.

Reichsbürger adherents believe that modern Germany is illegitimate and that the German Reich — abolished in 1918 — still legally exists. These views have fueled various conspiratorial factions, some of which have grown increasingly militant in recent years.

German authorities have intensified efforts against groups deemed a threat to the country’s democratic order.

Earlier this month, the BfV officially designated the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the country’s largest opposition party, as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organization. While the designation is subject to a legal challenge, it permits expanded surveillance of AfD members and has fueled growing calls to ban the party outright.