In the case of the planned kidnapping of the Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), the federal prosecutor's office has brought charges against four men and one woman.

They are accused of having founded a domestic terrorist organization or having been a member of it.

Marlene Grunert

Editor in Politics.

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The accused Sven B., Michael H., Thomas O. and Elisabeth R. are also accused of having prepared a so-called treasonable enterprise against the federal government.

Two of the men are also said to have prepared a serious act of violence that endangered the state.

There are also allegations of weapons law and terrorist financing.

By mid-January 2022 at the latest, the accused are said to have joined forces with the aim of triggering conditions similar to civil war in Germany.

According to the indictment, they accepted deaths and injuries.

They, too, were concerned with the overthrow of the federal government and parliamentary democracy - goals that, according to the federal prosecutor's office, were also being pursued by the group of Reich citizens against whom a nationwide raid was carried out at the end of last year.

Personal connections also exist with them.

According to FAZ information, Sven B., who has now been charged, was also one of the accused at the beginning of December.

Association with military and administrative branch

According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, the five accused also followed an ideology "according to which the basic state order of the Federal Republic of Germany based on the Basic Law cannot claim validity".

Rather, according to this ideology, the German Reich continues to exist on the basis of the constitution of 1871.

"Therefore, an authoritarian system of government based on the model of the German Empire must be established here again," the statement continues.

According to the indictment, the association had a "military" and an "administrative branch". A three-stage plan was apparently supposed to lead to the takeover of power: First, a longer nationwide power failure was to be caused. Then the violent kidnapping of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach was pending; according to the federal prosecutor, Accused of first killing his bodyguards.

According to the investigators, the hoped-for civil war-like conditions should enable the association to schedule a “constituent assembly” in Berlin to attract public attention.

According to the indictment, the previous government was to be officially deposed and a new “leader” appointed.

Sven B., Michael H., Thomas O. and Elisabeth R. were apparently first to perform central functions in the new executive.

According to the federal prosecutor, Sven B. and Thomas O. have been looking for support in various Telegram chat groups since October 2021 at the latest in order to implement their plans to overthrow.

Between mid-December 2021 and mid-February 2022, four meetings took place in Hesse, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia to plan further action.

Thomas O. was apparently responsible for planning the "blackout".

According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, he scouted out several objects suitable for attack and procured maps of the electricity infrastructure.

According to the indictment, Sven B. was in charge of kidnapping Karl Lauterbach and using military means to secure the meeting of the "constituent assembly".

Thomas O. and Sven B. apparently tried to procure weapons and explosives for the association.

According to the indictment, they wanted to import several tons from the former Yugoslavia.

Michael H. is also said to have played a special role.

According to the federal prosecutor's office, he was responsible for staging a so-called false flag action immediately before the "constituent assembly" was called.

An actor was apparently supposed to imitate the incumbent federal president or federal chancellor live on television and announce that the federal government had been deposed and that the constitution of 1871 was now in force again.

The four men were arrested on April 13, 2022 and have been in custody since then.

At that time there had been a large-scale action by the police.

270 officers searched 20 objects in seven federal states.

They found 14 long guns, seven handguns and a Kalashnikov.

The investigators looked at a total of 70 people.

Elisabeth R. was arrested last October.

She is said to have been the ideological leader.

According to FAZ information, it is a 75-year-old woman from the Chemnitz area.