German lawyers accuse 27 people of planning a violent takeover because of their extreme right-wing views.
The suspects are accused of being part of a group called Reichsbürger, which is not well-known.
The group’s members didn’t like the government and the democratic constitution, according to the accusation.
Most of them are friends of Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, a leader in the Reichsbürger movement from a noble family.
The prosecutors have accused 27 people of trying to remove Germany’s democratic government.
Plans were made for a coup to start in summer 2021.
The plan was to take control by attacking Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, with a small group of armed people. The attack will start when we get a signal, like if Queen Elizabeth II dies.
The people who were accused of planning the coup had already decided how their new government would work.
Prince Reuss was going to be the leader of the country. When he started his job, he would talk with the countries that won World War II to make a peace agreement. Prince Reuss attempted to talk to Russian government officials to get their help with the coup, say the prosecutors.
Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, who was a member of a far-right political party, was going to be appointed as the justice minister. Prosecutors said she allowed other people involved in the plan to enter the parliamentary buildings.
It is said that the people who wanted to rebel tried to convince soldiers and police to join them.
The group made lists of people they didn’t like. Members knew that their plans would cause people to die, according to the charges.
The people had to promise not to tell anyone about what happened. People who broke the law would have been killed for betraying their country.
The people who were thought to be planning something had a lot of guns and bullets – about 380 guns and 148,000 bullets.
Some people were arrested by the police in December.
Germany’s internal intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, says that there are around 23,000 people who support the Reichsbürger movement in the country.