It sounds like a rejected script for a James Bond movie. An obscure German aristocrat with a historic royal title plans to overthrow the government in a violent coup, freeing it from the supposed tyranny of the deep state.
But that is, German prosecutors say, exactly what the self-styled Heinrich XIII Prince of Reuss was doing until he was arrested along with 24 alleged far-right co-conspirators Wednesday as part of the largest police counterterrorism operation in German history.
Little is known of the terrorist group that, prosecutors alleged, had access to weapons and training, had recruited from the armed forces and the police and had drawn up detailed plans to install a new government.
The group, part of the Reichsbürger, or Reich Citizens, movement, which rejects the legitimacy of the German state after Kaiser Wilhelm II stood down in 1918, was planning to install Heinrich as the new head of state, authorities say.
[It sounds like the plot line of “Johnny English” more than a James Bond film — Ed]
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