[Soup] Why did they dream of a coup

Bundestag in Berlin, the capital of Germany.

It is the heart of Germany, a country with a parliamentary system of government.

However, members of a far-right group from the Special Forces armed themselves with guns, bombs, and knives and planned to raid the place.

The target is Prime Minister Olaf Scholz.

The coup plotters, who denied the existing Federal Republic of Germany, planned to execute Chancellor Scholz and proclaim a new state ruled by a king.

The person they planned to appoint as king was Heinrich XIII, a 71-year-old old aristocrat.

Heinrich XIII and his followers belonged to a far-right group called Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich).

The German Federal Security Service and the police carried out a round-up operation on December 7, arrested Heinrich XIII and 20 members of the 'Citizens of the Reich', and conducted seizures and searches at more than 100 locations across the country, including Berlin.

As former and incumbent special forces and police are the main pillars of the coup mock force, guns, bombs, night vision goggles, combat helmets, crossbows, various swords, and other various military equipment and communication equipment were confiscated.

In their main hideout, the citadel of Heinrich XIII, more than 100,000 euros in cash, gold and silver bars, and a list of 18 politicians and journalists considered enemies of the 'Citizens of the Reich' came out.

Prime Minister Olaf Scholz and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock were also on the list.

The specific results of the investigation have yet to come out as to what they tried to do with the people on the list, but given that they tried to execute Federal Chancellor Scholz, they must have had a similar plan.

The number of weapons seized this time has not yet been disclosed, but considering that more than 50,000 rounds of ammunition were seized from the home of one member of another far-right group, Nordkreuz, who was caught last year, it is probably not a small number.

'Citizens of the Empire' tried to break into the Federal Capitol by hiding in anti-corona vaccine protests held in Berlin in August 2020, and this year, it was planned to kidnap ministers and other ministers twice, but delayed the execution. Security officials are aware.

In 2016, there was also an incident in which a member who was collecting weapons was chased by the police and then engaged in a shootout and killed one police officer.

Why did they dream of a coup?

What are the complaints about the current Federal Republic of Germany?

If you go through each one, you will come across a mixture of extremist propaganda, hate politics, anti-elitism, conspiracy theories, fascism, and retro sentiment that eat away at Western countries like mold.

This is not to be dismissed as a ridiculous farce performed by some lunatics in some distant country.

This is because these molds live all over Korea.

If we don't look and prepare, people like 'citizens of the empire' who dream of overthrowing the democratic system with violence can gain power in our country.

Such people multiply by feeding on the laziness of those who enjoy freedom and democracy.

Which country do 'citizens of the empire' want?

'Citizens of the Reich' (Reichsbürger, Citizens of the Empire) do not recognize the republic established after Germany's defeat in World War II.

Of course, the unified Federal Republic of Germany (FRD) is also not recognized.

Germany after World War II was not an independent sovereign state, but rather a limited company (GmbH) established by the Allied Powers and acting as an agent for Anglo-American capital.

It claims that there are Jews like the 'Rothschild family' who are mentioned like licorice in drugstores in every conspiracy theory behind it.

They deny the legitimacy of the country in reality, glorify the past, which had many problems in reality, and insist on the elimination of political enemies.

Assuming the day when the present German state, which is only a shell and an illusion, will collapse (so-called 'Day X'), 'when that day comes', he will stand up with a gun, wipe out the institutions that oppress Germans, and open a 'new world' .

(In addition to this, there are several German far-right organizations that are preparing for an armed uprising on Day X, such as the aforementioned 'Cross of the North', and German security authorities are concerned about the sharp increase in gun possession permit applications in recent years.)

The new world they dream of is modeled after the past.

Their goal is to recreate the Second Reich, which was treated as a world power by the Kaiser (Emperor) before Germany was defeated in World War I.

The New York Times reported that a letter like this was sent to residents in Bad Lobenstein, where the fortress of Heinrich XIII, the representative of the coup forces, was located last July.

By the way, it is ironic that there are quite a few people who are engaged in national organizations among the enthusiastic members of 'Citizens of the Empire'.

Among the members arrested this time are current and former members of the Special Forces, as well as a judge and former member of the National Assembly.

Why did they seek help from Russia?

Henry XIII also approached Russian diplomats.

He does it through his girlfriend Vitalia B, who is Russian.

There is no evidence that it was actually successful, German authorities said.

The Russian government also announced that it had never helped "citizens of the empire."

The European right has hostile feelings toward the influx of (non-white/Muslim) refugees and immigrants of different races and cultures.

Feminist movements such as Me Too and various cancel cultures also have uncomfortable feelings.

It is said that they want to live as white people used to live, but Russia is seen as a 'country close to utopia' to them.

Russia also looks like a great power that can stand up to the US and Britain.

That's why the far-right forces in Germany and France have a crush on Russia.

A video released this summer by a pro-Russian group called Signal (СИГНАЛ) titled 'Time to move to Russia' demonstrates what kind of country Russia is viewed by the far-right in Europe.

"Come to Russia, where women are pretty, where traditional values ​​are alive, who believe in Christianity, where you won't be criticized for such things, where electricity and gas are cheap, and where vodka is abundant. Winter is coming soon," is the message of the video.

I didn't dream of a coup from the beginning...

The German government estimates that the number of members of 'Citizens of the Reich' was around 2,000, mainly in southeastern Germany, but surged to more than 21,000 throughout the country through the corona blockade period.

Of these, 5% are seen as key molecules of high terrorism risk.

It is currently considered the largest far-right extremist force in Germany.

The original founder of this group is known as Wolfgang Ebel.

Ebel was a railway worker in West Berlin, but was fired after participating in a strike in the 1980s.

He then gathered followers by calling himself Chancellor of the Empire, and it is said that he sold them Imperial ID cards and passports.

(This kind of political model seems to be ubiquitous.)

Their troubles before the corona were mainly refusing to pay taxes, returning their German passports, and instead demanding a certificate recognizing them as citizens of the German Empire.

At this time, they insisted that they write their birthplace as 'Kingdom of Prussia' or 'Duchy of Bavaria', but that is because they did not recognize the German Republic after World War II.

Those who had not received attention from the federal government and the central political world and were treated as strange people on the outskirts made a leap forward, not a step forward, until they were combined with 'Heinrich XIII', a new figure who could claim 'noble lineage'. .

King of Germany if the coup succeeds?

Who is Heinrich XIII?

Heinrich XIII (71) is a descendant of the 'Reuss (Reuß in German spelling)' family, who ruled a small country in southeast Thuringia before the unification of the German Empire.

The history of the Royce family is over 700 years, but he was born after the defeat in World War II, so when he came to know the world, the status of royalty and nobility had already been abolished.

So now his name is 'Heinrich Royce', but he calls himself Heinrich XIII to emphasize that he is a descendant of a noble family.

His family's estate and mansion in Thuringia were nationalized by the communist government of East Germany.

After the reunification of East and West Germany, Heinrich filed a lawsuit over the years to get it back.

After a tedious lawsuit, they received compensation worth 3 million euros in 2017, but it was not much help because of the large amount of money lost in the lawsuit, and they said that they did not recover any real estate except for furniture and a few pieces of art.

Afterwards, he became more and more extreme, claiming that the German judicial system was conspiring against him, and joined the 'Citizens of the Reich'.

In recent years he has left his family home in Thuringia to run a high-end real estate consulting and brokerage business in the affluent town of Frankfurt.

He traveled across Austria and Switzerland, made rich people from old nobles his customers, preached the claims of 'citizens of the empire' and collected donations.

The fortress of Bad Lownstein, which was used as the headquarters of the coup plot and a weapon warehouse, was also purchased in the process.

In January 2019, he will go out as a speaker at the 'World Web Forum' held in Zurich for some reason.

It's an Internet and business-related conference, and he gives an offbeat speech.

In a 15-minute speech titled <The Rise and Fall of a Noble Lineage>, he poured out conspiracy theories familiar to the extreme right.

He accused the Rothschild family of conspiring behind the scenes, claiming that World War I was a war forced upon the German emperor by international capitalists to make money.

The following are the main contents of the speech at that time.

According to DW, a German media outlet that reported this information, a speech that did not match the nature of the conference caused a great uproar, and many people in the audience rushed out of the conference room.

He is rumored to be making strange noises, so even the head family of the Lois family distances themselves from him.

His great-grandson, Heinrich XIV, explained this in an interview with Western foreign media such as the New York Times and Reuters.

(This is a compilation of interviews with various media outlets.)

'All men who have the right to inherit the Royce family use the name 'Heinrich'.

The person in question this time is 17th in the line of succession to the throne.

This means that even if the status of king and nobleman remains as the constitution has not changed, his turn will go back to him only when 16 of us die.

Perhaps, despite a lawsuit that lasted for years, the family property was not recovered, and the judges were twisted and swept away by extreme arguments.

It's been a long time since the family released it because it's an old man who only talks nonsense.'

In the former East Germany, there is a strong sentiment that 'the old days were still good' due to dissatisfaction with relative poverty after reunification and aversion to an excessively liberal culture.

Selective oblivion and twisted nostalgia for the old communist era, economic and social lethargy, and a sense of deprivation due to unemployment are heavily underlain, and as a result, characters who symbolize past films like Heinrich XIII in question are strangely eaten.

Relatively poor East Germans suffered a lockdown due to the coronavirus, further fueling their hostility towards the elites in charge of politics, economy and society.

In the early days of Corona, when they couldn't leave the house, they connect with far-right conspiracy theorists in the United States through the Internet in the corner of their room.

It appealed to them to claim that the coronavirus was an insubstantial threat, that its dangers had been exaggerated, and that vaccines were a conspiracy.

They absorb richer (?) absurd conspiracy theories to explain the irrational reality and develop a sense of violence.

Q Anon and the citizens of the empire, the fantastic collaboration

QAnon in the US is a hodgepodge of far-right conservative conspiracy theorists who support Trump.

It played a large role in the riots that flocked to the Capitol in January 2021 to overturn the presidential election at the instigation of Trump (then incumbent president).

QAnon sees the 'Deep State' of global elites as the power that actually runs the United States.

It is in line with the worldview of 'citizens of the empire' that there is a Jewish capital network behind modern Germany.

In addition, elements such as anti-Semitism, hostility to the mass influx of refugees and immigrants of different races and cultures, and dreams of overthrowing the government by putsch are in common.

QAnon has grown into a political entity that cannot be ignored by attracting all kinds of dissatisfied forces and conspiracy theorists through social media such as Twitter and various messengers, and 'Citizens of the Empire' also learn by following this growth model.

In the spring of 2022, the two forces also operated a joint Facebook page and a joint Telegram channel.

Their collaboration (?) also spread a hybrid conspiracy theory that is difficult to understand with common sense.

For example, something like this.

There is a large-scale joint exercise between the US military and NATO called 'Defender-Europe'.

The Defender-Europe 20 training scheduled for 2020 was drastically scaled back due to the Covid-19 situation in Europe, where many people were dying at the time.

However, 'Citizens of the Empire' and Q-Anon spread the following claim.

People with common sense want to know what kind of nonsense this is, but there are people who believe in this kind of thing, so conspiracy theorists are in full swing.

The soil on which conspiracy theorists thrive is similar in every country.

As the world changes, the forces of extremism spread by taking as hosts the economically impoverished areas (East Germany in Germany, the so-called 'Rust Belt' area in the United States where the manufacturing industry collapsed) and people with a relatively low level of education in the hierarchy.

Hatred of established elites in politics, economics, and social sciences, and resistance to the systems, systems, and sciences they maintain are also common.

Rumors about corona and vaccines have also spread around the world thanks to these factors.

The dissatisfaction with the reality is so great that 'it is the fault of society and the country that I cannot live as well as others.

Those who conspired to do so have been ruling the world for a long time,' 'They are agents of foreign powers', 'I wish someone would turn the world upside down', 'Can't I turn the world over with my own hands in solidarity with my comrades? ' is easy to fall prey to conspiracy theories and extremism.

Lorenz Blumenthaler, a scholar who studies the far-right in Germany, called the citizens of the empire 'gateway ideology'.

It is said that too many, but disparate social disaffections have grown to a completely different level of extremism as they have united through the citizens of the empire.

Hitler's shadow shimmering

According to the German investigative authorities, those arrested this time call the current German federal government the 'Deep State', overthrow the government and establish Heinrich XIII as king (representative of the Allied Powers, the winners of World War II), and then sign a 'peace agreement' with the United States ( peace treaty)'.

The assertion that modern Germany has no grounds for existence because it is the result of a war that ended without a legitimate peace treaty was what Heinrich XIII mentioned in his 2019 Zurich speech, but it is also reminiscent of Hitler's argument.

Even as Nazi Germany waged World War II, it did not want to fight against the United States, insisting on 'mutual non-intervention'.

It was said that the United States would not interfere with the affairs of the continental United States, so the United States should also pay attention to what Germany is doing in Europe.

'Citizens of the Reich' aims to restore the German Empire before the appearance of the Nazis, but it is nevertheless reminiscent of the Nazis in many ways.

First of all, the seizure of power through armed insurrection (putsch in German) is the model Hitler adopted.

On November 8 and 9, 1923, Hitler held a Nazi event at Munich's Beer Hall, summoned key members of the Bavarian state government, and demanded that power be handed over by threatening with force.

Hitler had never done anything like this at the time, so he messed around and was eventually crushed by the state regular army and imprisoned, but Hitler became a national figure for this.

(The book I wrote in prison at that time was <My Struggle>.)

Afterwards, the place where the Nazis first acquired local power was the state of Thuringia, the base of 'Citizens of the Reich' and Heinrich XIII.

The Nazi Party succeeded in entering a right-wing coalition government in the 1930 Thuringian Legislative Assembly elections, with a force to be reckoned with.

From this point on, he planted Nazis in the government and judiciary, and took control of the whole of Germany, crossing legal elections and illegal violence.

It was explained earlier that a judge and former member of parliament belonging to the far-right party called 'Alternative for Germany (AfD)' was also arrested in the operation to arrest 'Citizens of the Reich', which is now the largest political force in the state of Thuringia.

Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the Munich beer hall riots.

Germans who remember the past history cannot help but recall the process of Hitler's coming to power 100 years ago while watching this incident.

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